The research process begins in earnest with the choice of topic. You can discuss this with your thesis supervisor. The main idea is to produce new information about an academically recognised subject or area. Other important factors include the need for research on the topic, its current relevance and the interest it holds for you.

To progress smoothly on the thesis, it is very important to narrow down the topic. A doctoral dissertation constitutes a genuine contribution to science and to the academic community. A master's thesis, on the other hand, is like an academic internship, an exercise in conducting research. A bachelor's thesis, for its part, is like a preliminary exercise for the research exercise. These should be kept in mind when choosing and delimiting your topic. The narrower the research area, the easier it is to keep hold of all the research strands. Even if there is a world of things your topic could relate to, it suffices to state in your thesis that they have been excluded and that your thesis focuses on a particular perspective. Selecting and narrowing down the topic will help you focus on what, from a research standpoint, are the essentials, and what research paths can be excluded to keep your work within a reasonable scope.

Tips: 

1. A mind map is a good instrument for thinking about a topic and setting limits on it. Make a mind map of your idea for a thesis topic and its related matters. This makes it easier to visualise what all the topic might entail. Make a list of questions, terms and anything else that comes to mind about the topic. With the help of a mind map, you can pinpoint the area you want to explore and decide what to leave out. When you first decide what is the most important area, it is easier to define what can be left out.
2. The thesis may also be done as a collaboration with a company, i.e. as a commissioned thesis, in which case the topic or topic area is given by the company. You might find a collaborative partner through a party where you are currently employed, or a business’s advertisements for open positions, or by making direct contact with a company yourself. Commissioned theses can be carried out in a variety of ways: by separate agreement, through an employment relationship, through the Foundation for Aalto University Science and Technology, or the Helsinki School of Business Support Foundation. The Career Design Lab has collected instructions on seeking commissioned-thesis employment. It also has examples of different types of contracts in the JobTeaser’s Job Search Guide. Job Search Guide | JobTeaser. Writing a thesis on commission from a business is also a common way of finding employment in various fields.
3. The teachers and professors in your programme can help you think of a suitable topic. For example, you could have a discussion with your academic advisor (in the Success Team section of MyStudies) and think about who in your programme might have expertise in the topic area. The teachers also have networks outside the university, so they are likely to be able to give tips about possible partners from beyond Aalto.

After selecting and delimiting the topic, you can familiarise yourself with the literature on the topic. A thesis is often thought of as just a written text, but reading is also an essential part. Since it is likely you do not have all the background knowledge you will need on the topic, you will therefore need to fill in the gaps by reading the relevant source material. Even professional researchers must keep up with the latest studies on their subject, so reading is an essential part of their research as well. 

Reading academic literature requires the ability to filter out as well as combine information. This skill is acquired by reading and by employing various techniques, such as browsing tables of contents, skimming through texts, marking pages and paragraphs of importance, and keeping notes. Keeping a diary as well, whether handwritten or digital, can be a good way to clarify your own thinking and document the progress of the research. Avoid long delays between your reading and your journaling or writing down notes. Drafting or outlining can help in this.

Your reference sources (e.g. the titles and authors of research articles and books that you read, as well as any quotes or important passages along with their page numbers) should be saved already at this stage. Using reference management software can help, as hunting down sources later is labour-intensive. 

Vinkit:

1. Ask your thesis supervisor and thesis advisor about suitable reference works.
2. Through a library’s databases, you can access research literature and articles from around the world.
3. Browse through other theses and their bibliographies. For Aalto University theses, see https://libguides.aalto.fi/theses.
4. You can receive training in how to search for information, or you can book an appointment with an information specialist at the Learning Centre to help you with information seeking and retrieval.
5. Try a reference management program and see if it would help with your citations and bibliography. 

Critical thinking, or maintaining a healthy scepticism, is an essential part of academic life and research. Research work is best approached with an open mind, creativity, and analytical and critical thinking. Argumentation, where claims are put forward with supporting premises, is an essential part of academic discourse. The thesis may be the first large written work where you can practise these skills and become better at them. So don't give up if this type of thinking feels new or difficult at first – it's worth diving in and giving yourself time to adopt new methods of observation and new ways to articulate your thoughts. Give yourself permission to produce an imperfect text, so that the writing does not slow you down, but instead moves your thinking forward.

When searching for and reading source literature, it is important to evaluate the information. What kind of methods and data were used to reach the conclusions? Did earlier data and research findings support the presented results? Is the information current or already out of date? Were intermediate steps left unreported, making it difficult to understand what was done in the study? It is also good to be able to critically evaluate your own thinking in light of what you read and the information offered by your thesis supervisor and advisor.

Critical thinking should also be exercised when interpreting your own material. If the results seem to contradict theory, consider what could be the reason(s). Was there a flaw in the research design (i.e. how you researched the matter)? An error in your measurements? Or were you perhaps confused about something in a computer program or in the material? Mistakes can naturally occur when conducting research, and observations about the mistake can be a valuable part of the finished thesis.

The ability to ask for and receive constructive feedback is also important. Well-grounded new perspectives and feedback on your work help to make your thinking more well-rounded and your learning experience richer. So be prepared to accept the feedback you receive or give justifications on why you disagree.

