WRITING THE THESIS

The thesis is, in many ways, similar to a very long term paper. The skills and techniques required for writing a thesis are the same that you’ve been developing for many years. Because the thesis is likely to be more substantial than any of your previous academic endeavors, additional project management skills will be necessary.

Theses often contain:

• An introduction that states the research question (or what the project is about) and your interest in pursuing it, with pertinent references to the literature that helped refine or focus your research. This section and others might be broken in to several subsections to highlight aspects of the problem you explored.
• A section describing your approach to the research or project and why you chose that approach.
• A section on the methods used, experimental procedures, etc.
• A discussion of what you found or what outcomes you achieved, with pitfalls, limitations or other pertinent learnings.

The good news is that you should be able to use much of the work you did on your Prospectus for at least the first two items above. Your prospectus should also have included a timetable to help you manage the research or artistic development, and to pinpoint milestones/goals and DEADLINES. See the Deadline Summary.

As you continue to research and write (or design, create, compose, etc.), be sure to:

• Keep your committee apprised of your work, your frustrations and your progress. Schedule and keep regular meetings with your Primary Thesis Advisor. Submit drafts regularly and ask for help.
• Develop a filing system to organize your research notes.
• Keep the bibliography current and comprehensive. Every time you record information, write down the source’s full bibliographic information.

THE CREATIVE OR PERFORMANCE THESIS

If your field is creative writing, theatre, dance, music, fine arts, crafts, photography, and film or video, you’ll need to address a special set of issues in a “critical introduction” to your project. Note that some of these were addressed in your prospectus:

• Identify the artistic medium in which you will be working, what training you’ve had, and what special challenges and possibilities the medium presented. Also discuss what attracted you to this medium, instrument, etc.
• Place your work in the traditions of your medium. For example, are you following in a classical tradition? Modernist? Post-Modernist? How do you fit within the current art movement of which you are a participant? Who influenced you in technique, medium, innovation, composition, and how?
• What techniques have you mastered in your art? Describe where in the work we can see this, or where and how you have innovated on traditional techniques (e.g., glazing, revising the symphonic form, combining creative genres, reworking the camera angles of documentary film-making, etc.). What special difficulties have you experienced, and how have you solved them?
• What are your basic themes? Explain why this is the theme you’ve chosen. Has your theme changed during the course of executing the work, and how?
• At the end of your “critical introduction” include an annotated bibliography, discography, list of films, galleries, etc., that you found helpful in terms of your art or which provided models.
• Be sure you put all technical terms and definitions in a Glossary at the end of your thesis introduction.

WRITING A TECHNICAL THESIS

Writers of technical theses have a difficult task: They must present their subject in language that a non-specialist can understand while conveying succinctly to the specialist their methods, materials, arguments, and conclusions. This requires that you be especially careful with jargon, and always define technical terms. When an everyday word can be substituted for an esoteric word, use it. Formats vary by discipline; consult with your Primary Thesis Advisor and professional journals in your field.

REFINING YOUR WORK/PREPARING FOR YOUR ORAL DEFENSE

The draft of the thesis you present for your oral defense should be as close as possible to final. That is, it should be well-written, accessible to a lay audience, free of spelling errors, and formatted as your final document will be. Note also that you’ll need to give copies of this “final draft” to your committee members at least ten days before your defense.

See the Thesis Style and Format Guide for tips and requirements. You may also want to consult the Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian, 1996), available in the library.