Slogging Away

I AM graduating this semester. There's no reason for me not to. I've applied for graduation, paid my fees, picked up my regalia, turned in my forms. What's left? Oh yeah, my thesis.

I really love talking about my thesis. I've read a lot, learned a lot, and thought a lot. Now it's time to get it all out on PAPER. So I've been alternating reading and writing.

I met up with my adviser last week, and we set up some deadlines. I modified them to give myself a better cushion, but here they are:

March 2: turn in a chapter
March 23: turn in two more chapters + syllabi drafts
April 1: Complete draft due
May 1: final copies turned into the graduate school

Now, my adviser wanted me to turn in a complete draft on on April 15. But the thought of only having two weeks to scrape together my defense, revise and edit, etc. terrified me, so I moved the date up on myself. If I can get a complete rough draft to my adviser on April 1st, I'll be doing well. And also can possibly set up my defense; we'll, of course, have to see about that.

I'm slogging away at it. Right now, I'm shooting to get about 15 pages of writing per chapter, since I figure I'll add a lot more as I revise and edit. I'm also still doing research, so I'll add more in as I go. Then I'll have the syllabi, course assignments, and many appendices, so that should flesh it out to a tidy length.

The end is in sight--I just need to get to work!