Trust that deadlines will be met and deliver no matter what
Due to problems in regards to the original thesis (test of children) we really first got started with the thesis (a literature review) in the middle of March. The whole process has been hard and there was no cutting corners. It has been important for us to have room for leisure activities, family time and work outside of the writing process. We have also been good at giving each other space and trusted that deadlines would be met. Having each other in the thesis process have been very important.
During the process, we agreed to hand in our thesis regardless of whether we were finished or not, as it counts as an attempt. This advice we would like to pass on. Even though you might think 14 days before handing in your thesis that you won’t be able to finish on time, we made an agreement right from the start to hand in the thesis June 1, 2017. We handed in our thesis two days before the deadline - 10 pages below the maximum requirement.
Frustrating to change the thesis subject in the middle of the process.
When we were to choose our thesis subject we had not yet decided if we wanted to write together. We looked through the thesis catalogues and attended the information meeting with various presentations to get inspired. Because we found the same topic interesting we decided to work
together on an ongoing project that was going to take place during our thesis period. We thought we were well prepared and had done a good job before the process really got started. Unfortunately, the initial process of creating a thesis protocol and writing a project description could not be used because the ongoing project got postponed, so we could not do what was originally planned. It was a very frustrating process to change the subject and method in February, where we initially thought we would start. For that reason, it was hard to find motivation and we felt a bit lost.
The fact that our thesis now had a different focus and we no longer had to collect data out in the "field" was in many ways a disappointment, but looking back, it was not the worst thing that could happen. We now had to do a literature study, which was not the original plan and at first seemed to be an insidious and rather boring assignment.
Matching our expectations was key to a good writing process
However, we were very glad not to stand entirely alone in this situation and agreed to make the best out of the situation. We were fairly quick to agree upon our level of ambition for the thesis. We still wanted room to breathe and to have family life and activities outside of our thesis process. We found it important to match our expectations and form a contract with both professional and personal content and goals. This we definitely can recommend when writing in a group. During the writing process we talked a lot about our successes, frustrations and defeats but there was also room for laughs. It has undoubtedly been a tough and demanding process, but it has been bearable because we were able to share our thoughts during the thesis process.