BA Tutorial and MA/PhD Supervision

Advice for Thesis and Dissertation Writing: First think long and hard about whether losing ten years of your life is worth it. It is important that you activate your mating strategy at this point because you will not live for long after you finish your dissertation and eventually get a job. Pick either the very well-know conventional wisdom in the literature, or (better), what everyone believes in the policy world. Then smash it. Never promise a theory, but come up with one. Read a lot of history, and then draw the target where the bullet lands. Try and publish every course paper you write, and don't get hung up or obsessed with any one submission. Do not procrastinate: send it out fast. Fire and forget. Also, make these papers contribute or fit into the chapters of your dissertation. Apply for every grant there is, just for the experience. Your grant should always ask for money for work you have already completed (since you will be an expert), and not for future work you don't know anything about. Avoid too many conferences as they make you lazy. Don't worry too much about the lit review, 'cause the publisher will cut it from your book anyway. He doesn't care that you are an expert, he just wants your theory, since that is what sells. Publish, publish, publish.