INTRODUCTION TO HOW TO WRITE A BA THESIS, SECOND EDITION

Writing a senior honors thesis is the capstone of your college studies. This book is designed to help you at every stage of that process, to pass along the experience of students who have gone before you and suggestions from teachers who know what works best, what doesn't, and what challenges you might face as you complete your research and writing.

All your previous college courses, readings, draft papers, and revisions have prepared you to write a BA thesis. You've taken the introductory and intermediate courses in your major, delved into more specialized topics in advanced courses, and written research papers. All of them prepare you to tackle your BA thesis, which many students say is the most rewarding project of their college years.

Why do so many students find it so worthwhile to research and write a thesis? Partly it's because they can choose the topic themselves. Partly it's because they can explore a subject in real depth. Partly it's because the research proves (to themselves and to employers and graduate schools) that they can take on a major independent project and complete it.

As an independent project, the BA thesis is different from all your previous courses. Until now your teacher always specified the assignment. If the course was about the French Revolution, you couldn't write about India's democracy. Now you can choose whatever you want.

That freedom is daunting. So is the length of the paper. It's longer than a normal seminar paper and requires more sustained research.

Don't worry. I will guide you through the entire process and show you how to ask others, especially professors and librarians, for guidance. I'll share what I've learned in advising students, and I'll share the answers they've given.

Let me begin with a few general points. I hope you find them helpful.

First, pick a subject that really interests you. After all, you'll be working on this project for several months, so you'll want something that keeps you interested. At this stage you don't need to have a precise topic, but you do need to know what really interests you.

Second, pick an adviser you can work with, someone who knows your subject and likes helping students. I'll give you some ideas about how to find the right person and then how to work with him or her.

Third, working with your adviser, move from your broad area of interest to focus on a specific research topic. The goal here is to move from your broad area of interest to a more well-defined topic. Your broad topic might be ancient warfare. Your more precise topic might be Rome's second war against Carthage or the differences between Athenian and Spartan militaries.

Only you can identify the broad area that interests you. Only you know if you enjoy reading about ancient warfare more than about medieval or early modern war, or reading Romantic poetry more than late Victorian novels. Only you know if you are primarily interested in Plato's thought or Augustine's, or perhaps a topic that has interested many thinkers, such as "what makes for a good life?"

What your faculty adviser can do is listen as you explain your interests and your prospective topic, and, with that in mind, help you move from a general subject like the French Revolution to a more specific one like "why did the Terror happen?" or "did Napoleon continue the French Revolution or end it?"

Those question marks are important. Fourth, turn your specific topic into a question you can answer. Posing that question, explaining why it is interesting, and answering it will be the heart of your thesis.

Don't worry if you can't answer the question right now. Actually, worry if you can. If you can already answer it, the topic will quickly bore you. It's okay to have a hunch about the right answer. But if the answer's already set in stone, carve a different statue.

The goal is to find a question that interests you and that you can eventually answer as your research unfolds. As you explain why the question is interesting, you will draw in the reader.

Your adviser can be a great help here. Work closely with her to narrow your topic and formulate your specific research question. She's done it many times before, not only when she advised other students but in her own work. Thanks to her training and experience, she knows what good research questions are, and she can help you formulate yours. But remember, you first need to know what interests you and why.

Finally, almost all students have the same worry as they begin a BA thesis: Can I really complete a big independent project? Can I write a research paper longer than any I have written before?

The answer is almost always yes, you can. That's not simply wishful thinking. It's based on my experience and knowing a trick that will really help you succeed.

Here it is. Once you have focused on your specific topic or question, do not concentrate on writing a thirty-five- or forty-page paper. Not only is that daunting; it's not how your real research and writing are done.

All serious research involves breaking down a large project into several key components and then tackling each one separately. If you are writing a book, those components are chapters. If you are writing a BA thesis or journal article, the components are short papers. Each of these short papers, or sections, is probably six to eight pages.

