Looking For The Most Reasonable Reasons Why Candidates Should Write Thesis

Illustration of a scholar (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - We know that thesis is one of the requirements for students to get a bachelor's degree. There is always a story behind the process of writing a thesis. But the basic question that is often asked by the public is: why should a thesis be a requirement for graduate candidates? What is the use of life when you are in society later?

Recently, Twitter's timeline has been busy discussing thesis issues. It came from the owner of the @icecoldnovember account. "This thesis is a trick of someone else," he wrote on June 14, 2021. This tweet received more than 19 thousand retweets and hundreds of netizens responded.

The ballad stories of working on the thesis also appeared. Many netizens admit that thesis is not only time consuming, but also physically and mentally draining. Not a few complained about the lengthy process of completing the final challenge for these prospective scholars.

"After the trial, that turned out to be the case. Eh, don't be happy, you took care of the revision, asking for a signature, in order to take care of the financial activation graduation, the validation of the library is more challenging, more annoying, more dizzy," wrote one Twitter user.

What kind of person is this script ?

— fury (@icecoldnovember) June 14, 2021

Other users encourage students to enjoy the process. For him, all the long and tiring process will pay off in cash.

"Enjoy it. When you get out of the courtroom, you feel really relieved, all your hard work has paid off. And one day you will miss the difficult times during your thesis. The spirit of thesis fighters," said another Twitter user So why is this thesis so important that it is used as a graduate requirement?

The importance of the scientific method

The online version of the KBBI defines thesis as a scientific essay that must be written by students as part of the final requirements of their academic education. Thesis determines the eligibility of students to receive a bachelor's degree.

During the work, students get assistance from the supervisor. The student first submits a thesis proposal, conducts research until finally entering the thesis trial stage.

Thesis encourages students to think structured and familiar with the scientific method so that solving a problem can be accounted for. Don't just rely on assumptions.

Here students are faced with a lot of theory. However, is the theory only a hypothesis or has its validity been tested?

Illustration (Source: Unsplash)

The national hero, Tan Malaka, in his book Materialism, Dialectics and Logic, once explained this kind of thing. According to him, the theory and the problem have the same origin, but differ in the translations in Dutch and English. A theory can be defined as a hypothesis that has been tested in English.

Hypotheses can be interpreted as prejudices, beliefs, temporary understandings that are not yet real. For Tan Malaka, the most important thing is the method or method used to test whether a theory is true or not. He summarized the three methods used, namely the synthesis method, the analytical method, and the reductio ad absurdum method.

"The nature or method of the synthesis method puts up a known theory, until the theory that must be tested turns out to be true. We go from the known to the new. We attach all the known theories to state the unknown as if we were tiered up. On the contrary we use the analytical way, we do the opposite. We take the stairs down," wrote Tan Malaka. After knowing why this thesis or scientific thinking process is important, then what is the use of it for everyday life later?

The importance of commitment

To answer that question, Lecturer of French Language and Literature Study Program Universitas Brawijaya Lusia Neti Harwati has the answer. According to him, one of the important elements of the thesis is that students learn to have commitment. Especially in the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic which makes the situation even more difficult.

"From the start, I will ask the student concerned, do you want to pass the target of one or two semesters? I ask for a commitment, how many times do you want guidance, I have time in this semester, today. So, the agreement is clear," said Lusia to VOI .

He admitted that the Covid-19 pandemic added to the pressure on students in working on their thesis. Student interaction is reduced because they have to limit face-to-face meetings to avoid the transmission of Covid-19. Everything is done online, on the other hand, human interaction such as direct discussions between friends is important to support the completion of the thesis.

"For example, students on campus have friends to discuss, there are lecturers to meet face-to-face, but eventually go online. Human touch does not exist, this greatly affects," he said.

The work on the thesis that is continuously postponed results in the student's study period getting longer to be able to graduate. Meanwhile, universities provide a maximum study period of 14 semesters or 7 years.

Dealing with students like this, Lusia said that she was more reminded that one of the benchmarks for students is being able to compose scientific papers. In addition, there is a special forum for sharing student problems and what assistance lecturers can provide.

For Lusia, students' academic abilities are not always about writing scientific papers, but thinking logically and critically. One of the media is thesis.

When graduating, people may rarely ask the student's thesis. However, from the thesis, students will gain experience on how they are able to learn to manage time, maintain communication and interaction patterns which will be needed more when involved in society.

*Read other information about EDUCATION or read other interesting articles from Ramdan Febrian.

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