Are you struggling to write your thesis? 

Lost, with no inspiration and a severe lack of motivation?  Yes, we've seen it before, and yes we're here to help you grasp hold of the essential tools that will make this all a lot easier...

These are:

• Patience - this thesis will not take a day to write, you're going to have to keep working hard at it
• Originality - you're going to need to be able to break away from your peers and write something original
• Reasoning - your thesis needs to be backed up with research and evidence
• Creativity - from colored pens and paper, to researching strange theories, creativity will make your life easier...

Patience:

Patience will stop you from throwing everything out of the window once you realize you've got yet another section of your thesis to rewrite.  Patience can come from extensive planning - simply plan out your time, and set goals.  Remaining cool, calm and collected will ensure you’re ready for anything your tutor throws at you – rewrites and all.

Originality:

Don’t follow the crowd – just because the majority of people in your tutor group want to write about one topic, it doesn’t mean you should too.  Sit back, clear your head and think ‘what do I want MY thesis to be about?’  Extensive research, of course, will help you come to a decision about your hypothesis, and simply choosing something last minute (perhaps an hour before handing in your proposal) is just going to set you up for failure!  Keep a note book and write ideas down for your thesis wherever you are – is what you’ve just read in the paper inspiring you?  Did the exhibition you just passed give you an idea?  Overhead a conversation?  Anything can bring inspiration, and inspiration will always help you form good ideas.

Reasoning:

One of the hardest parts, and most time consuming parts of writing a thesis is finding the evidence you need to refute, or backup your hypothesis.  Carrying out the study itself can often be much easier then the literature review!  To develop a good sense of reasoning, simply ask yourself after every major point you make, if what you’re saying is backed up by a former study – if it isn’t you need to find one.  Simply saying the grass is green will not earn you points.  Saying the grass is green because of chlorophyll, and then backing it up with the primary study which confirmed this claim will.

Creativity:

Being creative will help you formulate the best thesis – we don’t mean glue pretty sequins to your paper – but do think creatively when it comes to finding studies and research for you literature review. 

Finding good studies is easy; finding great studies is creative.  Learn how Google REALLY works – the advanced search can work wonders, and with it’s very own syntax you can find some obscure studies that your peer group have not invested the extra time in looking for.   For example, try typing the following:

Inurl:thesis – this brings up all of the websites that mention the word thesis in the URL – handy!

Creatively working can also involve how you edit your thesis – if you’re currently editing your thesis, try the following:

• Print off your thesis and read it on paper
• Read your thesis in the park, a change of location can really help clear your head
• Print off your thesis in a different color every time you make an edit (you’ll always know which version of your thesis you’re working with for future edits!!)
• Read your thesis aloud and make a note whenever you’re forced to stop and re-read a line.  This means you need to make a change to the line, in order for it to flow.
• Scribble, cut, copy, tear, paste and stick the different bits of your thesis together – change around older sections with new ones using the colored paper you printed out on – this way you can always see which version of your thesis you’re cutting and pasting from.

Still struggling? 

Use one of the following links to get more help:

• Thesis writing blog

• EssayBay thesis writing section