So you’ve decided to write an honors research thesis. You’re probably thinking something along the lines of “Oh god, how will this all get done?” or “What if I tank the paper and my grade point is ruined and I can’t graduate and the world explodes?” I’m here to tell you that it will all get done, that you won’t tank the paper, that your grade point will survive, that you will graduate with honors, and that the world will not explode (or at least if it does it won’t be your fault). Follow these 5 tips and you’ll be set for a strong semester of thesis writing.
- You have academic contacts, USE THEM
Over the three or four years you have been here at IU, you have developed connections. You have professors who like you and friends who are really good at things that you might struggle with. If you don’t have an advisor, reach out to professors you have worked well with, even if their research field is a little bit different than yours. Don’t be afraid to ask other professors for help and don’t be afraid to rely on your friends; they all want to see you succeed.
2. Perfect is the enemy of good
You have this idea in your head of a shiny, perfect, unique little research project that will gestate over the course of the semester and be birthed seamlessly into the exact paper you always dreamed of writing. It’s time to put the pedestal away. If 2020 taught us anything, it was that stuff doesn’t always turn out exactly the way we want. That’s okay! Your paper will be yours, but there will be bumps in the road. Whether it’s because you can’t access the exact data you want (as happened to me) or there’s just not enough time to look through everything that might be interesting (which also happened to me) your project will evolve over the course of the semester. Don’t panic, even if you have to re-write large sections of the first half of your paper (this, believe it or not, also happened to me). Letting the research take you where it wants to go is part of the process. Besides, if something doesn’t make sense you can just write “That was weird and I don’t know why it happened, but here are a couple ideas,” in your discussion section.
3. Have a time set aside every day to work
If you’re taking this class with Professor Baggetta, he has likely already drilled this into your head, but I will reiterate. Do it. I’m just asking for like 20 minutes a day. Put it in your calendar, set an alarm on your phone, write it on a white board above your desk, play an episode of Schitt’s Creek in the background while you do it. I don’t care. Just do it. It’s okay if you miss a day, just get back at it the next. Don’t save all your writing to do on those three wellness days or whatever it is that IU is giving you.
4. Meet regularly with your advisor
I get it. You’re busy, they’re busy (which for some reason feels much more important than your being busy), and you really don’t want to make them take time out of their hectic schedule just to listen to you ask questions about your own research. Do it anyway. Work out a chunk of time with your advisor to meet once a week or once every other week just to talk about your project, even if you don’t feel like you have any pressing questions some weeks. Put it in your schedule. Talking about your work to someone who is familiar with it will help, I promise. Besides, they wouldn’t have agreed to be your advisor if they didn’t want to help you.
5. Understand your own constraints
This goes back to number 2. Your paper will not be perfect. It’ll be good– great even– but it won’t be perfect. You have a lot on your plate. You’re probably taking a full class load, you have to do this all in one semester and, assuming you are taking this in the spring of 2021, you’re still trying to live through a global pandemic. That’s a lot. Especially in social science research when your issue can feel so important and yet so difficult to find a solution for, spending every day working on it can be psychologically draining. Take care of yourself. You are not a superhuman, or even a full time researcher, and that is okay.
What else can I say? Not much, other than “It will all be okay, I promise, just drink lots of water and stay on your antidepressants if you have a prescription for that.” But seriously, if you do the work, you’ll be fine, and I know you’ll do the work because you signed up to write an honors research thesis.
Abigail Bainbridge is a senior at Indiana University.
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