Bright ideas from Dr. Kidd

Who would have thought that a master's thesis would become the proverbial dough/yeast combination that grows exponentially.

Of course, early on the vast majority of my time was spent on research.  I just assumed I would reach a point where my interest would be satiated and then the writing would flow.  For the most part that is true, however, new questions constantly seemed to come to mind leading me one direction or the other.  With regards to Brother Juan I seemed to work backwards from Japan; why Japan? Why Xavier? Why India? Why the Jesuits? Why Portugal? How did this young Spaniard end up in all these places? As a Jesuit? With Xavier?

I had many concerns but one was to be intellectually honest.  I was for some reason mindful that someday a history professor would read my paper and I dreaded the thought that it would be perceived as amateurish.

But one day Dr. Kidd gave me two bits of good advice; right when I needed them most.  The first was that yes, I needed to know all this background information, but my readers don't! In my writing, I'd been explaining details that no one really needed to know.  If my readers are the graduate committee, I should just assume that they are familiar with the topic and merely mentioning, even hinting at details or aspects of historical record is enough.  Indeed, for all my concern for being perceived as amateurish, writing at such as detailed level is something an amateur would do!

The second bit of advice that Dr. Kidd gave me was to read other student's M.A. papers.  I knew that this was something I should be doing, but put off thinking that I needed to concentrate of other (more important) things.  Up until recently I have been reading reading only academic research articles thinking that this is the standard I need to measure up to.  A couple of weeks ago I read a paper written by a Stanford professor.  This woman has been a professor for over twenty-five years. The topic she wrote on is very sophisticated, her analysis is tremendous, even her vocabulary is breathtaking.

A USC reference librarian showed me how to access M.A. thesis papers online.  When I finally starting reading I realized that there was a tremendous difference between graduate school level thesis papers and published research articles.  This graduate students were very much like me!  The   writing is good, but not supreme.  The level of analysis is also good, but not necessarily superior.  The vocabulary is good as well, but I am not constantly reaching for my pocket dictionary like I might with published works; books, articles, and essays.

This realization took a lot of pressure off me.  My thesis really only needs to be 50-60 pages to be sufficient.  To be honest, right now I've got about 150 written pages, although most of it will never be used.  More than ever, I have this real appreciation for a well-written 50 page paper that is logical, organized, concise, well researched, where my arguments are well supported.  I think everyone would be happy with just that.

The one thing that I can bring to the paper that is uniquely me is a real enthusiasm for the subject matter.  A paper written by Sarah Lawrence College grad student Christa De'Angelica entitled Beyond Bikini Kill: A History of riot grrrl, from grrrls to ladies, is a good example.  The paper is about an aspect of girls in the punk rock movement.  It is an interesting paper, but, more than anything, I just admire her enthusiasm for her topic.  I wonder if in the end, that is all that one brings with their paper; their love, fascination, and enthusiasm for the topic.