So, I’m just about a few edits away from finishing my honors thesis for the Standish Honors Program and I literally could not be more excited! I’ve been researching and writing this paper for a little over a year now and when I say that writing a thesis paper is harder than it seems, I’m not exaggerating! The entire process of writing a forty page paper has been very long and VERY stressful, even for an English major who has written countless papers and articles over the past four years.
Although some of the experiences have been difficult, I wouldn’t trade the things I’ve learned through this process for anything. If you’re even just thinking about writing a senior thesis, check out some of the things that I learned while writing mine. They may help you more than you realize!
1) ASK QUESTIONS
I cannot stress this enough! Even if it’s a simple question about formatting or how to cite a source, you want to make sure that this information is correct because having to go back a million times to fix the same mistake can get a little bit old.
2) Have an interest in what you’re writing about
For my honors thesis, I decided to write about the Irish Potato Famine. Now, I know what you’re thinking! Why on earth would someone want to write about something so depressing? I’m an English major, but when deciding what topic to choose for my honors thesis, I wanted to write about something that was totally outside of my element, something that I had never written about before. My ancestors also came to the United States during the Irish Potato Famine and I wanted to learn more about what really happened. There is SO much information on the topic, but I’m really glad that I chose it!
When you’re choosing a topic to write about, be sure that this is something you’re interested in and curious about! Writing a forty plus page paper on something that you have no interest in will be wicked hard and the process just won’t be as enjoyable.
3) Do as much as you can in advance
This is a lesson that I kind of had to learn the hard way! If you are writing your thesis over the course of a year or a year and a half, make sure you take advantage of those summer days and school breaks. This will get so much of the research completed while you’re at home and will save you a TON of time when you’re back at school dealing with all sorts of other work!
4) Pick your advisor carefully
This is the person you’re going to be working closely with throughout this process and who is going to teach you a LOT! Choose someone that has the same passion for the topic as you, someone that is going to get wicked excited when you find a new piece of information. This will make those advising meetings much more fun and comfortable, which is the way the process should be!
5) RELAX
I won’t lie, writing any kind of thesis can be very, very stressful! There is so much writing and so many things to keep track of that it is very easy to get overwhelmed and I was definitely in this position earlier in the semester. However, my tool for avoiding this is to just take a few deep breaths and come back to the research later. I would either hang out with friends, go to the gym with my boyfriend or even work on other things, and that short break truly helped me to concentrate better on my thesis! Try not to get too stressed out and remember that you CAN do this!