A typical thirty-five-page paper has

• a brief introduction, which states the question or problem, and why it matters;

• four or more sections that explain different aspects of the issue; they lay out the evidence, how others have seen the problem, and how you see it; these sections answer your answer or prove your point; and, finally,

• a conclusion, which summarizes what you have found and its larger meaning.

Look at the journal articles you have read in history, English, political science, or sociology. They all have that same structure.

The key, then, is those four, five, or six middle sections. Each is a short paper covering a different aspects of your topic. You've written dozens of these shorter papers in college, and you already know how to do it. That's all you need to do here. Don't worry about writing a thirty-five-page paper. Just write several six-page papers that fit together.

The only difference from your previous course papers is this: instead of writing one on topic A and another on topic B, you will be writing one on topic A1, then one on topic A2, and so on. Those topics are closely related, and taken together, they will answer your thesis question.

Your adviser should play a crucial role in helping you define what topics A1, A2, and A3 should be. Think of them as the basic architecture of your thesis. You should work with your adviser to plan that basic structure as soon as you have narrowed your topic and are ready to begin research. You want to know, "What should I cover in the middle sections?" Then you'll come up with a few ways to do that, to break down your larger topic into its constituent parts. Then write each one separately (A1, A2, etc.) and hook them together. In the process, you might decide you need to add or subtract a section or to rearrange their order. That's very common, and it's not a problem.

The key is to separate the larger topic into its component parts, write each one as a separate paper, and hook them together. Then write your introduction and conclusion, and you're done.

Keep that trick in mind as we travel through the project.

Now let's get started.

USEFUL NUTS AND BOLTS

Every thesis student has to handle a number of nuts-and-bolts issues, from departmental requirements to picking an adviser. A little advice can ease the way. This chapter and the next one will provide it.

WHAT ARE YOU INTERESTED IN?

Well before you start looking for a thesis adviser, you should begin to highlight areas that interest you and start taking courses in them. At this stage, probably in your junior year, you don't need to narrow your focus much. Just pick a field or two to emphasize within your major. In art history, that might be modern or classical art. In political science, it might be international relations or political philosophy. These are broad topics, and you may already have some more detailed interests within them. In modern art, you might be most interested in German expressionists or, alternatively, in American abstract artists like Jackson Pollock. In international relations, you might be concerned with relations between rich and poor countries, but beyond that you aren't sure. That's fine. You will zero in on a specific research topic later, and I'll help. For now, what matters is getting the best preparation as you fulfill the requirements in your major. In the process, you'll discover some areas that interest you and others that don't.

Two kinds of preparation matter most for your thesis: learning more about your field and learning more about writing research papers.

PREPARING FOR YOUR THESIS BY CHOOSING THE RIGHT COURSES

In choosing courses, the key is to move beyond the basics into more advanced, specialized fields since your thesis will come from these specialized fields. In economics, for instance, you will build on basic micro and macro courses to take classes in labor economics, international trade, or capital markets — whatever interests you. In sociology, you might take advanced courses in immigration, crime, or changing gender roles. You'll be learning what really matters to you (and what doesn't) as you lay the foundation for your thesis research. You will also be doing essential background reading, familiarizing yourself with the debates, and discovering the hot issues. You'll be looking for puzzles and questions that interest you.

As you advance within your major, ask faculty and advisers if you need to take some essential courses in other fields. To put it differently, you need to know what you need to know. In economics, for instance, calculus and statistics are extremely valuable — the more the better. For European history, you might want to take a course in French literature or Enlightenment philosophy. These "extra" courses are important in every field. But you need to ask. The faculty aren't going to search for you. If you want their help, you should approach them with clear questions.

The same is true for interdisciplinary studies, whether that is a regular program covering several disciplines, a double major, or a custom program you have designed. Ask professors you know what kinds of courses they recommend for someone with your interests. They may not know the names of specific courses or the best teachers (other students know the best teachers), but they certainly know what subject matter you should explore.

