Life after a Thesis/Project

Life after Completing a Thesis/Project
Leslie Cermak

When I first read this month’s post subject, I immediately thought the answer to whether there was life after the completion of a thesis was “of course!” While my answer may not have changed much upon further reflection, I think I’ll be more conflicted when my time as a graduate student comes to an end.

I have spent several semesters fretting over finding the right topic, the right research, the right committee, etc. I have also taken classes that I never thought I would take when I first became a graduate student (Quantitative Methods comes to mind). As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m the first person in my mother’s and father’s families to consider a master’s degree, so this entire process was new to me. I never realized how much of graduate school was centered on the thesis.

Although this has been good, it’s also been a little frustrating in that much of what I have learned will not apply to a job of copy editing. Some classes have been solely to prepare for my thesis. I sometimes wonder if after spending so much time on a project of such importance if I will ask “Now what?” when it is all over. In these times, I have to remember the main reasons I returned to school: 1: to get a job outside of teaching English, and 2: to pursue a doctoral degree at OU one day.

That being said, if I do decide to return for my doctorate, the topic I have chosen (about studying undergraduate’s perceptions of journalism) will be relevant. If I can revise my thesis appropriately, I would like to submit either some of my findings or the study itself to journals such as Journalism & Mass Communication Educator or Journal of Mass Media Ethics. I am also considering submitting works to conferences for AEJMC or SPJ.

Furthermore, after I intern as a copy editor this summer at The Oklahoman, I hope to find a job in the print media. As many of these companies often hire college graduates, I think the research from my study can help explain attitudes of those transitioning from students to employees. I’d like to not necessarily influence (as the blog topic says) but contribute to these two realms -- the professional and scholarly. In short, it will be difficult considering my life after the thesis if I must leave behind the novice researcher that I’ve become. Preparing papers for submissions to conferences and journals may be a good way for me to make this transition.

Finally, (though I’m not adding this for a clichéd, sentimental ending), the audience I most want to influence is my family. I have spent so many hours working on my education these past two years that I have seen less and less of my mother, sister, and husband. We are very close, and I want them to know that time I spent away from them was worthwhile. I want to be able to show them what I have accomplished in the last two years and maybe encourage them to push their own limits and pursue things they wouldn’t ordinarily try.