How To Write Your Thesis – Follow My Messy Instructions, Enjoy Yourself!

I just saw UPLB ChemEng Professor Jovita Movillon's Facebook sharing on Thesis Writing from Research Methods and I could not help but react – because I have a much better idea, based on 44 years of editing both technical and popular manuscripts, many of them theses and dissertations. 

Never mind your field or specialty. Realize this: Since you have written your thesis proposal that of course has been approved, you already have half the battle won.

Here are the 8 steps given by Research Methods:

(1)   Decide when to start.

(2)   Decide when to stop.

(3)   Set chapter deadlines.

(4)   Easy targets each day.

(5)   Created (sic) a relaxing environment

(6)   Use your time wisely.

(7)   2 hours then break.

(8)   25 minutes at a time

I say, too many rulesto follow – 7 too many!

Rule #4 should be your only rule: "Easy targets." Don't plan – just do it! Do first the easy things you can think of.

Work on each part of the thesis separately – do not attempt to integrate them after writing each part. That will be easy after you have written all those parts separately.

Of course, the very first thing you should look for when beginning to write the thesis manuscript is: Where is your approved thesis proposal? That's your guide.

I will now give you something to start with: Get your tables and start discussing what you see. Separate tables. Do not attempt to integrate the tables yet, do not relate them yet – just discuss each table. That way, you will feel that you have finished something with every table discussed – that is necessary for the ego.

You know why you should start with tables? Because it is not so difficult to discuss a table.

Never mind if your discussion is not sequential. Just write down what you think. If you want, press Enter after every sentence. Yes, you should be discussing onscreen, not on paper! Because it is easier, unless you are a bad typist.

About the images above: Yes, you should use the personal computer, PC. The original of the main image is from Teriz.yasamayolver.com; I just painterized it to make it more dramatic; "Keep calm" is from xcorr: comp.neuro, google.com. Keep calm, follow my instructions, and just write, I mean type.

Then, when you are done with the tables, try to integrate them into the draft. I emphasize draft because there is nothing final yet – if you worry about writing professionally while writing the draft, you are a bad person, bad to yourself – you are asking too much! Not to mention a bad author. Even I, who has been editing technical papers in the last 44 years, cannot write a perfect draft – you have to read and revise, read and revise.

When you run out of ideas, it is time to send that draft, no matter how bad it looks, to your Authors' Editor. That would be me. An Authors' Editor is supposed to help you write, not only edit. Problem solved! This is your iVirtual Guru speaking.frankahilario@gmail.com@517