AsterWrite the Virtual Supervisor

In over 25 years of my lecturing and supervising degree, master, and doctorate students, one thing is clear. Students dive into their writing without direction. They know there is no escape; they got to submit that final year project, master's dissertation, or doctorate thesis. The one motivation - do it or else... So there is a frantic search, how to do this thing and get it over with? For undergraduates, you choose your project title from a list of titles posted on the department notice board. For graduates, you suggest what you want, superimpose on that area what the "daft" supervisor wants, and the resulting intersection leaves you with a little bit of what you know and mostly what the "daft" doesn't know. Great start eh?

And before the idea sinks in, the departmental dates are clear. Date of title selection, date of proposal, date of submission, and submission plan. Plus, add in the "Thesis Writing Guidelines" with so many thousand words here, so many thousand there. Half an inch from the top, a quarter inch from the bottom, end notes here, and footnotes there. The starburst is slowly settling like grains of sand. But you cannot give up at this moment. No, not possibly. Your partner knows, or your parents know, or your employer knows - one way or other you got to go on. In most cases someone is paying for it - so - good luck.

But nobody says anything about how you conduct the research or write the theses. Three pages of thesis statement without a problem statement? Hybridized scope, limitation, and delimitation? Most find their way, by hook or crook, by trial and error. Most are always finding their way. Everyone has the destination in mind but not the journey. That "exactically" is the problem?