When constructing an academic work, a key skill lies in how well you are able to relate and justify your own research as part of previous research and theory. These elements form the thesis as a whole, combining previous knowledge with the new findings in your own study. A research report – in this case the thesis – is also a description of how the course proceeded. It should provide the key information about the research stages and describe the research process from start to finish so completely that someone else could repeat your research.

Good problem-solving skills help to solve the problems encountered during the research process. For such times, it would be good to find out who would be the right person to help in the case of a problem that feels too big for you to solve alone. Remember that your thesis supervisor and thesis advisor are also there for you in problem situations. 

Carrying through the research process requires the ability to tolerate uncertainty and adapt one’s actions even in unanticipated situations. Since the thesis is also an exercise in academic thinking and writing, there is no need to be afraid of errors, missteps and accidents, for they are part of the process. The support of your supervisor and peers will help you cope with any setbacks and learn more about yourself. Looking ahead to the next stage will help you carry on along your path as a researcher. 

Tips:

1. Think about which people may be able to help you during the thesis process. You can use the My network exercise to help map out who can support you and how during your thesis and how. That way, if you need help, you will already have a list of people to turn to and so crossing the threshold to request help may feel easier.
2. Sometimes it is hard to know where the hitch lies or what form of support could be the most useful. You can always come visit the Starting Point of Wellbeing; then we can explore your situation together. 

Think about why you are writing your thesis. Is it a compulsory completion to be able to graduate and just one set of credits among others? Or is it an opportunity to delve into something and get answers to a topic that really interests you and at which you want to invest the time and energy to learn new things? Actually, a thesis can also be a bit of both. 

Think about your aim in terms of your thesis grade. Is your aim just to get a passing grade, or have you set your sights on a high grade, or maybe just something in between? All of these options are equally good – you decide. The best thesis is a completed thesis. It's a good idea to go through your aims for a thesis grade goal with your thesis supervisor so that both of you know your expectations: what you're aiming for and what, in the supervisor’s view, may be required of your thesis for particular grades. Your programme or the thesis instructions for your school usually include an assessment matrix that explains which areas are assessed and what is required for each grade. It is worth familiarising yourself with it when thinking about your grade aims. The higher the grade you are aiming for, the more your thesis should include your own independent contribution and original insights. The role of the supervisor is to support you in your independent work, rather than giving specific instructions on how to achieve a certain grade or repeatedly suggesting corrections to the work.

In job searches, the grade of the thesis is often not a significant factor. However, there are exceptions: For example, when applying for doctoral studies, the grade on the master's thesis may have an impact. Some consulting firms also may consider thesis grades when considering prospective employees. 

Aims can also change in the middle of the thesis writing, and this is OK – It does not mean you have failed. It's always a good idea to come back to your aim from time to time so that you know what you're working towards and how intensively you will work for it.

A thesis, i.e. the research part and the written thesis itself, is a project that spans a longer period of time in the final stages of your studies. Good planning and organisation of your thesis project will help you to keep hold of the reins and reinforce the feeling of being in control.

The research plan drawn up for the thesis answers the following questions:  Who will conduct the research? When and where will it be conducted? What is known about the research topic and what is not? What is the research question and what is the hypothesis? What means does the researcher intend to use to test the hypothesis? What are your research needs and resources?  What risks are associated with the research, or what obstacles may arise along the way? A research plan is like a script that is used to start the production, but which often needs to be modified along the way. It is important to have a roadmap at the beginning to guide you as you start out on the journey. 

The project plan, on the other hand, is focussed on planning implementation details. The research plan is at a general level; the project plan must be detailed in many places. For example, precise work phases and schedules are key areas of a project plan.

A thesis is rarely a straightforward project in which the work phases follow each other in a linear fashion where, for example, first there is a reading phrase , then the experimental or artistic part, and then the writing. Instead, thesis work often alternates back and forth between asking questions, reading, working on or analysing the materials, and writing. Difficulties may ensue if you have not acquired any basic information before beginning the practical implementation of the research, but leave the information search and writing to the very end. Making an accurate project plan may feel difficult, as the process is often not a direct path, but involves jumping between different stages. 

When planning a project, it is good to think about what kind of interim milestones there may be in the project. Thinks about what the chronological order of the things to be done. What do you need to have ready in each part in order to be able to move on to the next stage? What kinds of checkpoints might be good to put on the calendar? It would be worthwhile to discuss and schedule these things together with the thesis advisor or supervisor, who may well have an opinion on a good way forward for your research. The advisor’s familiarity with the schedule and the deadlines may give you positive pressure to stick to the schedule, as it's easier to let deadlines slide if you've set them only for yourself.

It is also worth considering with the advisor the points with which you may need guidance. They may be at the interim milestones or may points where you have started a new phase in the work and have questions at the moment.

To plan the interim milestones, the project must be broken down into smaller parts. Write down what the thesis should contain. Making an outline of the table of contents is one way to get a sense of the parts. The table of contents does not need to be final at this stage.

It is important also to review the progress you have made so far. Have you stuck to the plan or have there been changes to the original? If there have been changes, what do they affect? If they are major changes, does your to-do list need to be edited? Major changes may also affect your thesis schedule. It is worth changing the plan and schedule if necessary, as trying to stick to the old schedule may cause a sense of failure if it is no longer realistic if the plan changes.

