寫(xiě)論文前必須知道的十件事

Are you putting the final touches to a dissertation? Let's pass on some tips to those who'll be doing them next year.

你的論文已經(jīng)進(jìn)入最后的潤(rùn)色階段了么?那就留些小貼士給明年寫(xiě)論文的孩子看吧。

Writing a dissertation can be one of the hardest tasks a university student has to accomplish – but it will come to an end.

寫(xiě)論文可能是大學(xué)生最艱巨的任務(wù)之一了——不過(guò)總是會(huì)寫(xiě)完的。

The sun is shining but many students won't see the daylight. Because it's that time of year again – dissertation time.

陽(yáng)光好燦爛呀，不過(guò)許多同學(xué)要錯(cuò)過(guò)了，因?yàn)橛质且荒暌欢鹊恼撐募玖恕?/p>

Luckily for me, my D-Day (dissertation hand-in day) has already been and gone. But I remember it well.

幸運(yùn)的是，我已經(jīng)不用趕交論文的截止日了，不過(guò)我記得可清楚了。

The 10,000-word spiral-bound paper squatted on my desk in various forms of completion was my Allied forces; the history department in-tray was my Normandy. And when Eisenhower talked about a "great crusade toward which we have striven these many months", he was bang on.

桌上碼著螺旋裝訂的萬(wàn)字論文，完成的形式各種各樣，那是我的同盟軍;歷史系的交稿托盤(pán)是我要攻占的諾曼底。艾森豪威爾說(shuō)為了這場(chǎng)圣戰(zhàn)我們已經(jīng)努力了許多個(gè)月，說(shuō)得對(duì)極了。

I remember first encountering the Undergraduate Dissertation Handbook, feeling my heart sink at how long the massive file took to download, and began to think about possible (but in hindsight, wildly over-ambitious) topics. Here's what I've learned since, and wish I'd known back then…

我記得第一次看到《本科畢業(yè)論文手冊(cè)》，文件特別大，下了很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間，我的心就一直往下沉，盤(pán)算著寫(xiě)什么主題(后來(lái)發(fā)現(xiàn)真是想太多)。這些就是我后來(lái)學(xué)到的教訓(xùn)，真希望當(dāng)初就知道。

1) If your dissertation supervisor isn't right, change. Mine was brilliant. If you don't feel like they're giving you the right advice, request to swap to someone else – providing it's early on and your reason is valid, your department shouldn't have a problem with it. In my experience, it doesn't matter too much whether they're an expert on your topic. What counts is whether they're approachable, reliable, reassuring, give detailed feedback and don't mind the odd panicked email. They are your lifeline and your best chance of success.

如果你的導(dǎo)師不合適，趕緊換。我的導(dǎo)師很不錯(cuò)。如果你覺(jué)得他沒(méi)有給你正確的建議就申請(qǐng)換一個(gè)，只要不太晚又有充足的理由，系里應(yīng)該沒(méi)問(wèn)題。就我的經(jīng)驗(yàn)來(lái)說(shuō)，導(dǎo)師是不是這方面的專(zhuān)家不是很要緊，要緊的是他是個(gè)找得到的、靠譜的老師，能給出詳細(xì)的反饋意見(jiàn)，不介意稀奇古怪驚慌失措的郵件。導(dǎo)師是你的生命線，你要寫(xiě)出好論文可就靠他了。

2) If you mention working on your dissertation to family, friends or near-strangers, they will ask you what it's about, and they will be expecting a more impressive answer than you can give. So prepare for looks of confusion and disappointment. People anticipate grandeur in history dissertation topics – war, genocide, the formation of modern society. They don't think much of researching an obscure piece of 1970s disability legislation. But they're not the ones marking it.

如果你和家里人、朋友或是不怎么認(rèn)識(shí)的人說(shuō)起你在寫(xiě)論文，他們就會(huì)問(wèn)你寫(xiě)的是什么，你的答案總是沒(méi)有他們期待的那么高端洋氣，做好思想準(zhǔn)備，他們會(huì)露出迷茫或是失望的表情。人們對(duì)歷史論文的期待總是高端大氣、莊嚴(yán)宏偉，像戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)、種族滅絕、現(xiàn)代社會(huì)的形成，研究20世紀(jì)70年代一條晦澀模糊的殘疾人法案就不太受待見(jiàn)了。不過(guò)給論文打分的又不是他們。

3) If they ask follow-up questions, they're probably just being polite.

