Thesis Abstract

I made it through the end of the thesis class, almost. This weeks assignment is to write our thesis abstract. At this point in my thesis writing project it is time to reflect on what I have written so far and write my abstract. Once you complete the majority of the thesis document, it is time to go back to the very beginning and write your introductory chapter and an abstract. It feels good to be at this point in my thesis. At times I felt I was never going to finish, now in this moment, the end feels reachable.

According to this weeks course content:
"A thesis abstract is a synopsis of your thesis. The abstract explains to the reader the problem and your research questions. However, it also includes a summary of your methodology, the scope of the study, your results, and recommendations and/or conclusions. An abstract must be a fully self-contained, capsule description of your thesis. It should not be assumed that the reader of the abstract will read your complete thesis or look for an explanation of an unclear statement. The abstract must be able to stand alone."

It is this last sentence that has helped me to write my abstract this week. This thesis abstract must standalone as its own document that describes in 500 words or less what your entire thesis is about. This part was a little hard. To cut down the very large thesis document that I have been spending so much time with in the past couple of months to this 500 word abstract was not easy. Although on the other hand this was one of the easiest things to write for this thesis. At this point I can practically write this thesis in my sleep (not really) because I have been working on it so much and for so long.

I've learned that writing a thesis is just as stressful as I thought it would be. However, I have also learned that writing a thesis was not as challenging as I thought it would be. Now the end is in sight, I'm still not that close to the end, but its in sight.