Hey guys..
Im in need of serious help here, and try not to be too judgemental, I work my ass off! :)
as it stands right now..Ive 6 days to have my thesis done, and not one word written.
Its not out of lazyness, but more down to bad time management.
My thesis is 6,000 words in total, it goes towards 20% of my overall mark.
Im in an art college in Ireland and in my final year.
I know what Im writing about..I have the chapters labelled in the thesis ..I have about 7 books in total, Ive watched 3 videos(all not directly relating, but helpful) and have about 10 internet sources.
quite frankly..Im terrible at anything essay based, albeit I consider myself very articulate and I can make something sound intelligent when I need to. But as I type this..Im in a paraletic fear ...an inner fear of not being able to get this done in time.
I still need to read a good bit of the books I have...its now 5:46 and Im planning to read for the rest of the night and at this stage, am attempting to do a chapter a day until sunday, which Im leaving to make sure it looks organised and all images included.
Does anyone have any advice on how NOT to go completely mad with stress?
Ive nearly empted a bottle of "Rescue remedy" into me already...doesnt seem to be doing much!
Thank you...
Set yourself a timetable, I get like this all the time before a deadline (usually a couple of weeks before a 3000 word essay is due though, not 6 days before a 6000 word one!!)
You're probably going to be working til the early hours every night, but make sure that the day before the deadline you don't have much more than the conclusion to write.
I work myself really hard but the day before a deadline I don't like being panicky cos obviously it's harder to concentrate then, so the days before I usually end up working till 3am.
Try and read at least 2 books a day, find the most relevant chapters, look in the index for relevant words, then you probably won't have to read the whole thing.
And write about 1500 words a day.
Do your reading first, type out quotes and reference and do the bibliography at the same time. Then structure your arguments.
Good luck, I have 10,000 words due in 2 months and I'm freaking out, but you've made me feel a bit better!
Thank you spurs...
The topic isnt a complicated one, its about hip hop and its design aesthetics...
I plan to write a minmum of 1,500 a day, so by end of friday I should have 4,500 done.
Then I have 1,500 to do between saturday and sunday...
I'd imagine.. 700-1,000 words intro..
1,000 words for conclusion.
4,000 - 4,300 words for the body of the thesis...
gahhhh!!....Im not acedemically minded so I never have to do this sort of work...
Im highly creative with design, thats my forté.
10,000 in two months?..I'd much rather be in your shoes :P
Hello Teddi. I myself have been down the lonely road into hell late at night with papers due the next day. One thing to keep in mind is that it will not only be one late night but many late nights ahead for you so in order to stay up later try to stay away from alot of caffeine as it will only make you crash the next day. Having lots of coffee or energy drinks can work fine if its just one all-nighter that you need to get through because its ok if you crash the next day. Things change, however, when you have to stay up really late for many days in a row. While staying up late you may find(especially if you are literally staying up all night 24hours) that you are hungry for another set of meals like lunch and dinner during the nighttime. Eat protein and vegetables as if it were the day time instead of midnight snacks or lots of coffee. Sometime the extra nutritious food makes up(somewhat) for the lost sleep. Your body can work overtime but it just needs the premium fuel to do so! :)
Making a rigid schedule is very helpful like Spurs said because it allows you to plan everything out once then not worry about the big picture anymore after that which can be very overwhelming. If everyday you just look at the next thing you must immediately get done then it will simply be a series of small tasks which arent so bad at all. I know that trying to soak up information from multiple books and writing 1500 words a day is a bit ridiculous but you can even break that up smaller too. Say, "while eating breakfast I will write 100 words. Then at lunch 100 more. Then between 10pm and 11pm i will write 200 words. And so on. Good luck, man!
Thank you so much for that reply Gautama...
Its an interesting thing about coffee I wasnt aware of..I hate coffee and only ever drink it if I need to stay awake...
Im going to try and avoid it like you suggested. I have 2 books that nail my thesis title, so Im going to make sure I cover both of those books well...
Once I know what Im going to say I can fly along. Otherwise I just end up sitting there with the best intentions, but doing nothing about it.
Its not that much for my final year mark, but I still need to get a pass!
Hey, this is NOT as bad as you think. Can you ask for a deadline extension? If not, you need to take some time off from work and do this for a few days, so that you don't end up having to re-take the class.
About the coffee thing, if you hate the taste of coffee, use that 5 hour energy drink; it really works!! But alcohol makes writing impossible no matter how much caffeine you have in you.
6,000 words is a little over 20 pages, so think of it as 5 little papers. Write one section per day for five days. It is all anchored in the central theme, that fascinating main idea. If you spend some time with it and get fascinated, you can write 12,000 words in 6 days.
Write a few hundred words for every source you read, and analyze them all according to your main question or argument.
Get a membership to questia.com and learn how to use it to build your reference list automatically. If I had to write 6,000 words, I would want to do it in 4 days, because I feel like 5 pages per day is not a lot to write. BUT, you need to be able to stay home and work for these few days! Good luck!!!
Thank you kevin!...
For the next 5 days I dont plan on doing anything but this, pretty much not leaving my house until its done.