When making a plan, it is naturally not possible to anticipate all the situations that will arise. Still, it is worth thinking about what possible obstacles or project constraints or conditions may come up. You can't know everything in advance, but some eventualities can be prepared for and feasible plan made that takes them into account. At the same time, you can think about what to do in the event of an obstacle and have a place to deal with it if it comes up. Thinks of whom can you ask for help in various situations, and how an obstacle could affect your plan.

Also think about how you might celebrate or reward yourself after reaching a milestone. Since the thesis is a long multistage project, you should remember the work you have accomplished, not just think about what remains to be done.

Tips:

1. If you have you a particular software or method for project management in group-work course or project, it might also be a good tool for managing a thesis project. You could also see if your programme or school has a project-plan or thesis template that you could use in planning your thesis.
2. For examples of project-planning apps that you might use, see: https://ganttpro.com/ and https://trello.com/. Or maybe you already know of some other good project-management program. If so, please let us know through the feedback on this site, and we will list it here along with the others so that other students may benefit.
3. Write for five minutes on each of the following questions: a) What do you want to find out or what kind of problem do you want to solve with your thesis, or what do you want to produce with your thesis? b) What kind of materials do you have at your disposal to help you find answers to the previous question(s)?  c) What kind of results/data/solutions do you think you will obtain or discover? d) What is already known about the topic? What kind of information is already available about the topic or question?  e) How do you think your thesis or thesis results will supplement what is already known about the topic? With answers to the above, you can draft a summary of your thesis’ current status. After that, ask yourself which of the areas mentioned would be best to work on next, and then proceed with it as the next step forward with your thesis work. 

Think about what a realistic aim in terms of your schedule would look like. For example, the scope of a master's thesis is 30 credits, which is equivalent to working on your thesis full-time (eight-hour days and five days a week) for half an academic year. However, a master's thesis is usually done at the end of your studies, at which time you may also be working elsewhere, and those working hours take up a share of your time and energy. Therefore, think about whether there are other things in your life that will take up some of your time then and prevent you from focussing on the thesis full-time. You should also make room for downtime for the things that are important to you (family, friends, hobbies, rest).

Writing a thesis is demanding, knowledge-intensive brainwork. Especially in work requiring creativity and problem-solving, the brain continues to process the work even when we are doing something completely different. Therefore, do not think rigidly that you must devote eight hours a day to the thesis; 6 hours is a very good and sufficient amount. It is good to also think about parts of your thesis that require less concentration and work on those things for part of the day.

It is worth aiming for a schedule plan where the work usually proceeds by small steps rather than long sessions with lots of time in between. That avoids taking extra time to reorient yourself to the work after a long break, and getting things done regularly usually helps people maintain a better feeling of accomplishment. Therefore, avoid scheduling too many consecutive days off!

Scheduling challenges typically arise when the thesis writer’s goals are too grand or the number of priorities is excessive. Another problem can be not checking or following the schedule at all. Often we expect too much from ourselves, that is, we plan on doing too many activities or working hours in a day and, as a consequence, we leave too little time for recovery. In such cases, there is little or no flexibility in the schedule. Things tend to come up in daily life that one couldn't have known about in advance, so it's good to leave some room in your schedule for the unexpected. A common reason for missing deadlines is that certain things that can steal our time, like social media or round-the-clock news, which can easily take hours out of the day.

Tips:

1. To help with scheduling, there is a time-management self-study material on MyCourses.
2. Listen to this podcast on time management tools.  

Because the amount of time in a day is limited, you must prioritise what you will spend your time on. Think about what is essential in your thesis and in the other things in your life; then you can decide on an appropriate schedule for the project.

Each student, when writing their thesis, has their own unique life situation. You may be working over the time of your thesis, you may have a family that is taking up time, or something unexpected has come up that affects both the thesis time available and perhaps the goals as well. Special learning disabilities may also need to be considered when planning and scheduling a thesis project.

Simo Ahonen's book Opinnäyte jumissa has a good analogy about people having wheelbarrows loaded with the different matters that are current in their lives at the moment. You can't put too much in the wheelbarrow, otherwise it will tip over. So it is important to remember the realities in your own life, and plan and schedule accordingly. If you make a plan that is overly optimistic, you are probably setting yourself up for feelings of failure.

The rest of life is not necessary just a drain on your time and energy: it can also give you support when writing a thesis. For example, while family life may take up time, family can also support you when needed and help you to unwind and recharge. Similarly, work can be a supporting element, especially if you are doing your thesis for place where you are working.

Tips:

1. Your life situation may change in the middle of the thesis process. In that case, it is a good idea to re-examine and make any needed adjustments to your thesis aims and schedule.
2. Sometimes it can help to work on your thesis somewhere else than your usual setting. Thesis retreats lasting several days at the Hvittorp course and meeting centre have been arranged by university chaplains in Espoo and Helsinki. Hvittorp offers the chance to concentrate fully on your thesis and receive peer support from others in the same situation. Information about the retreat will be given in the Student news letter.

The first thing to pay attention to in academic texts is the text type, or genre. While there is variation in academic writing, there are certain common characteristics that you should learn. It is therefore important that you participate in the thesis seminars offered by your school, if available.

