2005-08-11

the thesis blues

Warning all potential readers: this entry is entirely about my thesis, so read at your own risk.

So I'm not feeling too great about stuff right now. I'm in the process of getting the first draft of my thesis back from my supervisor. So far, he wants me to completely re-write the intro, but I guess that's not too bad. I've also gotten back the the first chapter (not too shabby) and half the second (apparently kinda shabby). I can actually feel his annoyance and frustration growing by the page. It is marked by things such as "if you mean ____ then just say so!" and "your citations are erratitic--read your MLA handbook". To be fair on the last bit, I was planning on going back and fixing all of the citations myself at a future time; I certainly didn't think he would bother. I mean, I guess proper citation is important, sorta. It seemed like the kind of boring chore I would do at the end. He also noted that I have trouble writing all of my introductions, which I knew. He also wrote this long thing about how I should be more expansive because in a thesis you have the luxury of lots of space. I wanted to remind him that it can't be over a hundred pages, so no, I don't have all the space in the world, nor do I have all the time in the world because i have to submit in two weeks. Considering that it is already over 80 pgs, not counting the conclusion, I really can't add more than a few pages to each chapter. Nor do I want to.

I was in the midst of an anxiety attack yesterday. I didn't sleep at all the night before. But now I'm kinda thinking, well, this is the result of giving your masters student a really hard progect on an author with very little written on him. It's not like I could extensively cite other people. He's going to have to help me out. At least I'm not in Montreal so I have to listen to him get all mad at me or give me a several hour long lecture. So that's a bright side. I'm sure it will all work out fine, but I'm not particularly looking forward to the next two weeks.

xanthium at 10:43 a.m.

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