The secret to writing a thesis

Gosh. I think I discovered a secret! About ten months ago, as I was writing my research proposal, I got a bit stuck when I was deciding what to include in the key terms that have to be defined. I was also pretty stuck at the literature review section, having to guess what I needed to include there based on what's available in the literature and what my findings would reveal.

But now... After having worked through my ideas through writing new literature reviews, writing articles that form part of my study...

As I am now writing the new "Introduction" section for my thesis, I realized I have a clearer idea what terms I need and do not need to define. I realized that I'm not interested in the concepts of nationalism, chauvinism and that I could collapse a few terms into one overarching term. For example, rather than define blind, authoritarian and loyal patriotism as three separate terms with their nuances, I decided to draw upon the broad similarities of these three terms and named them under one term - loyal patriotism.

As I am now writing the new "Literature Review" section, I have dropped most of the things included in the initial literature review. But now I know I clearly have three sections, related to my three new research questions.  And yes! I finally knew what my boss meant by "the research questions would change." Because mine have! They have increased in complexity as I realized that I could answer higher order questions and not just basic ones with my data.

So the secret is that... Sometimes you just need to go ahead with the research even when you are unclear about things and don't know where it leads. Because, these answers would come up to you along the journey. If you allow your fears of the unknown and of uncertainties to stop you from progressing forward, you might hinder all the accidental discoveries that come along the way and which would lead you to the destination! :)

So friends, don't be afraid, just move ahead!