Journey of a Thesis: It's not just a paper

Well it has been approximately 1.75 years since I have started the thesis journey.  I have been so lucky to have ample support throughout this journey, but I have come to realize that many people do not know what the process is for writing a thesis.  (I wish I would have known when I decided to do this option for my degree, my decision might have been different!).   I am about to explain the logistical side of writing a thesis, and I will enter my own commentary as necessary :-)



First step: Passion + Ideas
In order  to write a thesis, I believe the first step is to find an issue you care about.  That really is the beauty of it, for the first time in your education history you get to choose the topic, whatever you fancy.  I was inspired to take the thesis option for my program after attending "Celebrate Woman," and event sponsored by SIU to highlight successful women on campus in areas of liberal arts, sciences, and beyond.  I remember sitting there in admiration as established professors and graduate students receieved rewards for work they were doing in their field. I wanted to be like them. So I went to my advisor, Dr. P., and told her I had the intentions of writing a thesis and getting my Ph.D. (Insert chuckle....a Ph.D is not my intention any longer).  Passion...check.

Idea...so I knew I was interested in women's rights within sport.  Being a post-collegiate athlete I felt as if I could relate to the experiences female athletes had and could bring change to make those experiences better.  Due to my own personal struggles, I initially chose eating disorders for athletes as a topic to study. (Weird psychology, I wanted to be an expert on my own struggles).  I took a readings course with Dr. P. which was basically surveying the literature already published on this topic.  I discovered that eating disorders for female athletes is well researched and there wasn't much opportunity to add anything new to the body of knowledge.  So I looked at body image issues as a whole and became interested in how female athletes manage their muscularity.  I loved lifting weights in college, and I remember that was something that my teammates detested.  Also, I hear a lot about Chris' experiences with coaching female athletes and he is continually having to convince women to put weight on the bar, or trick them into it :-). So the idea was born, and after checking what has been published, there was a gap in the research.  Research question: How do female collegiate athletes negotiate their muscularity and femininity withing the strength and conditioning environment.

Step two: Stare at a blank word document for 3 months in paralyzing fear and panic
Oh crap, what did I just do? Whose idea was this anyway? 
By the time I had surveyed the research and narrowed down my research question I hit a major wall.  Suddenly it seemed like a mountain I could never climb.  I would open a word document and stare at it blankly.  When I finally wrote a sentence, I quickly deleted it; in my mind everything I was writing sounded completely unintelligent and stupid!  I lost all confidence and wondered how in the world I would ever finish. At this point I was in "proposal stage," which is when you write the first three chapters of the thesis.

Thesis components:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Chapter 3: Methods
Chapter 4: Results
Chapter 5: Conclusion

The literature review is when you read most of the research that has already been published and use it as reasoning for your research question.  Due to the nature of my research question and type of research my literature review was quite complicated.  I began by talking about the constructions of gender in western society since the mid nineteenth century, which included a lot of historical information, as well as, feminist theory information.  I then narrowed down my focus to female collegiate athletes and their experiences.  Again, more historical information as well as some of the psychological and sociological information published on the experiences of female athletes.  Then, I documented the history and formation of the strength and conditioning environment, which is the weight room and the strength and conditioning coach. At the end of the day I finished the final draft of the Literature review with 75 (agonizing) pages. (And 3 rounds of revisions with the thesis committee).

The method section is an explanation of how you are going to gather your research.  In the proposal stage everything is written in future tense, then once I complete the actual data collection then I will go back through and write everything in past tense.  I am doing qualitative research, which is a style of research that is meaning based instead of mathematical or statistical based.  So my data are conducting interviews with student athletes, then I will analyze and report results based on what they say.  Quantitative research is used more in the science realm. An example would be testing the jumping ability of middle school aged basketball players.  The researcher would test how high they jump, then run a statistical analysis on those measurements.  In qualitative research the information is analyzed through a theoretical lens.  I am using a "critical feminist interactionist framework" for my theoretical lens.  (You can read all about this when you all read my thesis :-) ).  Once I complete the interviews with the athletes I will transcribe them verbatim, then go through line-by-line and code them to see what themes emerge.  So basically in my method section I am describing the theories that I am using, who I am going to be researching (participants), how I am going to conduct the research and how I will analyze it and draw conclusions.

The introduction....is an introduction.  Nothing fancy.

*That part of my title that says "it's not just a paper" is for real.  This thing has chapters people!

