Writing...dun dun dun....the THESIS

Yesterday, I kinda sorta started thinking about writing my thesis. Mentally I did all the things people on TV do when they are going to start writing something. I cleared off the desk, I opened the spec sheet, I made sure I was ready. Kinda like this:



I have a thesis proposal, largely formatted according to specification, which is about two years old. First, I started to try to write the abstract. But then Mr. PhizzleDizzle advised me to write the abstract last. He says he always writes the abstract last because well, I guess it makes sense to write the "summary" when you've finished the work.

So then I move on to revamping the introduction, and find that I am totally stuck. I mean, this is the THESIS, not just some paper. I felt all compelled to make sure each sentence, nay, each WORD was perfectly selected to perfectly convey what I was thinking. Not only that, I began to wonder about general content.

Like I said, this proposal that I'm retooling is a few years old. Things that were true when I wrote it are no longer true, in the sense that I started out with, "X is becoming more and more Y", while nowadays it's more like, "X has become Y." So when I wrote the proposal, a large part of my introduction went far into background, explaining the phenomena of the trend of X towards Y, going into detail because not everyone in the field might have known or cared at that point.

But now, the fact that X is Y is basically a given, so I am not sure whether, because this is the THESIS,I should still provide the background information to lay the groundwork for my research, or be like, well, everyone knows this by now so let's just get on with it.

If any experienced thesis writers could provide insight as to how much background to go into during introduction, I would be appreciative. And of course, I will also be asking my advisor, who is actually a reasonably good advisor. Most of the time.