Saturday, June 12, 2010
How To Get Started With Your Master Thesis – A Psychological Checklist II
Much of the difficulty arising from the thesis-writing exercise is psychological rather than technical. To finish your master thesis, you shouldn’t only have the right topic, adviser, method, equipment, reading materials, etc. It is much more important to have the right attitude. Think about it; solutions to technical problems can be found in many books, but if you don’t have the will, the inclination or the patience to look for them, they won’t do you much good. Here are some tips that can help you put yourself in the right frame of mind for thesis writing.
Get Organized
You probably know the old saying, “It’s easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees.” This applies in thesis writing. You can become so caught up in individual tasks (e.g. reading all the materials you can find on your topic, interviewing subjects for your case studies, drafting and redrafting your proposal, etc) that you might lose sight of the fact that you do have a deadline, and that it’s the complete output – not the individual steps or efforts (however superb or impressive) – that will be evaluated and graded. You should really get yourself organized.
First, write down your ultimate goal: to finish your master thesis on time. Write down your target defense date so you’ll have a definite date to work towards. After that, list down all the things you need to do to achieve your goal (e.g. design research, gather data, look for applicable theories, choose an adviser, meet with adviser, pass the first draft, etc).
Next, arrange the tasks chronologically. The first tasks should be those things that you need to accomplish before you can move on to other tasks; for example, theoretical framework and research design typically come before data gathering. Subsequently, break down the tasks into specific steps. To find an applicable framework, you will have to do some research in the library. Once you have reduced all the tasks into a series of small steps, get your planner then list down all the individual steps according to their proper order.
The result of this exercise is a blueprint of your goal. Since your thesis work has been resolved into very specific and manageable tasks, you will not find the overall task – that of finishing your thesis – particularly overwhelming.
Make it a Daily Habit
The clearest and the most detailed master thesis plan will not help you if you don’t have the discipline to stick to it.
One good way to develop discipline is to set a definite “thesis schedule”. If you have nothing but your master thesis on your plate right now, treat it like you would a full-time job. Set the hours between 8-12 and 1-5 as thesis-writing periods, for example. Then, force yourself to start working on your thesis every 8 am without fail. Likewise, stop working by 5 pm. Stopping work on time will prevent exhaustion, deprivation, burn out and other negative attitudes and feelings from taking root; these can make you more unwilling to continue working on your thesis.
If, on the other hand, you have other things to do apart from your thesis, you should still set “thesis working days” or “thesis working hours” that will remain inviolate and be devoted entirely to your thesis.
By sticking to a strict schedule, you’ll soon acquire the “thesis habit” and treat your thesis as a fundamental part of your day. Once you reach this stage, you won’t start out each day by wrestling with the question “Do I or do I not work on my thesis today?” which is almost always followed by the decision, “Not now; I’ll start tomorrow.” Through organization and discipline, therefore, you’re assured of unwavering focus; you’ll be able to make a gradual but steady progress towards completing your Master thesis and getting your master’s degree.
Author: Vladimir ChenArticle Source: EzineArticles.com
Thesis Statement Writing
Writing a thesis statement can be one of the most important, yet most difficult parts of your entire paper. There seem to be varying rules and standards that need to be applied in order to determine whether or not your thesis is of high quality or not. However, there are some universal rules that, if followed, will always create an excellent thesis.
Universal Rules of Thesis Statement Writing
1. Your Thesis Should Reflect the Type of Paper You Are Writing
There are three basic types of papers that require a thesis statement: argumentative, analytical, and explanatory. Each of these three unique purposes creates a specific purpose for your thesis.
An argumentative statement should define the subject, what the subject should do or change, and the reasons that this is the case. For example, "College graduates [Subject] should be required to participate in an internship [what the subject should do], relating to their field of study, in order to gain real world experience [reason to change 1] and a working knowledge of their industry [reason to change 2]."
An analytical thesis should provide a clear message what action or conflict needs analyzed. For example, "An analysis of the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee reveals the challenge of accepting teams with a solid season-long performance or a team with an average season-long performance capped by an outstanding final eight games." From this statement, the reader knows that you will be sharing with them 1. an analysis of the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee and 2. the challenge of choosing between the two types of teams.
Finally, an explanatory thesis statement needs to identify the subject and what you will be explaining about them. For example, "The average plan to lose weight consists of eating right, daily exercise, and sleeping well." Your paper would then explain how or why a diet plan revolves around these three characteristics.
2. Always Ask Yourself...
There are a series of questions that you need ask yourself about every thesis statement that you write. The answer to these questions will help you decide of you have formulated a successful thesis statement.
Where is your thesis statement?
Ideally, your statement will be as early in your essay as possible, preferably in your first paragraph. For longer essays, it may be necessary for your thesis statement to be several sentences or be in the second paragraph. Try not to bury your statement in the middle of a paragraph. It should either at the beginning or end because it allows that thesis statement to guide the readers more effectively.
Is the statement specific or general?
A specific statement essentially summarizes the purpose of your paper in one sentence. If it is too general or broad, there is a good chance that you paper will not be able to cover every aspect or caveat of the statement.
While writing your thesis statement can seem like a daunting task. Following these two simple rules will help you to create an effective thesis every time.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Kay
Pros and Cons of the Thesis Theme For WordPress
here are the pros and cons of the DIY Thesis Theme for WordPress Blog sites:
PROS:
1. Thesis is Search Engine Optimized - You need a theme that makes it easy for the search engines like Google to find your blog without too much tweaking and effort, and Thesis achieves this well. Thesis is clean and presents content well, it uses a clean code structure and has search engine friendly urls.