如果他們順著你的題目問(wèn)下去，也可能只是出于禮貌。

4) Do not ask friends how much work they've done. You'll end up paranoid – or they will. Either way, you don't have time for it.

不要問(wèn)小伙伴們進(jìn)度如何。不是你變得風(fēng)聲鶴唳就是他們變得草木皆兵。無(wú)論哪一種都要時(shí)間，你浪費(fèi)不起的。

5) There will be one day during the process when you will freak out, doubt your entire thesis and decide to start again from scratch. You might even come up with a new question and start working on it, depending on how long the breakdown lasts. You will at some point run out of steam and collapse in an exhausted, tear-stained heap. But unless there are serious flaws in your work (unlikely) and your supervisor recommends starting again (highly unlikely), don't do it. It's just panic, it'll pass.

論文總會(huì)把你逼瘋的，你會(huì)覺(jué)得整個(gè)論點(diǎn)都不成立，想要推倒重來(lái)。你甚至可能轉(zhuǎn)而研究一個(gè)新的問(wèn)題，這要看你多久才能恢復(fù)狀態(tài)。有時(shí)候你會(huì)失去動(dòng)力，會(huì)崩潰，會(huì)筋疲力盡，會(huì)哭，但是除非你的論文有嚴(yán)重的缺陷(不太可能)，你的導(dǎo)師建議重新寫(xiě)(更不可能)，不要推倒重來(lái)。你只是恐慌，會(huì)好的。

6) A lot of the work you do will not make it into your dissertation. The first few days in archives, I felt like everything I was unearthing was a gem, and when I sat down to write, it seemed as if it was all gold. But a brutal editing down to the word count has left much of that early material at the wayside.

許多準(zhǔn)備工作在論文里用不到。在檔案館的頭幾天，我覺(jué)得發(fā)掘出的所有東西都是寶石，坐下來(lái)開(kāi)始寫(xiě)的時(shí)候，好像都是金子，但是經(jīng)過(guò)了兇殘的編輯，到統(tǒng)計(jì)字?jǐn)?shù)的時(shí)候發(fā)現(xiàn)許多早期材料都留在路牙子上了。

7) You will print like you have never printed before. If you're using a university or library printer, it will start to affect your weekly budget in a big way. If you're printing from your room, "paper jam" will come to be the most dreaded two words in the English language.

打印起來(lái)就像以前從來(lái)沒(méi)打印過(guò)一樣。如果你在學(xué)校或圖書(shū)館打印，你每周預(yù)算會(huì)大受影響。如果你在家里打印，“卡紙”會(huì)變成英語(yǔ)里最可怕的兩個(gè)字。

8) Your dissertation will interfere with whatever else you have going on – a social life, sporting commitments, societies, other essay demands. Don't even try and give up biscuits for Lent, they'll basically become their own food group when you're too busy to cook and desperate for sugar.

寫(xiě)論文會(huì)干擾到所有其他的事情——社交、運(yùn)動(dòng)、社團(tuán)、別的作業(yè)?？蓜e為了齋節(jié)放棄餅干，在你沒(méi)空燒飯四處找糖吃的時(shí)候你就知道餅干多重要了。

9) Your time is not your own. Even if you're super-organised, plan your time down to the last hour and don't have a single moment of deadline panic, you'll still find that thoughts of your dissertation will creep up on you when you least expect it. You'll fall asleep thinking about it, dream about it and wake up thinking about. You'll feel guilty when you're not working on it, and mired in self-doubt when you are.

你的時(shí)間都不再是你的。即使你把時(shí)間規(guī)劃得超——好，連最后一小時(shí)都不放過(guò)，從來(lái)不為截止日期恐慌，你也會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，不管你愿不愿意，你總是想著畢業(yè)論文，睡著前想著它，做夢(mèng)夢(mèng)見(jiàn)它，一睡醒就想到它，不寫(xiě)論文就充滿(mǎn)了負(fù)罪感，寫(xiě)論文就陷入自我懷疑。

10) Finishing it will be one of the best things you've ever done. It's worth the hard work to know you've completed what's likely to be your biggest, most important, single piece of work. Be proud of it.

碼完畢業(yè)論文絕對(duì)是你做過(guò)最嗲的事情。這可能是你最大，最重要，并且獨(dú)一無(wú)二的作品，付出的努力都是值得的，自豪吧。