I’ve been working pretty much solidly on my thesis research for the best part of week. By the end of today I will have clocked up around about 23 hours of research work. I’m rather pleased that I managed to get that much done, considering I also did three days of paying work, and managed to run and exercise nearly every night.
However, I’m increasingly worried that I have left my ‘attack run’ slightly late. My thesis is due on June the 1st, and I’m really only getting into the primary source research side of things. I also have to have some sort of presentation due at the end of March. What this means is that I have to be working between 25 and 30 hours per week on getting this done. My scheduled goals thus far is:
- By the end of January ‘07 - Have a substantial amount of primary source research done and cataloged. Have exact topic and refined hypothesis set out. Be able to identify where my ideas can ‘add something new to the existing body of knowledge’ concerning my topic.
- By the end of February ‘07 - Have a general idea of thesis structure, and have reviewed significant secondary source material and identify areas of thought not accounted in the secondary material. This is where my primary source research indicates something not considered, or even contradicted, in the secondary source material. A great deal of secondary source material will have to be processed.
- By the end of March ‘07 - Thesis structure confirmed, and tentative writing process to begin. Prepare for thesis presentation seminar. Revise chapter 1, historiography etc. etc.
- By the end of April ‘07 - Drafting process well under way, with hopefully one draft reviewed by my supervisor.
- By mid May 07 - Draft completed, and rewrite of the draft well underway in preparation for a final version.
- By the week before due date - Final version completed. Final editing and ‘holes’ plugged up.
June 01, 2007 - Hand in completed version.
My topic is concerned with Phrenology in 19th Century America. I’m reviewing a great body of primary source material in the format of 19th century periodicals (which are all on microfilm). My area of interest is how phrenology is consistent, or inconsistent, with the science v religion conflict that was so dominant around that time. I would like to track how phrenology interacted with more establish religion, for instance evangelical protestantism, and contrast it with its interaction with emerging faiths - like spiritualism and mormonism. I’m still yet to form a solid idea about the nature of this interaction.
For those who don’t know, Phrenology was a pseudo-science ‘of the mind’. It was basically a science that tried to predict the nature of humans via the marks on their cranium, the shape of their head, combined with their personality traits. In many ways, its the precursor of pyschology, and also ideas on the evolution of human beings.
By writing this down, I’ve just confirmed that I have quite a lot of work to do! Sounds daunting, but I cannot wait to have it over and done with. I’m lucky that I did quite a bit of work back in June ‘06, submitting an assignment that will hopefully serve as the basis for at least 1/4 of my final piece. However, it does need quite a bit of revision.
Anyway, thats a neat summary of week one of concentrated study. I’ll be back next week with a follow up.
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