How to Write a BA Thesis, Second Edition: A Practical Guide from Your First Ideas to Your Finished Paper

By Charles Lipson

How to Write a BA Thesis is the only book that directly addresses the needs of undergraduate students writing a major paper. This book offers step-by-step advice on how to move from early ideas to finished paper. It covers choosing a topic, selecting an advisor, writing a proposal, conducting research, developing an argument, writing and editing the thesis, and making through a defense. Lipson also acknowledges the challenges that arise when tackling such a project, and he offers advice for breaking through writer’s block and juggling school-life demands. This is a must-read for anyone writing a BA thesis, or for anyone who advises these students.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Release date: Dec 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9780226431079

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How to Write a BA Thesis

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How to Write a BA Thesis

A PRACTICAL GUIDE FROM YOUR FIRST IDEAS TO YOUR FINISHED PAPER

SECOND EDITION

Charles Lipson

The University of Chicago Press

CHICAGO AND LONDON

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

© 2005, 2018 by Charles Lipson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.

Published 2018

Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN: 978-0-226-43091-1 (paper)

ISBN: 978-0-226-43107-9 (e-book)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226431079.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lipson, Charles, author.

Title: How to write a BA thesis : a practical guide from your first ideas to your finished paper / Charles Lipson.

Other titles: Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing.

Description: Second edition. | Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2018.

Series: Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing

Identifiers: LCCN 2018021879 | ISBN 9780226430911 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226431079 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Dissertations, Academic—Authorship. | Academic writing.

Classification: LCC LB2369 .L54 2018 | DDC 808/.042—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018021879

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper).

To my sons, Michael and Jonathan

CONTENTS

I. GETTING STARTED

How to Read This Book

1  Introduction to How to Write a BA Thesis, Second Edition

2  Useful Nuts and Bolts

3  More Nuts and Bolts

II. FRAMING YOUR TOPIC

4  Taking Effective Notes and Avoiding Plagiarism

5  How to Build a Reading List

6  Refining Your Topic, Writing a Proposal, and Beginning Research

III. CONDUCTING YOUR RESEARCH

7  What Is Good Thesis Research?

8  Using Case Studies Effectively

9  Every Thesis Should Have a Thesis

IV. WRITING YOUR BEST

10  Planning and Prewriting: How Do They Help Your Thesis?

11  Writing Your Best

12  Effective Openings, Smooth Transitions, and Strong Closings

13  Good Editing Makes Good Writing

14  Presenting Information Visually

15  Presenting Your Work to Others

V. WORKING YOUR BEST

16  Working Efficiently

17  Overcoming Problems

18  What to Do If You Get Stuck

VI. SCHEDULING AND COMPLETING YOUR THESIS

19  Thesis Schedule

20  Tips and Reminders

21  Frequently Asked Questions

22  What to Do When You’re All Done

VII. DEALING WITH SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

23  Thesis Defense and Second Readers: Questions and Answers

24  A One-Semester Thesis

VIII. CITING YOUR SOURCES AND GETTING MORE ADVICE

Appendix 1: Best Sources for More Help

Appendix 2: Footnotes 101

Appendix 3: Advice for New Faculty Advisers

Acknowledgments

Index

Footnotes

I

Getting Started

FOR ALL STUDENTS: READ IN MONTH 1

HOW TO READ THIS BOOK

This is a practical guidebook, designed to help you through every stage of your thesis project, beginning with your earliest ideas about writing one. It helps you turn those tentative ideas into a workable project, then a draft paper, and ultimately a polished final version. As a friendly adviser, it will walk alongside you each step of the way.

Completing a thesis is a substantial project, one that most students find both challenging and rewarding. The most rewarding part, students say, is picking your own subject and reaching your own conclusions. You reach them by doing independent research, writing about it, and discussing your ideas with your adviser.

As you begin, though, the thought of actually finishing this project might seem like a distant goal, perhaps even an unreachable one. In fact, you can reach it, and you can teach yourself a great deal in the process. I’ll offer suggestions and support at every stage.

The early chapters of this book will help you launch this project on solid footing. They focus on

•  collecting ideas for a thesis

•  picking an adviser

•  writing a proposal

•  starting background reading on your topic

•  taking useful notes on your readings

•  turning broad ideas into a sharply defined thesis topic

They are covered in chapters 1–6.