2. Beautiful Layout - Thesis is a modern, simple, and minimalistic theme. It has just the right amount of white space. The minimalistic look is good for all types of businesses and subjects.
3. Customisation Is easy - You don't need to know code, changing the design is easy via the Design Options.
4. Plenty of Options - Thesis offers many ways of changing the way your site looks - no of columns (1 to 3), their widths, fonts and their sizes, no of sidebars and their widths and more, all can be changed.
5. Lifetime Support and Free Upgrades - Upgrades occur about every three months and are free forever. Very active support forum and very good video tutorials.
6. Thesis Is Stable - Thesis is made in such a way that no core files need to be tinkered with.
7. Multimedia Box - Flexible box where you can have a video, an opt-in form, photos, and even display a different video/form/image on each page.
8. Google Analytics - Code can be added without altering files.
CONS:
1. CSS code needed - It's a disadvantage if you don't know CSS code, as you can't get the full juice out of thesis.
2. No Actual Design - Thesis is vanilla - plain but professional. It needs customising. Options are: use the basic theme design options (fine for basic customisation), learn CSS or hire a Thesis coder. The support forum can help you out if you want to tweak things yourself.
3. Price - $87 for personal use, $164 for developer - It's a matter of opinion and depends what you want. $87 is not a lot to spend for something that will definitely save you a lot of time and headaches, as WordPress always has some niggles. Remember, you get the free upgrades and great support forum. So theoretically you wouldn't need to buy another theme again.
All in all thesis is one of the best themes out there for WordPress - great SEO, flexible and looks clean and crisp. The lifetime upgrades and support are worth a lot, as many themes do not offer these. You can always try it out as they give money back if it doesn't suit. But you won't need to, most people adore their Thesis blogs, and with reason too.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Reena_Gagneja
Building a Thesis Statement Beats Finding a Topic to Write About
A painless way to find something to write about is to grab the first topic that comes to your mind and brainstorm assertions about it. The combination of a topic and an assertion about that topic creates a thesis statement.
Your topic need not be vitally important. You do not even have to have an original perspective on the topic. All you need is find something that interests you enough that you can spend an hour or two working with it.
You can easily make your own thesis builder with a piece of ruled paper and a pencil. Put a vertical line down a piece of paper. Write your topic to the left of the line. To the right of the line, write an assertion about the topic. The topic and the assertion together should read as a complete sentence. For example, to the topic "hot weather" you could add the assertion "brings out the worse in people." That topic and assertion could become the thesis statement for an essay.
Identify other potential thesis statements by brainstorming other assertions about your topic. Do not take time to evaluate how good an assertion is. Just get ideas down. Force yourself to work fast. You may want to set a timer for five minutes so you are not tempted to dawdle.
As you brainstorm, you may get an idea for a slightly different topic. For example, instead of writing about hot weather, you may want to assert something about working outdoors in hot weather or being in summer school in hot weather. That shows your brainstorming is shaking ideas loose. Be sure you write down your modified topic as well as the assertion about it.
When you have exhausted your ideas or the timer rings, look to see if any of the potential thesis statements looks like one on which you can write in the time you have. You may have a couple that are too small or too silly. You may have some would require too much research for the time you have. However, with a little luck, you will have at least one that is suitable for your assignment.
If the thesis builder does not produce a suitable thesis first time around, try brainstorming on a second topic for another five minutes. In 10 minutes, you are almost sure to find something better to write on by this method than by hours of unfocused brainstorming.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Aragoni
Quick Tips in Writing An Excellent Thesis - Planning a Term Thesis
Before you start writing - in fact before you get very far gathering information - you must decide two things:
· What your paper is about (the topic);
· For whom it is written (the audience).
Normally, the audience of a scholarly paper consists of people familiar with the general area but not with the specific topic. For instance, if you are writing about implementation of a numerical equation solver in Prolog, you can assume a passing acquaintance with numerical methods and with Prolog.
To a considerable extent, the choice of audience is up to you. But once you have made it, stick with it - unless there is a good reason to do otherwise, write all parts of your paper for the same audience. If you have a hard time visualizing the audience, try writing a paper that you would have understood if someone had given it to you a month ago, before you started researching the topic. The topic of a paper is often expressed in the first sentence.
The reflects a general principle: get to the point early. State your conclusions at the beginning, and then state the reasoning that leads up to them. Never leave the reader wondering where you are heading with an idea. Outline the whole paper before you write it. If you find this difficult, make an unordered list or collection of ideas you want to include, and then sort it.
The first paragraph of a paper is the hardest to write, and it is a good idea to try writing it - or at least sketching it - long before you write the rest of the paper. Often, once you compose the first paragraph, the whole paper will fall into place.
You do not need a long introductory section. Many term papers wander around for a few pages before they reach the main point. Do not do this. If you have an introduction (necessary in a long paper), it should be an overview of the paper itself, not a disquisition on other "background" topics, nor a record of everything you looked at while starting to research the topic.
You do not need a "conclusions" section at the end unless the paper either
(1) reports an experiment or survey, or (2) is rather long (thesis-length or more).
When you come to the end of your argument, stop, ending, if possible, on a general point.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ahmad_Alim