A quick post mortem of the thesis

[hmpf]

- The title does not accurately describe the content.

- The attempt at contextualisation is rubbish. I'm making a lot of words while saying very little that's actually useful to someone who really doesn't know the field(s). It's essentially name dropping without (most of) the names – saying “I know this and this and this sub-section of literature/society/... exists,” but not saying anything beyond that.

- The chapter on the comic's publishing history and the attempt to give a short overview of general themes etc. is too short, and doesn't have the right kind of information, and is thus sort of useless.

- The terms of the discussion are not properly defined.

- The main part of the discussion does not follow a consistent system/structure. There are three sub-sections that each have four sub-sub-sections, which makes it look as if there's some kind of system there, but there isn't. The four sub-sub-sections are not the same for each of the three sub-sections.

- Chapter 6, “Boundaries of the Human,” is not properly connected to... anything. It just kind of floats in there. It's conveniently mostly left out of the conclusion, as well, so I'm really not sure what it's doing in the thesis at all. Ah, yes. I found it too interesting to cut. That's why it's still there. But it doesn't fulfil a purpose.

- The conclusion ignores chapter 6 (see above.) Also, neither the conclusion nor the discussion preceding it manages to take a step back and look at what it all means to a reader in the context of our own society.

Comments

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

As the only person commenting likely to have READ it, I would like to respectfully tell you to shut up and stop worrying.

It's done now. And hey, at I may know nothing about academics, but I liked it a lot. Worrying will solve nothing.

Plus, it was a hell of a lot better than MY thesis, for sure.

I'm not worrying!

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

If I was worrying, I'd have used the "worried" LJ emotion kitty. ;-)

I just figured that now that it's done and I've read it a couple of times, and noticed several flaws, I should make a note of those flaws. Part of learning how to write/think/argue better is analysing what you did wrong in previous attempts, isn't it?

Also,

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

your thesis was a part of a novel, wasn't it? Apples. Oranges.

Really, I'm not too worried. Even with the flaws, if *I* had to grade my thesis I'd probably give it a 2- at this point (that's "good, but not great"), which is not really something to worry about. And university here in Germany has so far had a tendency to grade me slightly better than I would grade myself.

Re: Also,

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear your not worrying. I do understand wanting to note stuff like that down, but I wanted to check it wasn't a destructive impulse. I'm sure you'll do fine and am pleased that even with your tendency to be very self-critical you're fairly sure you'll do just fine.

Which is awesome. Because, dude, YOU DID IT. You wrote your thesis. It's finished. YOU DID IT.

(Also, my thesis was a novella; I think you even read it - huh so we've read each others' theses! Which, yes, apples and oranges, but believe me, I could write a whole hell of a lot more than this if I was trying to note down all the flaws I think that story had... o_O So I guess it's probably just a normal impulse, but after watching you work so hard on it, I'm still going to tap you on the head and remind you that YOU DID GOOD.)

[ommadon.livejournal.com]

Meh, sounds like every other thesis I've ever read. Wouldn't let it bother you!

[mikes-grrl.livejournal.com]

Meh, sounds like every other thesis I've ever read.

Truth. With a side helping of "if your advisor doesn't see it, it doesn't exist." *nods*

[space-oddity-75.livejournal.com]

Seconded, thirded and fourthed (LOL). *nods as well*

I'm not particularly bothered.

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Although yes, I *did* hope I'd be able to do better. Because I actually do have this perhaps misguided belief that I have some talent for this kind of thing. I feel like I lived up neither to the source material nor to my own potential here, which is a bit disappointing. Anyway, at this stage I'm just relieved it's over.

[amonitrate.livejournal.com]

What do you think it does well? That's also important to note!

and congrats for finishing it. I know how hard you've worked.

What it does well...

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that it technically does anything particularly well. It *describes* a lot of interesting stuff (when I proof-read it I kept getting distracted from the actual detail-checking because it was so interesting *g*), but most of that is a function of its being based on a comic that *contains* lots of interesting stuff. I just collected all the interesting aspects and tried to systematise them a bit, and work out some of the connecting lines. I didn't actually do a lot of deeper analysis, nor did I manage to structure everything particularly well.

I kind of hope the readers will also be distracted from the flaws by all the interesting details. *g*

[dashan.livejournal.com]

Hey, Du bist es los, Du hast es endlich geschafft! :D *sisterhug*
Und selbst wenn DU mit Deiner Arbeit rundum zufrieden wärst (was Du ja nie bist!), würde vielleicht noch jemand anders ein Haar in der Suppe finden. Genauso andersrum. Jemand, der Deine Arbeit bewertet und sich nie so so so so tief ins Thema eingearbeitet hat wie Du (und den gibt es nicht, führ Dir das immer wieder vor Augen!), fallen viele Dinge wahrscheinlich so gar nicht auf.

Also bitte, der Ausgang, sprich die Bewertung, ist einigermaßen, nicht ungewiss, aber doch nicht zu 100 % vorhersehbar.

Genieß das Leben, wenigstens für ein paar Tage, ja? Du hast es Dir wirklich verdient.

Die Bewertung...

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

ist mir gar nicht so wichtig. Ich find's nur etwas schade, daß ich einige so heftige Fehler gemacht habe, weil ich schon irgendwie *eigentlich* weiß, wie man's besser macht.

>Genieß das Leben, wenigstens für ein paar Tage, ja?

Heh. Dazu fehlt mir im Moment die Energie. ;-) Ich habe allerdings ohne allzu großes schlechtes Gewissen mehrere Tage nur rumgehangen, was vermutlich genau das war, was ich jetzt brauchte.

Dummerweise muß ich morgen um acht zum Zahnarzt... auf Aufstehen um sieben bin ich ja im Moment so gaaaar nicht scharf... bzw. weiß nicht mal, ob ich das im Moment überhaupt noch kann, lol!