You’ll be doing all these during the first couple of months of your senior year; that’s when you should read chapters 1–6 too. This schedule assumes that your thesis will take two semesters. If it’s a one-semester project, you need to do the same tasks on a swifter schedule. Chapter 24 offers some ideas about how to do that and provides an abbreviated work schedule.

The middle chapters of this book accompany the middle months of your thesis project, approximately months 3–5, or possibly 3–6, depending on your school’s schedule. These chapters concentrate on

•  devising a research strategy

•  conducting focused research

•  planning your thesis in more detail

•  dividing your overall topic into major sections for your paper

•  sorting your research into these sections

•  adding your own ideas to your book notes (a process I call prewriting)

•  shaping this prewriting into a draft of your middle sections (that is, everything but the introduction and conclusion)

•  starting to write your introduction and conclusion (since they give an overview of the entire project, it’s best to begin them after you have drafted the middle sections)

For help with all these aspects of your thesis, read chapters 7 and 9–13.

Three other chapters (8, 14, and 15) cover related issues, but ones that aren’t relevant to every thesis. Chapter 8 explains how to study individual cases in depth, a common method in the social sciences. Chapter 14 explains how to use maps, graphs, and other visual materials. If you are not using case studies or visual materials, you can skip these chapters. (There’s a brief instruction at the top of each chapter saying when to read it, such as Month 1 or Month 5, and whether every student needs to do so or only students working on a particular type of thesis.) Chapter 15 deals with presenting your draft research to your thesis seminar, something you may be asked to do. The feedback you get can really improve your final draft.

Chapter 16 discusses everyday issues of working efficiently on your project, everything from study habits to writing. If you have any special problems along the way, such as procrastination, sleep difficulties, or personal issues, you will find chapters 17 and 18 helpful and supportive.

As you turn the final corner on your thesis, you will be

•  filling in gaps in your research

•  refining your introduction and conclusion

•  editing and polishing the whole thesis

These tasks should take about three or four weeks. Set aside the time. Doing a good job on them will make your thesis much stronger.

There are no new chapters to read at this stage. You’ve already covered them. Still, you may find it helpful to revisit some chapters as you complete your work. After you’ve finished most of your research, for instance, you’ll probably discover a few gaps you need to fill. That’s covered in earlier chapters on doing research. You’ll probably be working on your opening and closing sections, which are covered in chapter 12. You’ll need to edit and polish your text. That, too, has been covered—in chapter 13, on editing. Just review these earlier chapters as you move into the final stages of your thesis.

Every chapter has useful tips, all of them specially marked, to assist your research and writing. The most important ones are pulled together in chapter 20, which serves as a summary of the book’s main ideas. A related chapter (21) answers some frequently asked questions (FAQs). To help you stay on top of the various tasks, I’ve included a checklist at the end of most chapters.

Several chapters also have time schedules. They give you a sense of how you should be moving through the various tasks and approximately how long each one should take. Chapter 19 reviews the time schedule for the whole project. Using this schedule as a guide, you can draft a customized schedule of your own, one that suits your pace and your project.

Tip: To get a quick overview of the book and its main recommendations, read chapters 19 and 20.

•  Chapter 19 gives a general schedule for completing a thesis and explains the main tasks at each stage.

•  Chapter 20 brings together the most important tips for working on the project.

By reading them early, you’ll have a clear sense of how to move forward through successive stages of planning, research, and writing.

After you’ve handed in your thesis, you still have a few small tasks left to do:

•  thanking your adviser

•  getting a good recommendation for future jobs or graduate school

Those are covered in chapter 22.

Some schools add special requirements to the thesis project. One is a thesis defense, where you explain your findings to several faculty members and answer their questions. Other schools require that your thesis be approved by a second faculty member, in addition to your adviser. Chapter 19 explains how to prepare for a thesis defense and pick a second reader.

Some students need to write a thesis in only one semester, either because of their own schedules or because of the school’s requirements. Chapter 24 provides an accelerated timeline for doing that. It offers some concrete suggestions for speeding up your work, and some ideas about what not to speed up.

I’ve also added some useful items in three appendices. The first lists the best places to turn for additional help. If you want to read another book about writing or editing, for example, you can find it there.

