I'm writing a "mini-thesis" for grad school applications. I don't know what I'm doing...

[Gravitycollapse]

Which I guess is relevant given the fact that my topic is the failure of normative forms of communication to express the personal.

I wonder what would happen if I simply turned in 50 blank pages of printer paper. Would that be like the ultimate treatise on the subject? I'll just cry onto the title page and when they see the rippled and damaged tear drop marks, I'll just tell them that's the title of the work.

[handmade34]

1. might work?

creative license can go a long way sometimes

I once had to submit a lengthy essay with application to (grad level) school and ended up writing a poem with only about 60 words on each page... got me in!

GOOD LUCK!

[nolabear]

2. Don't try it. You're just freaked out.

Hell, you could do the whole thing on tweet and text cultures, and how the more ubiquitous they become, the less actual intimacy there is between friends and family and lovers.

[rrneck]

3. Write it wrong first.

Start wherever you are and proceed.

[davidpdx]

4. I highly recommend looking on Google Scholar

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_vis=1&q=normative+forms+of+communication&hl=en&as_sdt=1,5&as_ylo=2007&as_yhi=2013

I came up with 18,700 hits. The ones with links on the left you have access to. I'd also check and see what online resources your public library has and whether they have access to ProQuest and/or EBSCOhost.

I'd do some reading and then come up with an outline.

[petronius]

5. You have to write a 50-page thesis just to apply to grad school?

Damn, I'm glad I'm long past that stage. And I'm even more glad not to be on the admissions committee for whatever department has to read all those...

Good luck!

[Incitatus]

6. .

Sorry, couldn't help it.

Good luck.

[Vashta Nerada]

7. All I had to fill out was an application to grad school.

No mini-thesis. The hardest thing I had to do was take the GRE. That was a pain.

I'm actually writing my thesis now.

Good luck!

[mrmpa]

8. I wrote a 50 page thesis........

for my BA. I got into grad school, without taking the GRE. When I got accepted they wanted me to take the GRE within a year, never got around to it and still got my MA.

[a la izquierda]

9. I think a 50 page application thesis is a bit much.

I have a PhD and to apply for jobs the longest thing I had to submit was a 30 page article.

Sheesh.

I'm reading applications materials for a friend now and one place wants 2 chapter length samples (so 25-30pages). We're historians, so we write. A lot.

Good luck there. Don't panic.

[Xyzse]

10. Heck, you could probably do that

Turn in 60-70 pages. First 50 blank and tear stained, then the last 10-20 pages explaining yourself.