In addition to seminars, you can take courses at the Aalto University Language Centre for help with writing. The Language Centre offers courses to support thesis writing at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels, regardless of whether you write in Finnish, Swedish or English. It's a good idea to familiarise yourself with these courses well in advance during your studies so that you can plan the course schedule and get the most out of them.

You can also review previously published academic texts. While it is worth asking your thesis supervisor, thesis advisor or other more experienced researchers for their recommendations, it is also useful to go through other theses of different levels and from different fields. That will show you how academic texts are constructed and written. Keep in mind, however, that not all published texts are necessarily good examples.

You may decide at times not to follow the ‘standard thesis format’. Before departing from a standard convention, however, you should first have a good knowledge of it. This will help to give you a sense of how your text may affect your readers, and thereby avoid misinterpretations of your text.

Tips:

1. For English, the Writing Clinic page includes lots of useful tips, exercises and links.
2. You can take courses in academic writing.
3. Familiarise yourself well ahead of time with the evaluation criteria for your thesis. Leaving it until later may be too late for modifying the research and the text to meet the requirements.
4. Some students find it useful to acquaint themselves with previous theses at the start of their project, while others prefer to start independently and look at the examples later. Theses completed at Aalto are available in the Aaltodoc repository.
5. Read also materials from other universities.
6. Get your hands on an academic writing guide.
7. Strive for high-quality in your written language and style. Producing a reader-friendly text is worth the effort.
8. Learn good academic writing practices. Consider how the structure of your text and its vocabulary may affect your readers.
9. Envision your readers.
10. Get support from peers. You can arrange a writing session with a fellow student. Writing in the same place and time with another may help you concentrate, and you can ask your fellow student for advice if needed. Even if neither of you is a writing specialist, peer feedback can help.
11. The Writing Clinic offers a forum where you can discuss your text's ideas, structure, syntax, academic tone and citations. Writing Clinic sessions discuss the same topics as in academic writing courses. If you don't know how to improve your text, a writing specialist there can help you by focussing on your specific needs and wishes in a tutorial setting.
12. The software Turnitin is also a support for academic writing. It looks for similarities between your text and other academic texts in its database. Turnitin is used through MyCourses, which means that your thesis supervisor (or thesis advisor) has probably made it available in the MyCourses workspace for theses. Turnitin is also used in the thesis submission phase to check for plagiarism, so it is advisable to check your thesis with it on your own initiative already during the draft phase.

Academic writing is process-like production, which means that the text is not ready as soon as it is put on the page, but often needs to be edited several times. This may sometimes cause a sense of insecurity and frustration when it feels like you are going through the motions of writing, but not really getting anything into a finished form.

We all have different ways of writing. In his book Opinnäyte jumissa, Simo Ahonen compares writing methods with the different ways Mozart and Beethoven had of composing. Mozart composed the entire song in his mind and then wrote it all down at once. Beethoven, on the other hand, made numerous drafts and modified his compositions at different stages. For Beethoven, the design of a work was about compiling the parts of different musical ideas until they formed a complete composition. The Beethoven model may be better suited to academic writing than the Mozart model.

If you tend to write down texts that are finished as soon as they are on the page, then academic writing may seem difficult, because of its tendency to write texts in draft stages. However, writing drafts is a skill that you can learn with practice. A key method is to limit the time available for the writing and consciously decide to write it in a draft form. 

Remember that thesis writing is more than just pressing the keys on a keyboard. The writing process presumes other processes like reading, planning and brainstorming the text. Those things take time, but they all go into the actual production of the written text. 

Remember to treat be patient and understanding with yourself. You may find that you enjoy working on some parts of your thesis more than other parts. That is completely normal. For some writers, it may be helpful to shift the focus away from just writing for certain target readers and remember that the writer has the right and responsibility to share their research with a wider audience. There is a reader for every thesis! 

Tips:

1. Let the research question and research aim guide your writing. Make changes when necessary.
2. Draft a table of contents to give structure to the text.
3. Start your draft writing of the thesis in good time. Thinking and writing are mutually supportive processes.  
4. Write drafts and develop them further through reading, researching, writing, evaluating and editing.
5. Your first step might be to write a section on materials and methods, depending on the topic. It is often easier to start with the more straightforward text, such as reporting in the materials and methods section on how and what materials you used to conduct the research. In the materials and method section, you don't necessarily need to analyse or reflect on theory.
6. Before taking a longer such as for lunch or when finishing the day’s work, write down where you left off and how to continue. This makes it easier to start the next writing session and to get you up to speed faster.
7. Take advantage of the speech-to-text feature of word processing programs to produce text and listen to how your own text sounds when spoken.
8. Use mind maps or other techniques. For example, Mindjet and MindManager allow you to export your mind map to Microsoft Word and include heading numbers. Aalto University has a Mindjet license, and you can download the program to your computer.
9. Write some parts of the text by hand. 

Read widely on different topics and in different genres. Reading strengthens your writing skills. Careful reading means that you pay attention not only to interesting content, but to how other authors express themselves and you take notes on references.

A key skill in constructing an academic text is shown in how well the previous research or theory on the topic supports your own thinking and research material. These elements form a whole that combines previous research-based knowledge with the new information and findings produced in your own research. If you do not do the reading, you will be unable to combine and analyse your own research in terms of the earlier research-based knowledge.

