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The 6 Stages of Starting Your Honors Thesis

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UNCW chapter.

So, we’ve all been there, right? Okay, well, not all of you, but for those of you who have, you know what I’m talking about. An honors thesis, departmental or not, is definitely a staged process. So, to humor you all, myself included, I’ve come up with the six undeniable starting stages of a (for me, departmental) honors thesis project.

1. Cockiness Stage

So, the first stage is the “I’m totally awesome stage.” Of course we’re awesome, we were all asked to do this because our professors know we can. And, of course, we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into at the time they asked us. All we knew was that at the end of this journey bares a cap, gown and huge medallion.

 

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2. Procrastination Stage

I think it comes without saying that this stage lasts the entire time. But, right after we heard, “Oh, it’s not due until graduation,” I think we all got a little crazy and decided to tuck our information sheets in our desk drawers.

 

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3. Oh, Crap I Have a Conference Stage

Yeah, our email is blowing up with conference invites, and what do we have? Nothing. Zip. Nadda. So, we wrote down our conference dates, and compiled a crappy little power point presentation that kind of, somewhat, conveyed what we’re talking about in our papers—praying that not that many people will show up to the presentation. It’s only a conference that happens once a year especially for graduate students, certainly not all 500 or so of them will come, right? Wrong.

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4. I Should Start Writing Something Stage

We’ve spoken to our advisors and they’re wondering where in the hell our papers are, and our response? “Uh, well, I have, uhm, see, it goes like this…” So we locked ourselves up in a cave for 24 hours to make a stress-filled masterpiece. No cell phone. No friends, just sources upon sources, and coffee. ..Lots and lots of coffee.

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5. I’m Never Going To Make It In Life Stage

Remember that awesome 20 page masterpiece we just created yesterday? Yeah, well, forget about it. Thesis advisor says, rewrite it. It’s great, but we need to change your direction a little.

This stage has a few mini-stages, so let me break it down for you:

Finishing the introduction draft:

 

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Giving it to the thesis advisor:

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Their response:

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Our immediate response:

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The response following our immediate response:

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6. I will Show You Stage

So our first drafts didn’t make it and neither did our second, but the third time is the charm, right? Let’s hope so.

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No, but really though…

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Tabitha Britt

New School '18

Tabitha Britt (formerly Tabitha Shiflett) was the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Correspondent of Her Campus at The New School between August 2016 - January 2018. Tabitha graduated from The New School of Social Research on January 31, 2018. She's also a graduate of the Dub (The University of North Carolina Wilmington, UNCW) where she held the position of Managing Editor for the UNCW HC team. You can find her byline in a variety of publications including CBS Local, Taste of Home, Luna Luna, Thought Catalog, and Elite Daily. See more at www.tabithashiflett.com.