雙語閱讀：寫論文前要知道的10件事

摘要:你的論文已經進入最後的潤色階段了麼?那就留些小貼士給明年寫論文的孩子看吧。

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

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

你的論文已經進入最後的潤色階段了麼?那就留些小貼士給明年寫論文的孩子看吧。

寫論文可能是大學生最艱鉅的任務之一了——不過總是會寫完的。

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.

桌上碼着螺旋裝訂的萬字論文，完成的形式各種各樣，那是我的同盟軍;歷史系的交稿托盤是我要攻佔的諾曼底。艾森豪威爾說爲了這場聖戰我們已經努力了許多個月，說得對極了。

寫論文前要知道的10件事

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《本科畢業論文手冊》，文件特別大，下了很長時間，我的心就一直往下沉，盤算着寫什麼主題(後來發現真是想太多)。這些就是我後來學到的教訓，真希望當初就知道。

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.

如果你的導師不合適，趕緊換。我的導師很不錯。如果你覺得他沒有給你正確的建議就申請換一個，只要不太晚又有充足的理由，系裏應該沒問題。就我的經驗來說，導師是不是這方面的專家不是很要緊，要緊的是他是個找得到的、靠譜的老師，能給出詳細的反饋意見，不介意稀奇古怪驚慌失措的郵件。導師是你的生命線，你要寫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.

如果你和家裏人、朋友或是不怎麼認識的人說起你在寫論文，他們就會問你寫的是什麼，你的答案總是沒有他們期待的那麼高端洋氣，做好思想準備，他們會露出迷茫或是失望的表情。人們對歷史論文的期待總是高端大氣、莊嚴宏偉，像戰爭、種族滅絕、現代社會的形成，研究20世紀70年代一條晦澀模糊的殘疾人法案就不太受待見了。不過給論文打分的又不是他們。

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

如果他們順着你的題目問下去，也可能只是出於禮貌。

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.

不要問小夥伴們進度如何。不是你變得風聲鶴唳就是他們變得草木皆兵。無論哪一種都要時間，你浪費不起的。

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.

論文總會把你逼瘋的，你會覺得整個論點都不成立，想要推倒重來。你甚至可能轉而研究一個新的問題，這要看你多久才能恢復狀態。有時候你會失去動力，會崩潰，會筋疲力盡，會哭，但是除非你的論文有嚴重的缺陷(不太可能)，你的導師建議重新寫(更不可能)，不要推倒重來。你只是恐慌，會好的。

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.

許多準備工作在論文裏用不到。在檔案館的頭幾天，我覺得發掘出的所有東西都是寶石，坐下來開始寫的時候，好像都是金子，但是經過了兇殘的編輯，到統計字數的時候發現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.

打印起來就像以前從來沒打印過一樣。如果你在學校或圖書館打印，你每週預算會大受影響。如果你在家裏打印，“卡紙”會變成英語裏最可怕的兩個字。

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.

寫論文會干擾到所有其他的事情——社交、運動、社團、別的作業。可別爲了齋節放棄餅乾，在你沒空燒飯四處找糖吃的時候你就知道餅乾多重要了。

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.

你的時間都不再是你的。即使你把時間規劃得超——好，連最後一小時都不放過，從來不爲截止日期恐慌，你也會發現，不管你願不願意，你總是想着畢業論文，睡着前想着它，做夢夢見它，一睡醒就想到它，不寫論文就充滿了負罪感，寫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.

碼完畢業論文絕對是你做過最嗲的事情。這可能是你最大，最重要，並且獨一無二的作品，付出的努力都是值得的，自豪吧。