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Plan the writing
When you start thinking about writing your thesis, it is helpful to devise a plan.
This will indicate the material that you propose to cover in each chapter and an approximate amount of time that you will allocate to each section. This is, of course, a preliminary plan, and it may well change as you progress through your candidature. Actually working out this thesis outline can be very exciting, since it gives a structure and form to an idea. It helps construct the meaning in the thesis and provides you with projected stages and milestones.
A useful approach:
- Write an initial "Table of Contents" page with headings and subheadings.
- Now, try to assess how much time you will need for each section, and write down the projected start and finish dates for each chapter. (You won't necessarily write the chapters in the order in which they appear in the plan. It does not really matter where you start writing; it is a good idea to discuss the order of your writing with your supervisor.)
This will give you an idea of how your thesis will look, the aspects that it will address, how the work will develop from the introduction to the concluding chapter, and how each part will connect to the next.
This is your first map to guide your journey
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