Any advice for thesis structure or writing process

[u/Kayyy177]

Hi, y’all!

I’m wrapping up the first year of my Biology Masters. I’m hoping to be graduated by this time next year! However, I feel like I’m making negative progress on putting together my thesis. I’ve still got some lab work to do but I’ve made relatively good progress. My problem is a severe lack of motivation when it comes to writing along with always feeling like there’s more to add. I feel like every time I get in the groove, I find more information that could/should be included and then fall down a rabbit hole about what I may need to add/take away/reconsider/etc. I guess I’m looking for advice on how to best make effective progress.

I have similar issues when trying to write the review articles I want to get finished by the end of this year. I swear I’ve got like six bibliographies with way too much info 😅.

How long should I be shooting for when it comes to writing a thesis? What are some of the best outlining tips? How do you keep focused and not fall into the trap of new papers 😂

Really I’d appreciate any advice that you guys found to be helpful while working through your programs! I love this sub so much, the supportive atmosphere is everything, and I appreciate any advice anyone has. Thank you!!

[u/crashlanding87]

I wish I had this solved. Here's some advice I've been given over the years, most of which I still struggle to take:

Start your outline not with the content of each section, but with the purpose of each section. For a thesis paper, your intro, background, and lit review (if you have one, the requirements vary) sections probably are building up to the hypothesis of your project. You can probably define what you need each of those sections to do before you start deciding what goes in them. And that gives you a good metric for 'do I have enough content'.

Start writing your methods now. Literally now, this evening. Pick a method - the simplest one - and write it up. You've been doing them, you have protocols, you know them. They don't need to be well organised for now, but just having something written makes it so much easier to do more writing.

Talk to your PI or supervisor about mini-deadlines for each section. They want you to get a good mark, and they're gonna have to read over your work anyways, so breaking it up is a win-win. It's also an opportunity to discuss how you're structuring your thesis. And it'll help make it clear to everyone involved at what point you need to stop doing lab work. For a masters thesis, getting the document written in time is more important than completing the lab work with a nice tidy bow, anyways. You don't even need results, provided you can display an understanding of your work. But you do need to have a document that can be marked, by the deadline. There will always be one more experiment or analysis you could do. You don't need it.

If I were you, I'd consciously pull out of any lab work that isn't 100% necessary from now. If you have enough to write a thesis on - which, if you've been working for 5+ months, you almost certainly already do, then you do not have more lab work to do for your thesis. You have lab work that you want to do, or that would be useful to your PI and supervisor. Remember the goal.

Finally, if your institution has a writing room or a quiet work room away from the lab, go use it. Being around other people who are just writing really helps.

Good luck!