1.The Definition And Purpose Of The Thesis -- 1.1.What Is a Thesis, and Why Is It Required? -- 1.2.For Whom Is This Book Written? -- 1.3.The Usefulness of a Thesis after Graduation -- 1.4.Four Obvious Rules for Choosing a Thesis Topic -- 2.Choosing The Topic -- 2.1.Monograph or Survey? -- 2.2.Historical or Theoretical? -- 2.3.Ancient or Contemporary? -- 2.4.How Long Does It Take to Write a Thesis? -- 2.5.Is It Necessary to Know Foreign Languages? -- 2.6."Scientific" or Political? -- 2.6.1.What Does It Mean to Be Scientific? -- 2.6.2.Writing about Direct Social Experience -- 2.6.3.Treating a "Journalistic" Topic with Scientific Accuracy -- 2.7.How to Avoid Being Exploited by Your Advisor -- 3.Conducting Research -- 3.1.The Availability of Primary and Secondary Sources -- 3.1.1.What Are the Sources of a Scientific Work? -- 3.1.2.Direct and Indirect Sources -- 3.2.Bibliographical Research -- 3.2.1.How to Use the Library -- 3.2.2.Managing Your Sources with the Bibliographical Index Card File -- 3.2.3.Documentation Guidelines -- 3.2.4.An Experiment in the Library of Alessandria -- 3.2.5.Must You Read Books? If So, What Should You Read First? -- 4.The Work Plan And The Index Cards -- 4.1.The Table of Contents as a Working Hypothesis -- 4.2.Index Cards and Notes -- 4.2.1.Various Types of Index Cards and Their Purpose -- 4.2.2.Organizing the Primary Sources -- 4.2.3.The Importance of Readings Index Cards -- 4.2.4.Academic Humility -- 5.Writing The Thesis -- 5.1.The Audience -- 5.2.How to Write -- 5.3.Quotations -- 5.3.1.When and How to Quote: 10 Rules -- 5.3.2.Quotes, Paraphrases, and Plagiarism -- 5.4.Footnotes -- 5.4.1.The Purpose of Footnotes -- 5.4.2.The Notes and Bibliography System -- 5.4.3.The Author-Date System -- 5.5.Instructions, Traps, and Conventions -- 5.6.Academic Pride -- 6.The Final Draft -- 6.1.Formatting the Thesis -- 6.1.1.Margins and Spaces -- 6.1.2.Underlining and Capitalizing -- 6.1.3.Sections -- 6.1.4.Quotation Marks and Other Signs -- 6.1.5.Transliterations and Diacritics -- 6.1.6.Punctuation, Foreign Accents, and Abbreviations -- 6.1.7.Some Miscellaneous Advice -- 6.2.The Final Bibliography -- 6.3.The Appendices -- 6.4.The Table of Contents -- 7.Conclusions.