My thesis is 7,480 words long, but it’s really comprised of the different relationships that brought me to this point. Here are some of the relationships I predict will surround your thesis – and what advice about your thesis I’d pull from each.
Your Family, Friends, and Mentors: Generating a research question often has much to do with your relationships with family, friends, and mentors. I tried, without success, to generate a research question by listening to podcasts, reading entire books, and devotedly watching the news. No matter how interesting a topic would be, I would always feel a sense that it wasn’t quite right – what differentiated this from the endless array of interesting questions or policy issues the world provides? Ultimately, my question came from both a chance conversation with my mom about my extended family and self-reflection into my dad’s life story. Once I had embedded a question into my personal narrative, my desire to understand and explore that question grew to outweigh that of others.
Your Advisor: When I was choosing my advisor, I Googled “What makes a good advisor?”. According to Google, surveyed postgrad students believed the most important characteristics of a good advisor were empathy and consistency. I couldn’t agree more. Having a supportive, consistent advisor was crucial for my own self-discipline, motivation, and education. This does not mean that my advisor was “easy” on me – in one of our first meetings, she curtly detailed how my statistical analysis was uninterpretable in no less than 6 different ways. But I always felt that my advisor expected a quality thesis because she believed I could create one. That sense of constantly available support from someone I looked up to was a powerful motivator to do good work.
My advisor also aided me with recruiting for jobs, considering postgraduate programs, and navigating academic requirements. She is a counselor and friend. I learned from her not just by discussing literature and STATA outputs, but talking about her experience as a doctoral student and teacher. If you have the opportunity, develop a richer relationship with your advisor than simply reviewing drafts. You will learn more from it.
Professor Baggetta: If you don’t have the opportunity to develop a rich relationship with your advisor, there is no excuse for not developing a rich relationship with Professor Baggetta. He is available, supportive, and critical. He really wants you to succeed. Talk to him about your thesis and plans, then listen to his advice. He has helpful things to say.
Other Researchers: As someone interested in development economics, I started noticing that the name “Scott Rozelle” kept coming up in the literature. In fact, the man is so present in Chinese economic development literature it’s nearly impossible to find a paper in the field without his name on it. I never thought I’d talk to him – until a former supervisor connected me with him for an hour where he recommended me papers, discussed the concepts I investigated, and described gaps in research and policy that he prioritized. My point is to reach out to individuals whose research interests you. They might be more willing to meet than you think, and if you come well prepared (which you should) their insights will point you in interesting directions as you craft something new.
Peers: This group of relationships is hopefully the most intuitive. I have consistently found that editing and reading other’s works are among the best ways to become a better writer. But beyond that, building and interacting with a supportive community in which you all share a common goal is a great experience. Have some fun together!
Yourself: The best piece of advice I got from this class was to write, even when I know the words don’t sound great, the ideas are messy, and the logic is presumptive. It is much better to type 1000 words of garbage out than to stress and stare at your computer screen and become upset that you haven’t gotten anything you said you were going to finish done. I have done both the latter and the former, and the former is far superior.
Having a healthy relationship with yourself is key to producing a good thesis. That means holding yourself accountable, like spreading work out over weeks rather than bingeing it in a few days. It also means understanding that you have your limits, that this project can only ever be a small reflection of your talent, and that drafting produces trash writing – but it’s the writing itself that counts.
The greatest part of writing a thesis is that there’s nothing you can’t say as long as you can defend it with evidence. Put your crazy ideas to the test and see where they get.
Good luck!
Richard J. Liu is a senior at Indiana University majoring in Economics with a Liberal Arts Management Program certificate. Originally from Columbus, IN, Richard is passionate about understanding and addressing inequality in China and the United States. Richard has previously explored topics ranging from China’s coal conversion industry & wastewater sector to serious games that teach players about quantum computing and LGBTQ+ lived experiences.
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