Finishing the Exit Project in Planning

My recent posts have provided advice on the exit project or
thesis in planning: how to
get started, write a proposal, manage one's committee, and troubleshoot
problems. This post concludes this series by providing advice on getting
done-not the last-minute troubleshooting issues dealt within one of the earlier posts-but the big steps that will help you get done on time.

• Write
  a proposal-without
  it you'll flounder.
• Make a
  timeline and negotiate key deadlines with your committee-they may even
  have a draft ready. For instance, Bruce Stiftel of Florida State
  provides standard milestones
  for students.
  Allow time for comments and revisions. Don't underestimate the time to
  create illustrations and do final formatting. Stick to your timeline and
  if you need to depart from it, let your committee know ahead of time.
• Find
  the university style sheet or create your own. There are often two parts.
  One will deal with text:
  punctuation, capitalization of words, reference formats, and related
  issues. The other will deal with
  layout: margins, heading styles, fonts. If there isn't a style sheet in
  existence use a book like Turabian's Craft of Research
  for the text styles. Copy a book or report you find attractive for the
  layout style. This is an important document-sticking to a style can save
  lots and lots of time.
• Take
  notes carefully-I use a template that records the methods used, place
  studied, and key topics for each reading and that also notes page numbers.
  This is a great help later.
• While
  not absolutely necessary, I've found over the years that keeping notes
  about what I do helps reconstruct decisions later. I keep such a log every
  day.
• Unless
  you really, really need to travel or buy a large data set you don't need
  to get grants for masters-level projects in planning. It
  isn't expected and it can take a lot of time.
• Many
  people have not managed a 100+ page document-if you are one of those folks, look
  for classes on how to use your word processing program effectively to deal
  with pagination, sections, paragraph styles, tables, charts, graphs, and
  images. There are many simple short cuts and I notice that too few
  students use them.

Remember, getting finished is an important step on your path to
being a planner. Doing it as efficiently as possible will enable you to start making
a difference in the world all the sooner.