Tips:

1. Read extensively and diversely.
2. Read theses also from fields other than your own. Pay attention to the general academic terms that appear in other theses.
3. Think about what you read: What makes a text work well? What makes it persuasive or scientific?
4. Record your references carefully. If you unsure about how to cite the literature and make references, the Language Centre's Writing Clinic or a Learning Centre information specialist can help.
5. When you have read a text, write down your notes or drafts about it as soon as possible. This includes writing down parts that refer directly to the source material and to your own observations and insights that you had from the reading.

The use of AI, in this case with large language models (LLM), to help with writing is an increasingly important skill that should also be practised. Language models can be helpful particularly for brainstorming and managing large sections of material; for example, you can ask AI to generate an outline of the key points in a theme. That can give you a faster start in searching for source material, for example, and in giving a structure to your text. 

A challenge with AI is that no text it produces can be used simply as is in a study assignment or in a thesis. In other words, you cannot simply copy and paste AI-generated text as such, and you cannot assume that an AI-generated description is necessarily reliable information about an issue. The trick is to take a critical view of everything that AI produces. To do so, you must obtain information from other sources and practise your own academic writing. When you develop a sense of what a functional academic text is like, you can also use AI from time to time to help formulate difficult ideas: for example, see how it is formulated based on AI’s language model and then use it as a basis for writing a better version.

Aalto University has guidelines on the use of AI in education. Remember always to check if your courses have their own policies on the use of AI. As a rule, texts produced by AI must never be presented as a person’s own writing, and any use of AI must be clearly stated in the text submitted. This applies also to theses.

Tips:

1. Tips for students on using AI
2. The university’s own Aalto AI Assistant

To be able to focus on work, we all need to have sufficient psychological, physical and social resources. These are used in different ways. We can think of them as psychological, physical and social batteries that need to be recharged from time to time and are used according to the particular need.

Recovery from studying should take place both during and after the study day. During the day, recovery can include breaks, meals, exercise, and spending time with friends. Recovery after a day of study may include making use of the free time, weekly days off and longer vacations or holidays, as well as active pursuits and activities.

Recovery needs and methods are individual and may vary over time. For effectively recharging your mental batteries in your free time, it is important to detach yourself from your studies and do other things that are meaningful to you. Feeling in control over your leisure time and finding a good balance between ‘doing nothing’ and doing meaningful activities is also important. Physical rest by itself is not necessarily enough for effective recovery.

Tips:

1. Thesis writing somewhere else than at home works for many people. That helps get things done efficiently and to detach your studies from your free time at home. Going to another place to work is also a kind of ritual for transitioning between free mode and work mode, and it also helps you get your mind off your thesis when returning home.
2. Arrange a study date with a friend. Having someone studying next to you also helps to get things done effectively. It also gives you someone to talk to during breaks. You can agree on the break times together, which helps ensure that you won’t skip them.
3. Use the Pomodoro technique. It was originally intended to support productivity, but it also has the benefit of providing you with opportunities for taking short breaks and giving your brain a breather. You can use the Pomodoro technique also when studying with others: see Theses & Tomatoes: Start your studies with Pomodoro.
4. On MyCourses, there is self-study material on stress management. It covers e.g. recognising the signs of stress and how to recuperate from stress.

Writing a thesis can work your emotions over a wide range: joy, enthusiasm, but sometimes anxiety, also. Give yourself permission to just feel what you feel. While accepting emotions as they are may not be easy, it can be practised. Finding words for what you are feeling can help. It can be good to talk to someone about your feelings or write them down. That can give you a new way of seeing them. 

Daring to rise to a challenge with the risk of sometimes experiencing unpleasant feelings gives us also the opportunity to experience successes and the joy of learning. Governing one’s emotions involves a set of skills that can be learned. It is natural to sometimes face uncertainties and unpleasant feelings when studying. It is good to practise facing up to them, as 

stress is a part of studies, work and life in general. Positive stress can give you the strength to do things, but stress that is excessive or becomes long-term can cause considerable anxiety. Anxiety is also a part of life's emotional spectrum, but if it feels excessive, remember that you don't have to endure alone. Come visit us at the Starting Point of Wellbeing for a chat.

Tips:

1. Try the mindfulness tools for managing stress. These self-study materials go through methods you can use to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety.

In writing your thesis, remember that you are still a student and you are meant to take the thesis work as a learning experience. You are permitted to be ‘a work in progress’ or to lack competencies. Students may set unreasonably high standards for themselves regarding the level of competence they think they should have by the end of their studies. University students are often forward-looking, and perfectionism is not so uncommon in academia. If you find yourself seeking perfection, mention that to your teacher. It is beneficial to think about what grade you are aiming for with your thesis, and what you are ultimately aiming for if you get that grade. 

Striving for perfection and a ‘get it done all at once’ way of thinking are likely to put more pressure on your thesis writing and other thesis work. It can be difficult to rise to the task if your ambition is unrealistically high and potential failure haunts you in the background. On the other hand, once you have started working, it is difficult to stop, because there is always room for improvement. Perfectionists expect perfection from themselves, and often even small criticisms can feel devastating to perfectionists, as though they were directed at themselves personally. The following ways of thinking are hallmarks of perfectionism: 

• ‘All or nothing’ thinking: a performance is either good or bad – there is nothing in between.
• ‘I should still...’: There is always something more to do or something that could be done better.
• Attention is fixed more on negative feedback than on positive feedback, and even the slightest criticism feels really bad.
• Perfectionists believe that others can do everything excellently without much effort or stress, but that they themselves have to make more effort to do the same.

