What to do when you're stuck writing your thesis? 😮

You're writing your thesis and you're stuck.

Don't worry, this happens to almost every university student. 😊

Writing a thesis is not a simple task - after all, this is how you conclude your university studies.

Here we'll tell you what to do if you get stuck during your thesis. We'll work from the basics inward, thus helping progress.

I feel like I don't have my own ideas

When someone is dealing with a more complex topic, thoughts about a subject might not come immediately.

To figure out what kind of thesis or essay you want to write, read our article about this.

If you have your topic and title, then we can move forward. Instead of jumping straight into the deep end, let's break things down into smaller pieces.

Smaller pieces!

Break your topic into smaller, manageable parts.

Instead of trying to solve your entire thesis at once (or eating the whole cake...), break it into smaller parts.

Let's look at a real example. Let's say you have a topic and title, what can you do with it?:

In our case, the title is:

The first and most important thing is to define the "scope" of the topic.

Too broad a scope is almost suicide, and the problem with too narrow is that you won't find enough data.

Defining research scope, questions, hypothesis

Here we define the "scope/area" - how deep we go into the topic. We can also do this by asking questions about the topic and selecting the crucial ones from these.

If you're interested in how to efficiently come up with questions, read our question-answer method. (It's a super little method!)

Possible questions related to the topic:

• What are the main causes of climate change, and how does this affect marine life?
• How do different marine species react to climate change, and what consequences might this have for oceanic ecosystems?
• What are the most effective strategies for mitigating the effects of climate change on marine life, and how can these be implemented?
• What long-term effects might climate change have on marine life, and how can we prepare for these changes and adapt to them?
• What is the role of the global community in managing climate change and protecting marine life, and how can we cooperate in addressing the problem?

After we have our questions, we can set up hypotheses. If you don't know what a hypothesis is, we've prepared an article about that too.

Possible hypotheses:

• Climate change causes increased water temperature and acidification, which negatively affects the health and survival of marine species.
• Climate change causes changes in the distribution and frequency of marine species as they seek more suitable habitats in response to changing conditions.
• Climate change contributes to the decline in oceanic biodiversity as some species struggle to adapt and survive against increasing environmental stressors.
• Climate change exacerbates existing threats to marine life, such as overfishing and pollution, making it harder for species to recover and thrive.
• Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as storms and hurricanes, which can have devastating effects on marine ecosystems.

Having hypotheses and questions is a huge step forward for a thesis. You'll know what questions you need to answer.

Having questions and hypotheses is crucial. Without these, you can't build your thesis, and you'll get stuck.

Defining research methodology

After having the questions, I need to answer them somehow. For this, I'll use research methods.

I'll also determine what form of data collection I'll use? How will I analyze the collected data? and I'll compile the steps and methods for these!

I'll search for relevant information sources, such as scientific articles, books, websites.

A large collection of data, questions, hypotheses, and information sources has been gathered. Following this, I'll compile the outline based on the available data.

Creating the outline

Here you build up, logically, how your thesis will be structured.

The structure of our thesis titled "On the Effects of Climate Change on Marine Life" could be as follows:

• Introduction (You tell why you chose this topic and briefly present it)
• Research methodology presentation (You tell what research method you apply and why that one, why not the others)
• Literature review (You break your questions into chapters and summarize the answers you collected for them)
• Achieving research results (You present what research results you achieved, what connections exist between the articles and data you collected.)

Evaluation of collected data

I analyze and evaluate the collected information, draw conclusions from it, compare the results based on the data.

Writing the introduction

From these, you can already write the introduction:

"Climate change is one of the most pressing global challenges of our time, whose effects are felt throughout the planet, including the oceans. With the continuous rise in Earth's temperature, marine life faces numerous new challenges, from rising water temperatures and acidification to changing distribution patterns and declining biodiversity. In this essay, we examine the effects of climate change on marine life and discuss the potential consequences for oceanic ecosystems and the global community. We also examine the strategies and solutions being developed to address this urgent problem, as well as the role we can all play in protecting our oceans and the life they support."

Taking breaks saves lives.

Take breaks.

It helps reset your brain - if you concentrate too much at once, you lose focus and it becomes harder to continue writing your thesis.

Ask for help, it's not embarrassing

Ask for help and support from others.

If you're having trouble with your work, don't be afraid to ask for help from your thesis advisor, classmates, or other professionals.

They can provide valuable insights and feedback that can help you move forward.