I wonder how different thesis writing was back in the days of typewriters. On one hand, many operations would be extremely frustrating. You would need to redo an entire page to correct a single error, for instance. On the other hand, people were probably less susceptible to being overwhelmed by the amount of information at hand. Furthermore, there is little danger of your typewriter getting toasted by a malicious script picked up on a dodgy website.
Author: Milan
In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. Between 2005 and 2007 I completed an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. I worked for five years for the Canadian federal government, including completing the Accelerated Economist Training Program, and then completed a PhD in Political Science at the University of Toronto in 2023.
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When I wrote my Master’s thesis in London, I had to retype the whole thing atleast 20 times and the bibliography was a killer, and footnotes too. It was also much less interactive with my advisor. I wrote the whole thing in Washington, D.C. after I finished my exams and while I was working at the World Bank. I am sure that the expectations were lower than they are now.
I suspect the standards now are more accurately described as ‘different’ than objectively ‘better.’
Hanging files