Unreasonably high goals and demands on oneself easily cause anxiety, feelings of inferiority or inadequacy, and stress. If you recognise a tendency towards perfectionism in yourself, it helps to stir up some self-compassion, give yourself positive feedback, and set realistic goals.

Tips:

1. ‘Don’t compare yourself to others’ – This is easier said than done. Can you stop comparing yourself to others?  When things are evaluated – the theses are evaluated in numbers – making comparisons is hard to avoid. However, comparing oneself to others is rarely beneficial, especially from an emotional point of view. Be aware of it you start comparing yourself, and then actively try to switch your attention just to yourself, your own actions and your own processes.
2. Be kind, compassionate and understanding to yourself. This can also be practised. For many of us, it does not come naturally. If you notice that in your mind you are talking to or about yourself in a negative way, actively try to switch to kinder, more understanding words in your inner dialogue, even if they feel artificial or superficial at first. Think of what you would say to a friend who was in a similar situation.
3. Notice your thesis progress and what you’ve done well.Give yourself credit even for the small actions you have taken to make progress with your thesis work. At the end of the day, go through the things you can thank yourself for. Remember that your worth as a human being does not depend on your actions: you are adequate and you are sufficient the way you are.
4. Talk to others about working on the thesis and the feelings related to it. By sharing your thoughts, you may find out that someone else has had similar experiences or has felt the same way.
5. Take a look at this online material on the power of compassion.
6. Listen to podcast about fierce self-compassion.

Choosing a research topic and narrowing its scope are often more difficult than one imagines. However, to achieve a good final outcome with your thesis, it is worth investing enough time in this task. Start with an interesting topical range and then begin focussing in on a topic within it. Use writing, mind maps or the available literature as tools for the task. If necessary, consult with your thesis supervisor or thesis advisor for their comments. Make a rough outline of a perspective to approach that the topic from, and how that could be rendered into a thesis-sized text.

It is a good to look for a topic that you are interested in, because that will help you maintain your motivation over the time of the thesis. Choosing a topic can become a stumbling block if it you end up searching for the ideal subject. If you try to do that, no may never find a topic that is interesting enough and you won’t dare to make a final decision. Remember that the thesis is estimated as equivalent to six months of studies, and you have sometimes during your studies probably completed courses that you weren’t fully interested in. That means you can write your thesis on a topic even if it does not feel like the perfect one for you. Keep in mind also that the topic becomes more specific and may change during the writing process – and turn much more interesting then than you originally thought.

If you are producing your thesis for a part outside the university or for a project, you may not have to think about choosing the topic itself, but in that case the delimitation of the topic is again essential. Even if your study is in a project or your research is more extensive, only a small part of it can be included in the thesis if the thesis is to remain within the intended scope.

Tips (Hirsjärvi et al 2009):

1. Remember that your thesis is just that, not an exhaustive or definitive study of the topic.
2. Your research is only an aspect of the topic.
3. In a limited amount of text, you cannot say everything.
4. Strive to do a decent job within a reasonable amount of time, rather than trying to commit yourself to a lifelong project.
5. Your thesis supervisor and thesis instructor can help you narrow down the topic to a suitable extent. They are research professionals who can discuss with you what is enough for the purposes of your thesis.
    

Ideally, your thesis topic will enthuse and inspire you, and this will increase your interest and motivation to learn more. However, during the thesis process, there will be times when you will feel you have overdosed on the topics and don't want to think about it at all, even if you still have an interest in principle. Your only motivation may be the thought of completing it and graduating. And sometimes even that is not enough of a motivator, and then it can be very difficult to get anything done. In most cases, theses are completed because we have both an internal motivation, i.e. an interest in the topic, and an external motivation, such as the need to graduate and find an interesting job.

If your thesis work is not progressing, that can cause unpleasant feelings towards both the task as well as towards you yourself. The job may feel daunting, unmanageable or downright impossible and therefore unpleasant, and that you are inadequate or incompetent when you are not up to doing the job that you should. An easy way of ridding yourself of such anxieties is to simply avoid the work and focus on something else instead. This may temporarily reduce the feelings of anxiety and discomfort and create a sense of relief. However, the undone work then just accumulates, often leading to increased stress and the unpleasant feelings returning even more powerfully than before. In this way, the vicious circle of avoidance begins again, and the accumulated work brings up unpleasant emotions again, and then the desire for avoidance increases again.

However, this cycle can be broken. If you feel uncomfortable emotions arising and want to avoid them, try taking action anyway, in spite of the unpleasant emotions. Taking up the task and getting some things done on it can improve your mood, give you a feeling of success, and strengthen your feeling of being able and in control. This reduces feelings of anxiety and makes it easier to tackle the next task. 

Achievement and motivation often go hand in hand. Get your thesis work done will increase your motivation. Getting sufficient downtime for recovery, setting goals that are reasonable and working methods that suit yourself well, acting in accordance with your values, working together with other and believing in your own abilities also have effects on motivation. There are many ways to regulate your own motivation and at the same time your achievements. 

