My Thesis, My friend.
This summer, I have decided to start on my Master’s thesis. I haven’t taken the thesis research class yet, but since I am working full-time as a teacher during the year, I should probably use my summers off to accomplish some research.
To get started I’ve decided to start working on an annotated bibliography. At first I thought, “Oh, this will be a snap.” Then I started looking for sources. Right now I am just sorting through things on JSTOR and it feels like there are a million articles out there about colonial culture in the Phillippines.
I know that this is likely not the case, but I am looking at all my sources wondering one scary thing, “What if I have nothing new to say?” I know that’s not the case, but it’s hard not to be intimidated when reading such brilliant work.
My goals for the summer:
By August 1st, when I go back to work I will email my advisors a complete annotated biliography.
By October 1st, I want an outline of what I think my thesis might look like. NB: my outline does not count if it’s only written on a post-it note. Even one of those really gigantic post-it-notes.
If you too are getting ready to start researching a gigantic paper check out the University of Central Florida’s Online Chicago Style Guide I also recommend Zotero for formatting footnotes.
Image Courtesy of LonelyPlanet.com