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So I'm in deep s***. I must write around 100 pages for my master's degree thesis in Philosophy but thing is that I have always been a scarce writer. If there were 20 pages to write, I would write 10 and have no idea at all how to feel the other 10. This is also happening now but it's a BIG trouble, because I am currently at page 30 and my mind is super blank.
I just feel like I already wrote everything I needed to and it just feels redundant to write more. Man I feel bad, it's an horrible sensation of re-reading books and notes and having nothing to add. Whenever I read a paper, I feel like the author could have delivered the same message in half the pages. Uff.
Any tips?
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I'm no philosopher, so I'm unsure what the field is like, but is it possible for you to extend the scope of your thesis in some way, to allow you to write more relevant information?
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On July 15 2014 21:51 Salivanth wrote: I'm no philosopher, so I'm unsure what the field is like, but is it possible for you to extend the scope of your thesis in some way, to allow you to write more relevant information?
My thesis is on a position endorsed by X. Until now I wrote:
-Introduction -Past positions on the same topic -X position -Critiques and reply to critiques -A contemporary approach on the position of X -Recap
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first of all, about whom are you writing? Which author and which book exactly. Because if your writing about something like let's say Descartes Meditationes, you can write 100 pages for sure and you don't even have footnotes then (;
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On July 15 2014 22:08 Cele wrote: first of all, about whom are you writing? Which author and which book exactly. Because if your writing about something like let's say Descartes Meditationes, you can write 100 pages for sure and you don't even have footnotes then (;
Luis de Molina - De Concordia
Late scholastics spanish jesuit who contributes to the whole foreknowledge and free will debate. Nobody knows him lol
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I can feel with you. I always wrote less pages than required/expected whenever I had something to write (thank god I never had to write 100 pages on something, 30 on my bachelor's thesis was enough already, and that included tables and other non-text stuff).
A minimum page requirement is nonsense; when everything is said, everything is said. Maybe you should extend your thesis by a section on the stupidity of minimum page requirements.
Considering that I fail at this myself, I can't really give you any advice though. Maybe if you can contrast your topic with other topics you could both find more stuff to write about your topic and at the same time get an excuse for writing about the other topics...
EDIT: I just went to Wikipedia expecting at least a couple of pages on that dude. It's philosophy after all, those people like to write many pages of text. Boy was I in for a surprise.
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On July 15 2014 22:09 SoSexy wrote:Show nested quote +On July 15 2014 22:08 Cele wrote: first of all, about whom are you writing? Which author and which book exactly. Because if your writing about something like let's say Descartes Meditationes, you can write 100 pages for sure and you don't even have footnotes then (; Luis de Molina - De Concordia Late scholastics spanish jesuit who contributes to the whole foreknowledge and free will debate. Nobody knows him lol
True- i did loads of different stuff in philosophy and i didnt come across him. But if he's contributing to the free will debate, you should be able to write quite a bit about his influence on the debate and how his arguments can be aplied to contemporary discourse i imagine? it depends on your leading scientific Question though, if it is interesting enough it should allow you, to extend your understanding of his philosophy to modern approaches. I for instance did a work on Thomas Nagel- The view from Nowhere once, but it was only a short abstract. (10 pages roughly) I had enough to write about, but concerning his pov on the self, identity and epistemology in general, i could have rambled on his Position in Relation to Wittgenstein, Krippke and alike for a many more pages (;
in short: sharpen your scientific Question and find out, where it's interesting beyond the descriptive analysis of de Molina himself. €: even more: talk to your professor about your issues! It's not a shame and in my experience a lot of them EXPECT you to keep close contact with them during the process of writing a master thesis. I still think it was a mistake of me not to do so myself.
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Yeah Cele, what you say it's right. The problem is the enormous amount of pages I have left - if it was something like 5-10 pages more, I could try and squeeze them. But 70? @_@
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On July 15 2014 22:23 SoSexy wrote: Yeah Cele, what you say it's right. The problem is the enormous amount of pages I have left - if it was something like 5-10 pages more, I could try and squeeze them. But 70? @_@
i feel with you, i was in the same spot half a year ago. I had to reorganize my subject drastically and extend my approach on the literature. Then again i did my masters thesis in political science and it's a different beef there.
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Do you have any tutor that supervises your thesis? If so, try getting advice from him.
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Change the size of periods/commas to extend the length provided you don't have to supply a digital copy?
