The First Draft

Korrin B.

April 16, 2011 - 11:30 PM

This weekend, I am very proud to say that after hours and hours in the library, I finally have a rough draft of all of the major sections of my thesis. It feels pretty good to know that I am that much closer to a final draft. On the one hand, I feel as though I have been working on this thing for ages now, but on the other hand, it feels as though this project has completely rushed by. I cannot believe that just next month I will be defending it and will then be complete. I cannot wait!

Over the past week and a half, I have written about 35 pages. These pages have been my project's results information, discussion, and conclusion. They were one of my favorite parts to write because it was dealing with more of my own thoughts and personal research than just describing prior research like I was doing in some of my other sections.

Although I now have a rough draft of all of the major components, I know that I cannot stop working on it. I have to keep up the same level of work because I know that it is going to take a bit of time to get it perfect. Now that I am done with my drafts, I am going to start back at the introduction and begin making edits and creating my second draft. I am also going to go back through and make sure that all of my citations are correct and create my reference page. This part is a bit tedious and I know it will take up quite a bit of time. However, I also know how important of a part it is to this project and any research project. I want to make sure that I document all of my sources accurately. In addition to this, I also have to organize my appendix section. This won't be too time consuming, as I already have all of the pieces of information ready that I want to put into it. I am hoping to get everything organized as soon as possible so that I can receive as much feedback from my thesis committee as I can before my defense.

Once I do finally get my final draft of my thesis completed, I then have to prepare my defense. This means getting all of my paperwork in line, writing an abstract for my department, and creating a PowerPoint presentation to guide my defense.

It is going to be a strange world when I am finally done with this thing. I have gotten so used to it consuming most of my life that once it is complete, I feel like there will be this void in my world. What am I going to have to talk about anymore? What will I do with all of my free time? I have a feeling I will figure it out - and it will be wonderful.