The second appendix explains how to prepare footnotes, endnotes, and citations, using the three main styles: Chicago (from The Chicago Manual of Style), MLA, and APA. It covers each in detail and shows exactly how to cite books, articles, chapters, websites, and much more. With this appendix you should be able to handle all your thesis references.

A third appendix is intended for new faculty members who are supervising their first thesis projects. Most of it mirrors the advice given to students, but seen this time from the professor’s side of the desk.

Taken together, these chapters and appendices provide a full road map for your thesis project and specific guidance for moving successfully from your earliest ideas to a polished final paper. They are not a substitute for working closely with your thesis adviser. Quite the contrary. It is important for you to work well together. I offer suggestions about how to do that, sprinkled across several chapters. The goal, in every case, is to help you work more productively—with your thesis adviser and on your own.

Most of all, I hope this guide will help you write your own best thesis.

TIMELINE FOR READING THIS BOOK

SUMMARY OF BOOKʼS MAIN POINTS

15  Thesis Schedule

16  Tips and Reminders

TO READ AS NEEDED

8  Using Case Studies Effectively

14  Presenting Information Visually (maps, photos, tables, graphs)

15  Presenting Your Work to Others

17  Overcoming Problems (such as insomnia, procrastination)

18  What to Do If You Get Stuck

21  Frequently Asked Questions

23  Thesis Defense and Second Readers

24  A One-Semester Thesis

Appendix 1: Best Sources for More Help

Appendix 2: Footnotes 101 (citations in three major styles)

TO READ AFTER COMPLETING THESIS

22  What to Do When You’re All Done

FOR FACULTY

Appendix 3: Advice for New Faculty Advisers

FOR ALL STUDENTS: READ IN MONTH 1

1

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.

Tip: The best way to complete a longer project like a BA thesis is to

•  break it down into separate tasks, such as the literature review or methodology section, then

•  write each section as a separate, stand-along paper, and finally

•  link them together into one longer paper.

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

Now let’s get started.

FOR ALL STUDENTS: READ IN MONTH 1

2

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.

Tip: Take advanced courses in your field. You’ll explore important issues, learn the best methods to study them, identify research topics, and develop skills for writing a thesis. In fact, the more advanced courses you take in your area, the more research papers you have written, the more skills you’ll have.

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.

Tip: Ask about courses outside your major that complement your interests. Not only will they enrich your education, but they can help you discover new questions, new methods, and new angles to explore your thesis topic.

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.

Tip: Before beginning your thesis, take some courses that require research papers. They might be the seeds of a thesis project. Even if they’re not, they’ll give you valuable experience in researching and writing.

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.

Tip: To collect potential ideas for a thesis, set up a computer file (and perhaps a manila folder as well).

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.

Tip: Be sure to back up your thesis research and writing files. Start doing it as soon as you set up the initial folders. A good cloud service is your best choice.

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.

Tip: Remind yourself to keep adding material to your thesis ideas file. Fill it with

•  brief notes and comments on articles you’ve read

•  questions that interest you

•  any ideas that suggest possible paper topics

Tip: Make it a habit to put notes in your thesis ideas file. A little informal writing is good practice and will develop your ideas. Review these notes occasionally and see if they prompt still more thoughts. Cull the ones that no longer interest you.

From now on, jot down any ideas you might want to delve into. Do it as you take notes in class, read assignments, or write seminar papers. Just add them to your thesis ideas file. That’s exactly what professional writers do: they keep a file of ideas for their next project. It’s easy, and it works. The only trick is to make it a habit.

Every so often, review your file, see what still intrigues you, and toss out what no longer does. See if your ideas fall into two or three groups, and if they do, organize them that way, under a few major topic headings. If a few ideas keep cropping up—the same basic themes in different dress—make a special note of that. Bounce ideas around with professors and friends. Don’t hoard them; share them. Debate them. As you do, you will understand your own ideas better and come up with still more. Write them down too. It can become a virtuous circle, as your thoughts build on each other. Equally important, it will become easy and natural to write about them.

Behind this playfulness is a serious purpose. One of the most meaningful—and difficult—elements of your thesis project is formulating your own topic. Professors could easily assign topics to students, but they are reluctant to do so for a very good reason. Handing out assignments would cast aside one of the main educational aspects of writing a thesis: picking your own topic.