In all seriousness, this sounds like a type of punishment for academic dishonesty in some countries but I've never had the interest in philosophy to pursue it. It always felt so slippery, in a rather frustrating fashion to me. That being said I like Wittgenstein.
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Oh man...I don't have much advice beyond talking to your supervisors, but I wish you a big good luck. If you think hard I'm sure you'll figure out something to talk about.
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Don't just involve critiques to his perspectives, but create a literature review of other philosophies that independently support or contradict him, to show where he stands in the sea of other great minds.
Shit like that. I do literature reviews all the time when writing education papers. It shows you know more about the topic's background than just your tiniest focus. It's also a great page-waster. It's a lot of work, but you should be able to fill at least another 10-20 pages on what everyone else thinks, and how it all relates to your guy.
Also talk about his other works and how his views have evolved over his life.
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I'm currently working on my master's thesis in history, and I'm struggling with a similiar problem. I always write my papers in one big blurb, and spends weeks on the concept and the organization of all the information. Right now, I'm almost done with the organization part, which means that I'll soon have to start writing. Usually, I can produce about 10 to 15 pages per day, but I DON'T WANT TO. It's highly irrational, but basically I don't want to write that shit. The topic is kind of interesting (radical reformation and the use of media), but I feel like I don't have anything relevant to say. On the other hand, I know that once my brain goes into overdrive, I will work like a maniac. But still, overcoming the procrastination hurdle was never as hard as it is right now.
But I'll manage it. And so will you. Just write...stuff. (Be detailed as fuck about everything.) The master's thesis is more like a gatekeeper than a real scientific effort. Once you've written that shit, you'll be ready for the real deal. Which is either life or a so-called career.
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I wrote my wife master's thesis in 10 days and got a very good grade while not even being a native English speaker. But the subject was marketing, aka common sense. Philosophy takes a lot of research unless you know all the references related to your topic by heart.
I'd say: Start by clearly defining the scope of your topic. Do tons of research without spending too much time sorting/filtering it properly; what matters is that you are aware of the various theories/arguments. Write an outline. Fill the outline and add references from what you researched.
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TLADT24917 Posts
I think the best advice is to be very nit picky when it comes to writing. Write every single detail you can and always try to expand. Compare and contrast to other philosophies, changes over the years etc... basically, the last couple of posts had some good stuff I would follow. You can probably even consider future possibilities due to the philosophy at hand. Best of luck!
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Friend of mine is atm writing his master thesis in philosophy as well he he
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I dont understand this requirement. I know alot people can tell/explain a topic very very good in less words/sentences. In that case they have a disadvantage to people who arent good at it (most likely double so much words for the same topic with same coverage).
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quoting, quoting, quoting. You get +20% text if you just keep on (correctly!) copying text that someone else has already written. And always use phrases like: "as he himself put it best: *in-detail-quote*"
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28057 Posts
On July 16 2014 01:41 endy wrote: I wrote my wife master's thesis in 10 days and got a very good grade while not even being a native English speaker. But the subject was marketing, aka common sense. Philosophy takes a lot of research unless you know all the references related to your topic by heart.
I'd say: Start by clearly defining the scope of your topic. Do tons of research without spending too much time sorting/filtering it properly; what matters is that you are aware of the various theories/arguments. Write an outline. Fill the outline and add references from what you researched. wait what, you really wrote your wife's thesis and submitted it?
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On July 16 2014 03:43 TheEmulator wrote:Show nested quote +On July 16 2014 01:41 endy wrote: I wrote my wife master's thesis in 10 days and got a very good grade while not even being a native English speaker. But the subject was marketing, aka common sense. Philosophy takes a lot of research unless you know all the references related to your topic by heart.
I'd say: Start by clearly defining the scope of your topic. Do tons of research without spending too much time sorting/filtering it properly; what matters is that you are aware of the various theories/arguments. Write an outline. Fill the outline and add references from what you researched. wait what, you really wrote your wife's thesis and submitted it?
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crazy, having a required minimum ... as if philosophers need to be any more long-winded than they already are.
edit: is the page length an official department requirement? if not, you might have enough ... in any case, i'd maybe go to your advisor and have them look at what you have so far and ask them to make suggestions. either they'll say it's fine as is or ask you to extend it in X, Y, Z way, which will be helpful, since then you'll know exactly what to elaborate upon.
