Scared of 50 page thesis: have you written one? any advice?

[theWUbear]

I just learned that the best way for me to finish my masters by December 2011 (in the middle of my application cycle, which would make for a fantastic update letter IMO), is to switch from the non-thesis track to the thesis track. I pitched my idea to my advisor, telling her that I have been working in the infectious disease clinic on the side of my masters and have a clinical research project finished with a lot of patient data. She is OK with me doing a thesis based on it.

The only advice or criteria my advisor left me with was "check out the samples in the grad school office". I haven't done that yet, but I'm looking for any other advice regarding writing and preparing a thesis. I guess I fill most of the 50 pages with literature review on my topic? How do I write so much

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[Barcu]

Having written one, it's very surprising how you can accomplish something like that. It is certainly hard work, but it is easier than you believe it will be.

Also, lots of graphs. Big ones.

 

[loveoforganic]

I haven't written one, but theses I've read have been far more detailed than journal articles - particularly the methods section and literature review (both in introduction and in implications/discussion).

Oh, and I'm sure that's intimidating as hell. Enjoy! 🙂

 

[eli20]

Not quite the same, but I did a 35pg undergrad capstone in bio and lit review plus any graphs/tables you need will really fill up more space than you'd think. Goes surprisingly quickly if you break yourself into 3-5 page chunks. It sounds much scarier than it really is.

This semester I'm working on a 35 page capstone in English lit and I can already tell it's going to be way worse. Not that one or the other is harder, but at least with science there is a pretty clear game plan. With English I'm already freaking out about coming up with 35 pages of my own analysis.

 

[Evergrey]

Writing my thesis in UG sucked. It ended up being 60-70 pages, somewhere around there. It's surprisingly easy to write that much, when you get going. My only advice is to believe that you can do it, and to get started early. I procrastinated, which resulted in the worst 3 weeks of my academic life (70-80 hours each work working on the damn thing, had to skip all my classes to get it done). I wish it was a scientific topic, I would've enjoyed writing it a lot more! It is the best feeling ever when you finish though. It really gives you a lot of confidence in your skills as a writer and as an academic 🙂

 

[acb88]

I wrote an undergrad 50 page biology thesis and it was really a lot easier than it sounds. Graphics take up A LOT of space plus you aren't so constricted with the materials and methods as you would be in a journal article. You can go into a lot more detail, which may seem like it is more difficult, but it allows you to BS a little more

 

[familyaerospace]

My MS thesis was 149 pages. I had five chapters in my graduate thesis: Introduction, Lit Review, Methods, Results/Analysis, and Conclusions/Recommendations. Then I had appendices and references. I had 4 figures and 10 tables.

Long before I was even in grad school, I read a book called "How to Complete and Survive a Doctoral Dissertation" and another called "Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis." I knew I wanted to go to grad school and I had a cute professor who was a graduate student so I would pry information out of him. Plus I later had to write a 30 to 50 page "thesis" for my undergrad so it came in handy.

Between the two books, I learned how to write the silly thing. I actually ended up having over 2/3 done by my thesis proposal defense.

Here is what I learned which made my life easier.

First of all, it seems like a TON of work right? One of the books, as the name suggested, said to write 15 min a day. Well (and this comes from my former prof), he always suggested writing at least one page a day. Doesn't matter if it is absolute crap. Doesn't really seem like a ton, but you will be amazed at how much you can get done. That really didn't work for me because I tend to write a lot. Three pages a day writing or six pages of editing was just about right.

Second of all, learn how to use Endnote (or the reference manager of your choice) if you haven't already. That can reduce the amount of effort you have to put in with your references.

Third, yes, definitely look at other people's thesis or at least a sample thesis from your own department. Not all fields are the same. Your university might be different too.

I'm also a fan of hiring someone to format your thesis for you. My brain was absolutely fried by the time I was done. I so did not want to format anything.

 

[FloridaMedicine]

Having written one, it's very surprising how you can accomplish something like that. It is certainly hard work, but it is easier than you believe it will be.

Also, lots of graphs. Big ones.[/QUOTE]


lol 👍

 

[Danlee07]

pretty sure it's gonna be harder to actually trim it down to 50 pages. getting to 50 will be easily done with graphs and intro.

 

[Kevin Baker]

I never did a master's thesis but did one for undergrad (86 pages with graphs) and the best tip I got was from my advisor was to treat it like a scientific paper... Is this an experimental paper or just a lit review paper?

If experimental, treat it like a scientific paper. You should have an introductory question which does a comprehensive literature review, and sets up the experimental question. Then, have a methods section where you say exactly what you are doing, and why you framed the experiment that way.

