Mediocrity vs. Distinction

In the past few years, I have helped several students -- for nothing -- with Master's and Doctoral theses. Today one of them told me that one of his examiners had awarded him a distinction, but he was still waiting on the other. OBSERVATION: Having read so many theses, it seems to me that a big difference between mediocrity and distinction is that the work of distinction has a big idea and creates an integrated whole. The work of mediocrity is still too fragmented. This is the challenge that I had, too. It is one thing gathering facts -- quite another weaving them together into a meaningful whole. I find that younger students, too, are not by nature big thinkers. They haven't been trained that way.

POSTSCRIPT: I misspelled "mediocrity" when I first put up this post!