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One hundred pages~ That's a lot of writing. I don't have many ideas myself so I'm essentially echoing "Big Fan." You can do two sentences when only one sentence is completely necessary. It clarifies the prior sentence and specifies it, and might allow you to see more ways to add more of your own thinking about your topc.
Make sure the scope is not too broad and not too focused. It seems obvious but I used to always think I was being very specific but I was actually speaking in very broad terms because I had not narrowed down my topic adequately. GL
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
From someone who wrote 108 pages for their Masters thesis in Mathematics, and 76 pages for a high school music essay, the easiest way to add pages is to be more specific. The more general your approach the easier it is to describe in a few words, but when you really put things under the microscope and explain all the tiny intricacies amongst the big picture then suddenly you'll find more pages coming out.
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On July 16 2014 03:43 TheEmulator wrote:Show nested quote +On July 16 2014 01:41 endy wrote: I wrote my wife master's thesis in 10 days and got a very good grade while not even being a native English speaker. But the subject was marketing, aka common sense. Philosophy takes a lot of research unless you know all the references related to your topic by heart.
I'd say: Start by clearly defining the scope of your topic. Do tons of research without spending too much time sorting/filtering it properly; what matters is that you are aware of the various theories/arguments. Write an outline. Fill the outline and add references from what you researched. wait what, you really wrote your wife's thesis and submitted it?
that is seriously some wack ass shit
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Oooooooh I'm about to be a Sophomore in the Fall and I'm majoring in Philosophy! I know nothing about your topic and obviously you know more about essay writing than I do buttttt good luck <3 I hope it all goes well! I believe!
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Learn the following phrase: "I quote at length."
Edit: I'm only half kidding. Some of the best - and worst - philosophy articles I've read have contained page-length block quotations.
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On July 16 2014 03:43 TheEmulator wrote:Show nested quote +On July 16 2014 01:41 endy wrote: I wrote my wife master's thesis in 10 days and got a very good grade while not even being a native English speaker. But the subject was marketing, aka common sense. Philosophy takes a lot of research unless you know all the references related to your topic by heart.
I'd say: Start by clearly defining the scope of your topic. Do tons of research without spending too much time sorting/filtering it properly; what matters is that you are aware of the various theories/arguments. Write an outline. Fill the outline and add references from what you researched. wait what, you really wrote your wife's thesis and submitted it?
Yes, I really wrote the ~110ish pages. It was about brand loyalty and celebrity endorsement's impact on fashion retail. If by "submitted it" you mean that I had to do a presentation then no. There was no thesis defense, so no one noticed. The only hard evidence of research we had to submit together with the paper were audio recordings of the focus groups we conducted. As far as I know, in many countries you are not required to do a presentation of a thesis for Master's degree. I got my Master's degree in France and I didn't have to either.
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Why didn't your wife write her own thesis?
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On July 16 2014 13:53 Ilikestarcraft wrote: Why didn't your wife write her own thesis?
She wrote a first version that was kinda bad and way too short, her written English wasn't very good, and it was the first time she had to write such a big paper so she had no proper methodology. Deadline was approaching. She did great at her finals, always was a good student, but we couldn't take the risk of failing the thesis, which would mean she'd have to stay another year in Ireland and I had just secured a job in China. So instead of trying to fix it I decided to rewrite it from scratch. Luckily, the subject was marketing which does not require any hard/technical skill.
I don't wanna derail the blog further, I first mentioned my wife's thesis just to encourage OP and show him it was possible to write a decent 100+ pages paper in 10 days. Please PM me if more questions.
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On July 16 2014 03:01 Dingodile wrote: I dont understand this requirement. I know alot people can tell/explain a topic very very good in less words/sentences. In that case they have a disadvantage to people who arent good at it (most likely double so much words for the same topic with same coverage).
That might be true, even though it's often a defensive position for people who simply aren't good writers - and this is meant as no offense, I had similar problems in high school. It's also a little flawed argument, if you're good at explaining things with a few words, you can also give examples and/or go into more details, see what Plexa wrote. If someone has a disadvantage here, it's the people who haven't been forced to train writing correctly over and over again, or the ones receiving little to no feedback from their mentors and peers.
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For the guys wondering: yes, the page requirement is an official department policy.
Thank you for the great tips, I didn't expect this blog to have so many replies ^^ I will write an update about my thesis in the future
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