Thesis Writing: An Inevitable Test in a Student’s Journey

The journey elapsed from November 2006 to March 2007. I can say that the entire journey was laborious, extending from formulating a good research title to the judgement day of the oral defense. The semester commenced with the imperative of writing our big hairy audacious goal where I wrote my innermost perceptions, expectations, and aspirations toward the end of the semester. The hope shone when I and my co-members finally had our final research title which was “Understanding the Philippines as a tourist destination: a triadic lens of international students’ images, attitudes, and dilemmas.” Research writing is one of the serious predicaments of senior students which may be attributed to the fact that not all students have the inclination in writing. I for one experienced the chaos in squeezing the little amount of intelligence endowed to me by the Creator, as well as witnessed the toil of my fellow senior students from 4T1 and 4T2 in constructing good and sensible sentences from the introduction down to the conclusion.

However, the toils of labor shall always bear delicious fruits at the end of the day. I could say that I personally underwent the “steeling process” which was intermittently uttered by our research facilitator. In spite of the handwork, I was able to discover and eventually develop positive things deep within myself. Research writing entails self-discipline, patience, and good skills in writing. Self-discipline is a very important personal trait which could greatly help a neophyte researcher in the sense that one should know how to manage time because in research everyday is a day of productivity considering that we have six courses other than TOUR 112 which is Writing for Publication.

Days passed and the need for manpower arose, that is, in gathering the data needed in the investigation. Our respondents composed of international students who could rarely be found within the university’s premises. It was from December 7- 24, 2006 when we personally administered the fielding. We did ambush surveys since we were not allowed by the Office of the Students’ Affair to field the instrument on December 8, 2006 which happened to be the Christmas party of all the international students in the university. To have additional completed questionnaires we decided to penetrate eight other universities located in the city of Manila, namely: University of the Philippines, De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University, Far Eastern University, Centro Escolar University, University of the East, Saint Paul University, and Trinity College. Through the help of our valued friends, we were able to retrieve a total of one hundred four usable instruments. Data were encoded with a dummy set accomplished in Microsoft Excel. It was in December 27, 2006 when Ma’am Bel, the statistician, finally processed the tallied data through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 12).

It took several weeks for our introduction to be approved by our research consultant, Dr. Allan de Guzman, Ph.D.. Having the first part of the paper approved was a great feeling for the five of us because it underwent a lot of brainstorming sessions in the discussion room in the Central Library of the university. One of the toughest parts is to gather journal articles to be used in substantiating the content of our paper. We meticulously surfed the internet via EBSCO, Elsevier, DOAJ, Mamma, ERIC, etc and rummaged the serials section of the Central Library just to at least get at least thirty articles. After the introduction, we moved immediately to the method through my initiative to accomplish the first draft since my group mates were still rushing to finish their scrapbooks for Sociology 9. I was done far before the deadline for me to focus on our paper when it already called for massive time and attention. We have passed the challenge in writing the method. Presentation and Interpretation of the results of the study came. I must say that this was the hardest part where I was closely losing my head thinking for the possible and acceptable explanation for each of the significant finding.

Good thing we had our research database then and we were already quite acquainted with the previous studies conducted by tourism researchers. Critical thinking was the requisite to come up with a good discussion by personal attempts supported by the journal articles we have conscientiously read. Nevertheless, we managed to pass the test brought about by the discussion part. Surprisingly, limited corrections in the discussion were made which brought astonishment for our group especially the two of us who linked our ideas together. Indeed, the joy was at its peak because the conclusion and the abstract were left for us to improve and develop. We found it hard to think of the possible implications of our study to tourism education and tourism marketing. Consequently, the conclusion and abstract were approved within the third week of February and we were the first group in our class to finish and bring the paper to the language editor who resides in Meycauayan, Bulacan. Three of us brought the paper to her and two were asked to retrieve the paper. The editor’s residence was quite distant from Manila so the travel time was about one and a half hours. We were able to submit the five final copies to our adviser beforehand. However, final examinations came hand in hand with the accomplishment and submission of the oral defense guide and all of us failed to meet the given deadline.

This failure was a big mistake and an act of irresponsibility on our part as students. The consequence of delayed oral defense struck the members of the class. We were scolded by our adviser and came to realize the oddity of our actions. Fear of inability to join the graduation march was the first thing that came across our minds. Graduation was one of the best days of a student’s life and yet we will not be able to partake in the solemn event so we inevitably felt gloom and despair. After the threat of the consequence with the deprivation to have a mock defense, we were given hope when we learned that the oral defense schedule was on March 6 and 7 which means a chance to chase the deliberation period which is March 7. Oral Defense, the apocalypse, came. Our group made deliberate preparation. We memorized our lines and planned the flow of our presentation and how to go about the scholarly questions thrown by the members of the examination tribunal. The big day came. Fortunately, things came out to be just right and each of us delivered our respective spiels well.

So much to tell about the experiences but words are sometimes really not enough to state and explain all of the things in detail. All I can say is that I learned so many novel things I never came across in my three previous years in college. Indeed, thesis writing is something that distinguishes a senior student from the lower year levels. The exhaustive process is really an experience that I would never forget. I also learned that not all things come easy because the most difficult things are the ones which test a student’s limits and it is in suffering where an individual endures and strives to do better in the succeeding battles in life. To end this discourse, I would like to express my profound gratitude to our research adviser for imparting his knowledge and teaching us lessons which can never be found in the syllabus.