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Writing Tips to Boost Your Thesis

October 19, 2017
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By GradProSkills


Students writing their thesis

This November marks another GradProSkills Thesis Boost event, which aims to assist graduate students who are in middle to late stages of writing their thesis. This 3-day writing retreat is meant to encourage and refuel the writing process of graduate students so they can finish their thesis with confidence.

This week’s blog post discusses the academic writing process and touches on three ways that graduate students can rethink their approach to writing their thesis and rekindle the intrigue that led them to their research.  

Divide and conquer: Think about your thesis in sections

Writing a thesis can be a very daunting task when you think about the paper in its entirety. If you find yourself feeling anxious about the mass of pages you are required to write, then try breaking up your research. Whereas writing a 100-paged paper may seem insurmountable, writing several 20-paged papers may take away some of that weight. If you still find this a large number, you could also break down the workload even further. Try this exercise: consider each new insight (whether this be a theory, an argument or a finding) that pertains to your thesis as an assignment.Then try to spread the completion of those small assignments throughout the month, finishing one each week. By the end of the month, fit them all together like a puzzle.

Reconfigure how you understand your thesis

In a review for Helen Sword’s book on academic writing, Inger Mewburn (otherwise known as The Thesis Whisperer) describes academic writing “as a craft” that contains a “painstaking and time-consuming path towards making something beautiful.” Acknowledging academic writing as artisanal shifts your perspective from viewing your thesis as a mass of writing that you must complete in order to receive your degree. Instead, envision it as something more personal and significant, like a collection of valuable thoughts about a topic you're invested in.

It is also important to realize that not everything you write down will reflect the brilliance that you possess. Creating anything, whether it be artwork, a fictional story or an academic thesis, is a process that involves patience and an open mind so that you can question the quality of what you wrote and be willing to revise your arguments. 

Think about your writing differently

Furthermore, don’t be afraid to experiment! Vary your writing style, such as visualizing your research as components to a fictional story or be reflective and write a personal blog about your work. Gaia Cantelli, a postdoctoral associate at Duke University, suggests that PhD students keep a blog while completing their studies. This same idea could be applied to all graduate students.

Keeping a blog while being a graduate student is a great way to learn how to discuss research with a public audience not versed in the language of your discipline and it can help you practice your writing. However, one of the most important takeaways from engaging in blogging is that it gives you an expressive outlet to get creative about your research. Gaia writes that “a blog is a fantastic platform to express yourself and really get into the nitty-gritty of what bothers you or excites you about the hottest new development in your field.” These passionate blog posts can then be used as fuel or source material to spur academic writing.

You can put these tips into action by joining us for the Thesis Boost event that will take place November 14-16. Happy Writing! 

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