Sydney Life

Today's riddle:

What is:
- 130 pages long?
- has a word count of 21813?
- includes over 140 000 characters?
- references 110 items of primary sources, and 147 secondary sources?

MY THESIS!

Welcome to the land of the honours-bound (hopefully). After what seems like an eternity (but in reality, has been 11 months) I am finally on the home-stretch. Next Wednesday, October 4, I will submit my thesis to the History Department.

Now that I'm almost done, I think it's time we actually get one thing straight: what the hell is an Honours year? (Given that Ghassan and I have been banging on about it all year!)

An Honours year is another year of study some students choose to complete, after their undergraduate study (if you're doing a combined degree, you would usually complete your Honours year of your first degree after 3 years, and then finish the other degree afterwards). Generally, students are required to have a distinction average to complete this year, although this changes from faculty to faculty.

So, in high school terms, what's involved? Ghassan, clever gem that he is, has devised this comparison: Honours is similar to an Extension subject you might choose to do in your HSC year, like English Extension 2, History Extension, or Music Extension. In each of these, students have to complete a major work. And that's pretty much what you do in an Honours year.

Of course, this changes, depending on your faculty. I'm doing Honours in History, and so I have to complete a thesis (I also did some coursework in first semester). My friend Miss B is doing Honours in Visual Arts, and so she has to complete a major work (in her case, a film) and a mini-thesis. Ghassan is doing Honours in Sociology, and his year was similar to mine: thesis + coursework. My friend Miss C is doing Honours in Agriculture, and so she spends her days in the lab, researching her own individual project, about which she will complete her own thesis.

The great (and frustrating) thing about Honours is that you get to devise your own project, in a field of enquiry that really interests you. I chose African-American history and radical student politics of the 1960s and 1970s, for example. The frustrating bit is that you have to then try to make your research distinct from the research that has gone before you.

Each Honours student has a supervisor, who generally shares an interest in your field of study. My supervisor, Clare (who really does put the 'super' in supervisor) specialises in African-American history, for instance. At Sydney, there are loads of academics to choose from, so you really can take your pick.

Honours is pretty difficult (sometimes it's hard to stay motivated, particularly when you don't have any classes, and your due date seems soooooooo far away) but ultimately, it's a huge achievement. I know next week I'll be proud to say that I contributed something new to the academic world. After three years of reading about this area, I've got lots to say, and in my Honours thesis, I'm able to do just that.

If you would like to know more about studying Honours at Sydney, visit the Honours website.