Step three: The proposal
So I wrote the literature review first, and revised it three times.  Then I wrote the methods chapter, and revised it three times. I finished with the introduction.  I compiled all three of these chapters into one document, created a references sheet (over three pages long in and of itself!!!), attached the appendixes (consent form and interview questions) and submitted it to my thesis committee.
They reviewed the document for two weeks then I had my oral presentation.  The oral presentation was about a thirty minute overview of the main points of my proposal.  I was then grilled for an hour with questions on my research methods and theory...not fun. At the end of the two hours my committee approved my research!
Might I also add that the oral proposal is a time when "food is suggested to serve."  Haha oh man don't even get Chris started on this one.  I served a cobb salad, Cool Spoons frozen yogurt over a cupcake, a french baguette and lemon water and tea.  I got many compliments, and it was probably the real reason they approved my research!
I would also like to say that at this point I was 1.5 years into this whole process!!!

Step four: Pilot Testing and Human Subjects Committee approval
This is the step that I am currently in.  The Human Subjects Committee is an organization on every campus that approves research that is conducted with human subjects.  Since my research is qualitative (interview based), it falls into this category.  I have to submit the consent form I will be using, fill out their application describing every step of the recruitment process, submit the demographic survey, the approval letter from the institution I am conducting research at, and the interview schedule.  BUT, before I could do any of that I had to "pilot test" the interview schedule.  Basically what this means is I had to complete mock interviews with current student-athletes to make sure that the questions on my schedule make sense and are communicated correctly.  Being in research for a long time makes it easy to start using sociological terminology and jargon that may not make sense to people that have not studied sociology. So by practicing the interviews I am able to see if any of the questions are confusing, or determine if the questions are eliciting the correct responses that I am looking for.  I ended up changing most of my interview schedule and re-pilot testing.  Now I am waiting for a signature from the University I am conducting research at (Not SIU because Chris is the strength coach there...too much bias). Once I have the signature I can submit the application packet and hope that I don't have to make any changes! (By the way this stage of the project has been really frustrating because I have to wait for other people so much!!!  Always waiting, waiting, waiting....which I do not do well with. Especially since I really have a lot of passion to finish this project up now!)

Step five: Actual research!!!
Once I get approval from the Human Subjects Committee I can actually start working with the coaches of the women's sports teams to set up interviews!  Then the real interviews take place!  I am hoping to have 16 participants and the interviews will last between 30-40 minutes each. This will definitely be the fun part, especially with a year and a half build up!

Step six: Analyze and Conclude
Before I can look at the results or draw conclusions I must first transcribe every single interview, verbatim, that is word-for-word.  This includes transcribing the pauses, laughs, and all the filler words such as "like" or "um" or "ya know."  It is an excruciating process.  I have already had some experience with this last year when I was a research assistant.  So painful.  One 30 minute interview could take up to 4 hours to transcribe...no joke.
As soon as the interviews are transcribed I can begin the analyzing process.  This will be quite an experience for me because I have never done this before.  Essentially I will be doing "line-by-line" analysis and "open coding," which is the process of breaking the data down into discrete parts that can be labeled and grouped into themes and phenomenon.  It is called open coding because I am looking for themes to emerge from the data - I will be looking for what is similar and what I can contrast.  You could say that I am basically going through and "hash tagging" phrases and sentences into different codes then organizing those codes into major themes.  Again, not an easy or quick process!
Once the themes emerge I can then use my theoretical framework (critical feminist interactionist) to explain the themes in the context of the situation and draw conclusions from my findings.  Step six also includes writing chapters 4 and 5, which of course are "results" and "conclusions."

Step seven: Defend
I'm sure that I will have to go through another few rounds of revising and editing before I can turn in the finished product.  I will then do my "defense" which is when my thesis committee gathers and I orally present my findings, results, and conclusions.  I'm sure I will be asked grueling questions again. And yes, I will have to serve food again.  At that point it is either yes or no - yes, they accept and I make any final revisions I need to then submit the final project to the graduate school.....and I am not even considering the "no," it is not an option.

BOOM, GRADUATED!

*May I also point out that Chris and I went through the exact same graduate program. He, however, chose to write comprehensive exams and complete an internship.  His internship was setting up chairs for a few events and doing a ten minute presentation on what he learned.  Comprehensive exams, while extremely grueling and stress inducing, only last four days!!!!  They give you three essay questions and you have to respond with material from every class you took.  The comps committee review it for two weeks then give it back to you to make any changes you need to, then done. That's it. Over. So annoying.