Tips:

1. Work on your thesis during you most energetic hours of the day. A thesis is usually a large and intellectually demanding undertaking. Many people do not succeed in doing such work when feeling tired or lacking energy. That's why it's good to dedicate the most energetic hours of the day to the task, and do the less demanding things when feeling tired or distracted. People have different daily rhythms:  Some people are at their best in the morning, others after spending the morning in a relaxed way, still others feel more energy in the evening when other activities and stimuli have calmed down. Identify what is the best time of the day for you to do intellectually demanding tasks, and dedicate that time to your thesis work, if possible.
2. Write your thesis away from home. Sometimes it's hard to begin or concentrate on work at home. For work requiring focus or concentration, the Learning Centre offers many space options. For other people, a little background hustle and bustle – as in a café, for example – is a better environment for work. Commuting to work can be a kind of ritual which gives you an opportunity to get into work mode. During the commute, let your mind begin to wander towards the thesis and try not to get too distracted by other stimuli. Conversely, the commute home can be a time to get your mind off the workday. Working elsewhere than at home may help you getting sidetracked by domestic chores like cleaning. There are often many temptations at home to do things other than thesis work.
3. Arrange a study date with a friend. Things are usually easier to get done when working with someone else rather than alone. You don't have to be in the same field. The other person might be writing an essay for a history class while you are writing a research plan for a marketing thesis.
4. Before finishing for the day, mark where you leave off so you can quicky find the place and continue the next workday. If you can’t get started, trying beginning with a task that feels easier and clearer.
5. You can start work with a task that is very small and simple, so that finishing it can bring you a feeling of accomplishment.
6. Make your progress visible so you can see it. For example, at the end of the day’s work, write a list of things you got done during the day. This kind of a ‘done list’ may include things that were not originally on your to-do list. Remember that thinking and reflecting on the theme are also a form of work and are important in moving your thesis forward.
7. Set reasonable goals for yourself. We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish within a given time, because the estimate often assumes that everything will go perfectly with no surprises or problems to figure out.
8. Break down your goals into smaller, concrete tasks. The more accurately you can list the tasks you need to do, the easier it is to tackle them, as they will then not seem to loom so large. Compare these examples: ‘Do your thesis’; ‘Find articles suitable for the thesis’; ‘Read one article’; and ‘Make a table the initial metrics’. The smaller the task, the more likely you are to get it ticked off your to-do list and get a feeling of accomplishment.
9. Do the ‘To-do list with a twist’ exercise: a) Think about something you would like to accomplish, but there is something holding you back from doing it. b) Write yourself a list of the to-do’s that would help move the job forward. c) Rate the discomfort you feel at each to-do on a scale of 0 to 10. (Extra points: identify the unpleasant emotions.)  d) Examine the most unpleasant parts, and divide them into still smaller steps. e) Rate the discomfort caused by these new steps on a scale of 0 to 10. f) Start with the easiest or with most difficult step, whichever you choose.
10. Try the Pomodoro technique. You can benefit from the technique by using it together with other people; see Theses & Tomatoes and other joint online writing sessions.
11. Check out the MyCourses self-study materials on the basics of achievement and the training on how to concentrate.
12. Listen to the podcasts on avoidance and concentration (part 1 and part 2).
13. If it still seems difficult to get things done, even after trying the various methods, remember to ask for help before avoidance becomes a vicious circle where feeling you failed makes you feel like a bad student and withdraw from more and more situations. The Starting Point of Wellbeing in one place to find support.

The heart of thesis work is the writing. There are a number of harmful preconceptions about writing that can prevent you from moving forward. Below are some of these myths, as well as ways to get passed them (Svinhufvud, 2016):

• ‘Good writers don't show their unfinished texts to others.’
  >> Do ask others to read your unfinished text. By doing so, you can get feedback and encouragement and it can help you keep to your writing schedule.  
• ‘Good writers begin writing only when they are in a suitable frame of mind.’
  >> Try to write regularly, even every day.  
• ‘Good writers begin writing only when they have a new, creative idea.’
  >> Start writing today, even if you don't know what you're going to write yet.
• ‘Good writers being writing only when they have sufficient time set aside for it.’
  >> Mark regular writing sessions in your weekly calendar, even if they are short.  
• ‘Good writers produce polished text in one sitting.’
  >> Remember that the first version is just the beginning of the writing process, and you don't need to set high quality standards for the text at this stage.
• ‘You can't become a good writer if you weren’t born that way.’
  >> Writing is a skill that can be learned and developed.  

It can be hard to start writing when staring into the abyss of a completely empty page or screen. You might try the free-writing method or the Pomodoro technique to get started.

Free writing means to write freely about whatever comes to mind about a certain theme or topic. You can set a time limit with your phone's timer function. For example, set the alarm to ring after five, ten or twenty minutes. In free writing, it is important to keep the pen or fingers on the keyboard moving all the time. Even if you get stuck in the middle of writing, you can continue by simply writing 'I can't think of anything to write' until a thought related to the topic comes to mind again or until the timer alarm rings. Free writing also allows you to stop worrying about grammar, punctuation and spelling, since all of these can be checked and corrected later. The idea of the exercise is to produce as much text as possible within a limited time. After writing the first version, you go through the text and underline points that feel meaningful, important and that you want to delve into more. In this way, the writing process can begin. Free writing can also be performed based on what you have read, and it is a good way to test what you remember from the source literature. It also lets you express in your own words what you have read. 