Choosing your own topic makes the thesis different from any course you have ever taken. All of those courses define the subject matter for you. Take seminar papers, for example. If the course is about Jane Austen, you can’t write about Emily Dickinson. Your thesis is different because you have so much freedom. This freedom is challenging, as freedom often is, but it also makes your thesis the most personal part of your education. You can define the range of subjects that interest you and then, working with a faculty adviser, select your own topic.

Later we’ll talk about how to choose a topic and refine it. For now, what matters is to figure out your interests and generate some ideas worth pursuing. Remember, challenging as it is to pick a topic, doing it is one of the most important learning experiences of writing a thesis.

Note: Choosing your own topic, one that matters to you, makes your thesis different from any class you have taken. Your faculty advisers can help you shape the topic and narrow it, but only you know what truly interests you.

PICKING AN ADVISER

With your thesis file set up, a few ideas percolating, and some advanced courses under your belt, you are ready to look for a thesis adviser, probably toward the end of your junior year or, at the latest, the beginning of senior year.

Tip: Start looking for a thesis adviser during the latter part of your junior year or, at the latest, early in your senior year.

So what makes a good thesis adviser? Better yet, what makes a good thesis adviser for you? Two criteria stand out above all others. Your adviser should know your thesis subfield. And you should feel comfortable, intellectually and personally, with your adviser. Everything else is secondary.

Tip: Pick an adviser who is

•  comfortable for you to work with

•  an expert in your area of interest

Your adviser will work with you as a one-on-one teacher: a tutor and mentor. He or she will help you shape your topic, select the best background readings, find the most useful data, and use the right research methods. You will go to the faculty member’s office every week or two to discuss your progress. Most times you’ll hand in some writing and get some feedback. You’ll hash out your latest ideas and leave with directions for the next steps to take. These meetings are often brief, but they are vital.

Just listing all the adviser’s responsibilities makes it clear why you want someone who is a good teacher, someone you feel comfortable with and eager to learn from.

Fortunately, it’s easy to find out whether your prospective adviser is a good teacher. Just read student evaluations and ask other students in your department. What you hope to find is a professor who excels in small groups and one on one. That’s more important than being a great lecturer, at least for thesis advising. Does she make time for students, read papers promptly, and give helpful advice? Are her interests narrow and her approach rigid? Or does she have an open-minded interest in lots of issues?

The best evaluations come from students who have written seminar papers in your major and from seniors who are completing theses. Seek them out during your junior year. It’s worth the extra effort. They will know this more personal dimension of advisers’ abilities. Ask them which advisers are good and which ones are good riddance.

In addition to these teaching skills, there is one more critical dimension to your choice: your adviser’s professional expertise. What is the professor’s specialty?

PICK AN ADVISER WHO SPECIALIZES IN YOUR TOPIC

Let’s say you want to write a thesis on marketing plans for a small business. You suspect, rightly, that all business professors know a little something about marketing and small businesses. That’s part of their broad professional training, just as all professors of Spanish literature know something about Don Quixote. But you should seek something more: an adviser who knows your specific subject well. Otherwise you’re tilting at windmills. In this case, you want a professor who specializes in entrepreneurship or marketing, or, if you are lucky, both.

Tip: Learn how your major is organized into specialties and who are the best thesis advisers in your area of interest.

To find the right expertise for your thesis, you need to know how your major is organized. Every subject has its own specialties and faculty members who are experts in them. What are the usual academic specialties in your major? Which professors concentrate on which topics? Learn the lay of the land before you pick an adviser.

Some fields are divided into a few clear-cut categories. Political science, for instance, has four or five major subfields, such as American politics. Within that, however, some faculty know more about US voting behavior, others about Congress, and still others about courts and law enforcement. If several professors specialize in your general area, ask around to find out which ones are the best teachers and the most attentive mentors. It helps to know this terrain when you choose a thesis adviser.

Some departments have many more specialties than political science. Historians usually concentrate on a specific period within a specific country. This intersection of times and locations forms a kind of grid: Italy during the Renaissance, colonial India in the nineteenth century, Mexico in the twentieth, and so on. In other fields,