Thesis Do's and Don't's

Advice is easier dispensed than adopted. Still, in the hopes of helping others avoid some of the mistakes I made, I urge all potential thesis-writers to consider the following list of things to do and not to do when writing a thesis. First of all,

Do start thinking about thesis topics early-by sophomore spring, if not before. This is the most important stage of the whole process; if you pick a topic you don't really like or care much about, you'll have many unpleasant days and nights ahead. Don't panic, though, if you're still not happy with your topic by the summer before your senior year. Excepting theses that require summer research or long-term planning, it is feasible to radically change your topic until well into senior fall. To prevent the need to switch, though,

Dotalk through possible topics with professors, TF's, other students and friends. Even consider keeping a thesis journal as you go. Don't scan aimlessly through old magazines and random books looking for inspiration to strike. I tried it, and it was an entertaining waste of time. You're much more likely to run across a topic while researching a paper for a class in your area of interest. Which brings up an important method for choosing a topic:

Do consider expanding a paper you wrote for a seminar or other course. It makes perfect sense to go back to your favorite paper from your college career; you know a lot about the subject, you know you find it interesting and you'll have a chunk of material to get you off the ground. That said, don't expect to use much of it in the end; by your 200th rewrite, not much of what you wrote in three nights last reading period will be left intact. To have a paper that you might reasonably expand into a thesis, however,

Do take seminars, tutorials and lecture courses requiring research papers early on in your Harvard years in fields that interest you. That is, don't fill up your sophomore schedule with Cores and other random large lecture courses--when thesis time rolls around, all that cocktail-party knowledge will seem more useless than ever. Once you have a topic,

Do find a supervisor who you like, who is knowledgeable in your field and who seems to care a lot about the project. Don't stress too much, however; for better or worse, you're going to have to take a good bit of initiative no matter who's there to help. Over the summer before senior year,

Do think about your thesis every now and then. If need be, conduct your interviews and surveys; or, if you are motivated to do so, start reading up on background material. But don't ruin your summer stressing. If you never opened a thesis-related book from May to September--if your thesis never crossed your mind--it wouldn't make much difference in the long run. Enjoy your travels, your work or your play; the more rested you are by summer's end, the better you'll be able to tackle the task ahead of you. When you've settled in and picked your fall classes,

Do get to work, slowly but surely. Particularly if you have a lot of reading ahead of you, set deadlines with your supervisor and write short sections as you go; the more you write in your own words, the more you'll know where the thesis is headed. Still, don't forget to enjoy your extracurriculars, find post-college employment, have a social life, meet new people, go to class. On the whole, if you do at least as much reading and writing as a seminar with a light workload would require, you will be fine. In January,

Do give adequate time and attention to your finals and final papers for your other courses. Doing unnecessarily poorly in your classes will hurt you academically and be demoralizing as you begin to hit your thesis stride. Besides, you don't want to get so obsessed with your thesis that you fail to benefit from the rest of your education. On that note, when picking spring classes,

Do keep in mind this is your last semester at Harvard and your classes will be with you after your thesis is done. No, don't take a class with a professor who refuses to give you an extension on the 15-page paper due the same day as your thesis. But also don't eliminate a class just because it has a midterm early on. When you're done with your thesis it's not pleasant to face three postponed midterms, eight papers and finals worth 65 percent or more of the course grade--especially if you only took the classes in the first place so that you could focus on your thesis, and you're not really interested in the material. As the second semester gets underway,

Dobegin to let your thesis dominate your life. It is normal, if not healthy, to minimize your extracurricular commitments, put little effort into other classes and become something of a hermit. But don't forget to take breaks and have fun. In the end, whether you get a magna or magna plus will depend more on how unique your topic is, how good a writer you are and who your readers are than on whether you stayed in that night in February instead of going out to drink or see a movie with your roommates. When the weeks start to roll by and deadline day is in sight,

Dokeep working diligently; if you don't put in a good effort down the stretch, you won't be as relieved when it's all over. But don't quit eating, sleeping or exercising. It won't help your concentration, and it's just not worth it. And when it's all over, your thesis is in and you're on Spring Break,

Dostop and reflect on your thesis-writing experience, and what it revealed (positively and negatively) about your study habits and ability to manage a large project. And don't forget the advice you got from your family and friends, your supervisor, even Crimson columnists; after all, you're going to need something to put in the acknowledgments.