The Pomodoro technique is also a good tool for text production and in the different stages of the writing process. With the help of this technique, writing sessions can be broken down into smaller, bite-sized parts, making it easier to produce the text. You can also take advantage of the dictation function in Word if you feel that reading the text out loud helps you to get started with the writing. 

Writing a thesis requires perseverance. In order to follow through to the ultimate goal of a finished thesis, it is important to be able to break that long-term goal down into smaller, more manageable steps and milestones that you can accomplish along the way and feel good about achieving.  

Peer support is also worth taking advantage of. You can ask someone you trust to act as ‘my friend and critic’. Having the other person read your draft and asking them for comments will help you make progress in your thesis. This also gives you a responsibility towards the other person, which can help you keep to your schedules for working towards your intermediate goals. Feedback from fellow students in your thesis seminar or from your supervising teacher can also be a spur to develop your work.

Tips:

1. If you have trouble writing, ask for help – the sooner the better. Your thesis supervisor and thesis advisor are there to help. Support for writing is available through the Writing Clinic.
2. Participate in Theses & Tomatoes and other joint online writing sessions.
3. Find a friend with whom you can write together. Comment on each other's texts. You don't have to be from the same field – comments from an 'outsider' are often very enlightening.
4. If you are stuck, try writing your text in a completely different style (for example, as an email) just in order to get the words out. After that, make modifications to the text, rendering it in academic style.
5. Trust the process. The beginning of writing may in fact turn out to be more fun than you originally thought.
6. If you have long felt that reading and writing is very labour-intensive, could the problems be caused by a learning difficulty? If you are diagnosed with a learning difficulty or have an illness or disability, then individual study arrangements may be able to support your thesis writing. This is worth investigating if the challenges of writing really interfere with your learning, and possible with other things in life. You can always come to the Starting Point of Wellbeing drop-in service to talk over matters with a special education teacher or a study psychologist.

Writing a thesis is often one of the last study credits before graduating. After graduation, the period of working life begins. Many people are at the cusp of their careers at this point, while their previous life has largely been about studying in various schools and higher education. This is a big transition in life and it's quite normal to worry about it. Graduation is also related to financial changes, which may cause feelings of insecurity if you it takes time to land a job. Your student benefits will expire and you need to give up your housing arrangements if you have been living in a student flat.

Thinking about employment and looking for work take time and energy, and this can slow down your thesis progress. You have to remember to factor in time for this when you are making your schedules. It is good to draft a plan for your job search. In it, consider and prioritise the jobs and job descriptions that are most interesting to you, and schedule when and how much time you will spend in looking for employment. Combining thesis work with job searching requires a time management process for ensuring you have enough time for your own well-being and for friends, hobbies, rest, restorative activities, etc.

Tips:

1. The Career Design Labin website has tips and tools that you can use to clarify your own strengths and values.
2. MyCourses has self-study materials on career planning.
3. Listen to the audio column Find Your Superpower! about strengths.
4. Career Design Lab services are available in JobTeaser. Included are job ads, the Career Design Lab event calendar, the Job Search Guide, and the opportunity to book an appointment with a career counsellor.
5. JobTeaser's Job Search Guide gives tips on writing CVs and application letters, preparing for job interviews and plotting out different job opportunities.
6. You should not be left all alone to navigate your career and employment matters. Why not stop by the  Starting Point of Wellbeing, or book an appointment with a career counsellor at JobTeaser?
7. The Career Design Lab organises small group tutoring as well as training and workshops on career design and job searching. Keep informed of the events by following the announcements in JobTeaser.

Bui, Y. N. (2020). How to write a master’s thesis (Third edition.). SAGE, Publications, Inc.  

Eco, U., Mongiat Farina, C., Farina, G., & Erspamer, F. (2015). How to write a thesis. MIT Press.  

Furseth, I., & Everett, E. L. (2013). Doing your Master’s dissertation: from start to finish (1st ed.). SAGE.  

Silvia, P. J. (2007). How to write a lot: a practical guide to productive academic writing. American Psychological Association. 

Thomas, D. (2016). The PhD writing handbook. Palgrave Macmillan Education.  

Cormac McCarthy’s tips on how to write a great science paper

The Academic Phrasebank from the University of Manchester

YTK Tutor -online training: a free dissertation and thesis tutorial for all students

Ahonen, S. 2023. Opinnäyte jumissa: mitä tehdä, kun homma ei etene. Tampere: Vastapaino. 

Hirsjärvi, S. et al. (2009) Tutki ja kirjoita. 15. uud. p. Helsinki: Tammi.

Rubin, A. & Lehtonen, M. (2004) Tietokäsitys. https://tulevaisuus.fi/perusteet/tietokasitys/ (2.10.2025)

Svinhufvud, K. (2016) Kokonaisvaltainen kirjoittaminen. 3. uudistettu ja täydennetty laitos. Helsinki: Art House.

TENK (2023) Hyvä tieteellinen käytäntö ja sen loukkausepäilyjen käsitteleminen Suomessa. Tutkimuseettisen neuvottelukunnan julkaisuja, 2:2023. Viitattu 25.6.2025. https://tenk.fi/sites/default/files/2023-03/HTK-ohje_2023.pdf