I was brainstorming with my flatmate last night and we came up with a really nice theory that can be implimented into the thesis. I have a bare Idea of what I was going to create per chapter basis, but now I've added in a new dimension that might structure my thesis better.
I plan on getting all the main important writing done by saturday?..so I have sunday to lay the thesis out, insert imagery etc...as you well know..presentation is also highly accounted for.
I know its in my grasp to get it completed, but its hard not to doubt oneself given my situation of being able to complete it in time...
3 chapters = 4 days
organisation of layout and bib and index= 1 day...
fingers crossed!
P.S : an extension isnt available as due to an inadequate tutor (was never in) we were given a compensation of an additional week...the week being this week :(
just out of curiousity...
I have 2 books that nail my thesis to a "T"...
each book contains possible quote after quote after quote...
Obviously its something that I want to use but I dont want to seem like I copied all my resources from it..
Is there some stratedgy that I can use in this case?...
Hi! Okay, one big benefit of using questia.com is that it automatically creates your bib for any citation style, mla, apa, chicago, turabian, etc.
So, that saves you a day.
1. Read an article
2. Write a half a page
Repeat that process til you have, say, 6 pages each day.
Consider asking a professional editor to help with the formatting to save you more time.
About your last question, I think you may be on to something very useful. Obviously, if you just paraphrase a few large sections of this book your paper will be sort of meaningless, but there is no rule against closely following one or both of those books. You can even cite the same sources they cite and use their bib entries.
Good luck! When it is done, you will deserve that degree! This stuff is hard. Press on!
thank you again kevin..
One of the books, I've pretty much read through...and due to the restricted time I have left..I...in a slightly unprofessional way,but still a reliant source will be rewording most of a book to use the structure of the thesis as they are based on the same subject.
but dont fret, I'll be using quotes out of other books and sources, but its hard to avoid doing it as its the bible of the subject matter Im doing..
signing up to questia.com as we speak kevin, thanks :)
EDIT: on second thought, no Im not going to sign up..not a free trial when you need to give a credit card number...sly ...
Hey Teddi,
I can put myself in your shoes, coz even i used to get stressed out with academic papers, especially when i have so many to turn in at a short notice.
anyway, thought will share my thoughts on some help that i had taken. i contacted these writers' group for my paper on global warming and they did a pretty good job. some john guy he is. you can mail him on ******.
hope you find him useful.
good luck.
Thank you kat...
as it stands at the moment, Im spending a whole day today rewording a large part, well truth be told 90% of a book into my own words, once done trying to contruct my argument into it and then Implenting my theory that I have at the end.
Including today I've three days before I need to spend one day laying it out and inserting imagery.
Im a pretty intelligent guy so I'd have a fairly good Idea of what Im doing will be pleasing to the examiner. I also have a philosopher living with me...albeit he's spainish, his english is quite good and he helped me brainstorm the other night.
I just have to stop thinking of it in this huge context in my head as its seems a bit overwhelming. I've put aside what I need to get done each day so I just dont sleep until I've it done!
I never used to pray to god,but in this case I might have to start :D
well, good luck!
Im wondering, would a title like..
"how hip-hop has influenced graphic design in the last 30 years"...
...be an acceptable thesis title?
I have four chapters that I'll be creating, one on : graffitti, album design and advertising, fashion and sneakers and then my fourth about the inaccuracies of the hip hop in this day and age.
the first three chapters dont have much of an argument, more depicting aspects that influcenced hip hop, the final will have a more stronger argument...
how might I need to re-phrase the thesis title?
thanks..
What do other students title their thesis? It's hard to find a balance because if it is something down to earth like your topic you may want to just state it plainly and be real but that may be to casual for some readers.
good point Gautama...
Hmmm...Im sooo tired and I've soooo much work still to do..I can't think...
I'll have to see tomorrow :)
6000 words in five days . . . that's four pages a day. Assuming it takes no more than an hour to write a page (and I know from personal experience that it is possible to write a page in anywhere from fifteen minutes to half-an-hour, if needs be), that's only four hours of work a day. Admittedly, if you have other work to do, that can be inconvenient, but it shouldn't be overwhelming. Now, if you still haven't got a few pages out of the way, and still have 6000 words to write in two days, you're going to have start on the energy drinks and coffee. :-)
If you haven't done that to yourself, though, and have some pages done, feel free to post them here. You'll get some proofreading and editing done for you while you're working on the other sections!
Thank you sean...
so far what I have done is the summary of my subject, the factual aspect of it (that has come to about 3,500 words...with no intro nor conclusion)...I've typed out the thesis layout (the pages whereby introduces the book...indicating college etc) took longer than I thought so Im glad that I did it...as so I only need to fill in the title when I know what it is ..(doh!)...the bib's done...chapter index...
My main problem right now is that I've three days to go...and my brain has gone into a state of "freak out" as Im only realising now that all I've been doing is just 'talking' about hip hop and its design and not how it 'influenced' graphic design...
I need to insert my "how" part into this now...I think its going to be my biggest challenge...three days before its due!...
aahhhh!!!!! :(
Well, if you want to post some of those 3500 words here, I'd be glad to give you some feedback on them.
Hey, how did it turn out, man? Did you get it done well?