The results section is usually pretty short and has your quantitative stuff in there, while the conclusion can be really long and add onto the introduction, while answering the experimental question.

My best tip is to find a good review paper before you start. Whether you are doing an experiment or simply doing a comprehensive literature review, finding a good review paper will save you a lot of time.

Also, the great thing about a thesis is you can expand your topic much more broadly than in a typical scientific paper. If you find an interesting and relevant topic that isn't necessary to include, you have the room to add it.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

I just learned that the best way for me to finish my masters by December 2011 (in the middle of my application cycle, which would make for a fantastic update letter IMO), is to switch from the non-thesis track to the thesis track. I pitched my idea to my advisor, telling her that I have been working in the infectious disease clinic on the side of my masters and have a clinical research project finished with a lot of patient data. She is OK with me doing a thesis based on it.

The only advice or criteria my advisor left me with was "check out the samples in the grad school office". I haven't done that yet, but I'm looking for any other advice regarding writing and preparing a thesis. I guess I fill most of the 50 pages with literature review on my topic? How do I write so much

Think of interesting/long ways to present your data, and you might be able to fill 20 pages with results 🙂

 

[StudyShy]

My regular papers average around 20 pages. My undergraduate senior project was around 70 pages.

50 pages is doable, certainly. Once you get started, everything falls into place. It's easier than you would think especially if you find something that you are passionate to research and write about. You can do it! 🙂

 

[theWUbear]

I've never loved SDN more than I do right now. I'm ready to tackle this! The only issue is that I'm taking a full course load in the Spring (aka now), taking summer classes and dealing with the few secondaries i haven't prewritten during the summer, and taking a full courseload in the fall while (hopefully) dealing with interviews. But I bet a bunch of you took care of your long papers/theses with full course loads as well, and the big advice is to space it out and do it little by little. I think i'll start spring break. To answer one above poster, it is experimental, so I will structure it just about how you wrote that up. Thank you all so much 🙂

 

[StudyShy]

I've never loved SDN more than I do right now. I'm ready to tackle this! The only issue is that I'm taking a full course load in the Spring (aka now), taking summer classes and dealing with the few secondaries i haven't prewritten during the summer, and taking a full courseload in the fall while (hopefully) dealing with interviews. But I bet a bunch of you took care of your long papers/theses with full course loads as well, and the big advice is to space it out and do it little by little. I think i'll start spring break. To answer one above poster, it is experimental, so I will structure it just about how you wrote that up. Thank you all so much 🙂

Writing is easiest when you begin early and work over a long period of time. Fitting 50 pages in a week is going to be rough, but writing a page a day is a piece of cake. Good luck!

 

[Azrie]

I've written both an undergraduate thesis (55 pgs) and recently finished a Masters thesis (94 pgs).

Is 50 pages doable? Definitely in the amount of time you have left. (I wrote the majority of my masters thesis in the span of two months.. the editing takes a while, however.) A little advice: start as early as possible. Have all the data now? Start organizing your data and writing, a little at a time.
(Just like everyone else has said.. ) I prefer to work on one section at a time, myself.

I find the Introduction/Lit. Review the easiest to write, but only if I previously wrote a very in-depth proposal (does not sound like you had to, so.. it might be one of the harder, more time-consuming sections simply because of all the background information you have to look up, rehash in your own words, and organize in a logical manner.)

The Objectives section (if you include one) is rather self-explanatory.

Materials and Methods is far, far more detailed than for a typical paper. Thus, it takes up a gratuitous amount of space.. and time if you don't have typed-up versions of all your protocols. It's another relatively straightforward section.

The Results section is pretty straightforward too, just write the data up the same way you would for a paper. (Figures and Tables make it longer than you'd think..)

Discussion is a pain; be ready to write this part slowly and with much editing. (Otherwise, it's much like the discussion section of a paper.)

The abstract you'd write last, since it's just a brief summary of the whole thesis. (Beware of character/ word limitations. They should be in the thesis writing guidelines for your department.)

Make sure your reference program uses the format your department calls for..

Anyway, if you're determined to write a thesis it's more writing than you'd expect, but it's not the writing that takes the most time, per se.. it's the editing. (I spent a looong week changing the formatting around and trying to puzzle out their specifications!) Find several people, in particular professors, willing to help you by reading the thing and asking questions/suggesting corrections.. A good reader makes all the difference!

And remember: you not only have to produce a manuscript, but you likely have to present and defend that thesis too! (There's nothing quite like having a group of graduate students and professors throwing thesis-related questions your way after your 30-45 minute thesis presentation.. while a nice, briiiight spotlight shines on you.)

Ah, graduate school...
Good luck!