{"id":553,"date":"2010-12-29T10:55:33","date_gmt":"2010-12-29T08:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.military-history.us\/?p=553"},"modified":"2010-12-29T10:56:49","modified_gmt":"2010-12-29T08:56:49","slug":"the-actual-writing-of-a-thesis-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/2010\/12\/the-actual-writing-of-a-thesis-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Actual Writing of a Thesis-Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

I rediscovered the importance of an outline over the past few days of working on my thesis. Idiot me did not do an outline as I have one for all my papers in the past both undergrad and Graduate level. I have no idea why I thought i could tackle a project as large as Master’s Thesis with only a Table of Contents to use as a guide. I say rediscovered because I started writing and after about 20 pages I realized I have essentially been wasting my time because I tend to ramble when I do not have something to keep me focused.
\nAfter I realized I was rambling I stopped and took a brief break to figure out what I was doing wrong and how I could fix it. That is when it struck me that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have an outline. It was definitely a V-8\/face palm \"\"\"\"<\/a>\"\"moment. I then settled down and decided to write an outline.<\/p>\n

I started using outlines when I was working on my undergrad and they have stood me in good stead. I use MSWord to write with and currently have Office2010 installed. When I outline I use the standard bullet format from Word and just tab to include sub-levels in chapters or sections; I also end to use colors to differentiate main ideas from subsidiary ones. Using colors drives my wife crazy because she thinks colors just clutter up the view. I guess my take on it is that people should do whatever works best for them. I find that using an outline ensures that I stay on track when I am writing and do not start to drift off into irrelevancies. Below is an example of the kind of outlines I generally make. This is an outline from a paper I wrote for my undergrad; the final paper itself is also posted on the this site<\/a> so if you like you can compare the outline to the final product. \u00a0 The original file with all the colors is here as a PDF: MH 328_Term Paper Outline<\/a><\/p>\n

The Battle of Buena Vista, February 22-23, 1847:\u00c2\u00a0 A Study<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thesis Statement:\u00c2\u00a0 The United States victory in the Battle of Buena Vista was the result of better use of the terrain and a greater understanding of what the troops were capable of by the American commander General Zachary Taylor. <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

a. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Briefly describe the battle<\/p>\n

b. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Thesis Statement:\u00c2\u00a0 The United States victory in the Battle of Buena Vista was the result of better use of the terrain and a greater understanding of what the troops were capable of by the American commander General Zachary Taylor.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Main Body<\/p>\n

a. <\/strong>The Armies<\/strong><\/p>\n

i. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 American<\/p>\n

ii. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Mexican<\/p>\n

b. <\/strong>The Battlefield<\/strong><\/p>\n

i. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Terrain<\/p>\n

ii. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Dispositions<\/p>\n

c. <\/strong>The Battle<\/strong><\/p>\n

i. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Phase One:\u00c2\u00a0 Initial Mexican Attack<\/p>\n

ii. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Phase two:\u00c2\u00a0 American Defense<\/p>\n

iii. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Phase Three:\u00c2\u00a0 Final Mexican Attack<\/p>\n

iv. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Phase Three:\u00c2\u00a0 American Counterattack<\/p>\n

v. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Phase Four:\u00c2\u00a0 Mexican Retreat & Defeat<\/p>\n

d. <\/strong>Reason for Victory and Defeat<\/strong><\/p>\n

i. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Mexican Loss<\/p>\n

ii. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 American Victory<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Conclusion<\/p>\n

a. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Restate rationale for American victory<\/p>\n

b. \u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Restate thesis<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I rediscovered the importance of an outline over the past few days of working on my thesis. Idiot me did not do an outline as I have one for all my papers in the past both undergrad and Graduate level…. Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,9],"tags":[48,1007,34,23,33,11],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historiography","category-thesis-research-and-rambles","tag-academics","tag-historiography","tag-methodology","tag-research","tag-scholarship","tag-thesis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}