To get the best advice, you also need to say something about your own interests. If you are concerned with the sociology of religion, for instance, faculty members might suggest you take related courses in theology or anthropology. These same courses would be less useful for sociology students concerned with racial segregation. Those students would benefit more from classes on urban education, labor markets, or African American literature. The point is simple. Before embarking on your thesis project, take some advanced courses to deepen — and widen — your knowledge of your specialty and perhaps the methods needed to do the best research. You should continue taking such courses in your senior year as you work on your thesis.

So ask your professors what extra courses could help with your interests and your thesis research. You need to know what you need to know.

SEMINAR PAPERS PREPARE YOU TO WRITE A THESIS

You also want to gain some experience in writing research papers. It is a lot easier to plan and write your thesis after you have written a few seminar papers. You'll know much more about how to conduct research and how to present it effectively. You also learn how to manage your time as you organize an independent project. These skills will prove useful with your thesis. You may also discover that you want to learn more about a particular topic. An interesting class paper might be the basis for an interesting thesis.

Fortunately, most advanced courses require papers rather than exams. Still, some large schools rely on exams, even in upper-level courses, to cope with heavy enrollments. Check out the requirements for specific classes with an eye to doing some research and writing. A few longer papers will prepare you for the thesis project.

By the same token, don't load up with three courses requiring papers the same semester. If they all come due on Tuesday of exam week, believe me, it will be an ugly train wreck. Balance your load.

GENERATING IDEAS FOR YOUR THESIS

As you take these advanced courses, start thinking tentatively about your thesis. By junior year you will probably be settled into your major, taking some specialized classes and learning which topics you enjoy and do well in. You need not spend a lot of time thinking about your thesis, and none at all worrying about it. Just mull over what interests you and what might be worth exploring further.

Now is the time to start collecting ideas for possible thesis topics. Do it in writing, even if the ideas themselves are tentative and exploratory. Make a special computer file where you can jot down ideas, a second one where you can collect PDFs of articles that might be useful, and a manila folder where you can put handwritten notes with your observations. Lots of professors do this when collecting ideas for their next book or article. You should do exactly the same thing for your thesis.

If you don't have such files set up already, go ahead and do that now, even if you don't have anything to put in them. You will have some ideas soon, and having the files ready to go encourages them. As you add new items to your files, remember that your goal is not to find a single topic but to collect multiple ideas. You'll narrow them down later, and I'll explain how.

And be sure to start backing up this work from the very beginning. You probably use a cloud service (I do), and that's fine. If you can arrange for automatic backups, that's even better. But whether you do it automatically or manually, make it a practice to back up your vital files.

A happy by-product of collecting these ideas is that you'll begin to write. At least you'll begin to write some brief notes to yourself. They don't need to be anything fancy, just notes for your files, done without any pressure or deadlines. But do make a regular practice of writing down your ideas.

If you use note-taking software, great. If you are thinking about using it, now's a good time to start, at the very beginning of the project. But whether you take notes on screen or on paper, with your word processor or special note-taking software, the important thing is to begin jotting down your own ideas and those that bubble up after you read something for your classes.

Writing down your thoughts is very helpful — at least I've always found it is — and it's important to make it a regular part of your thesis project from the very beginning. The more you write, the easier it becomes. These notes will jog your memory, prompt your imagination, and help you puzzle out the issues.

Try not to censor yourself. Nobody is judging you. Nobody is grading you. Don't worry if your ideas seem vague, a little dumb, or too ambitious. You can always drop them later or combine them with others. At this stage you are planting a garden, not weeding it. Just write down your ideas as they pop up, before they wilt away. When you think of something, write down a few casual sentences so that next month you'll remember what you were thinking. Don't fret about grammar or style. The goal is simply to generate ideas and begin writing, at least informally.

To begin this file, think over the various classes you have taken. Which issues fascinated you? Which ones did you want to learn more about? Which paper topics were most rewarding to work on? Scribble down your answers. See if you can expand on any of them. Why did these topics intrigue you? Which aspects were most interesting? The more you can write about these questions, the better.