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SHOULD I DO A THESIS? WHEN SHOULD I PLAN FOR AND BEGIN WORK ON MY THESIS? STEP BY STEP GETTING IDEAS/EXPLORING POSSIBILITIES FINDING A TOPIC FINDING A FACULTY MEMBER TO DIRECT THE THESIS SELECTING A THESIS COMMITTEE SOME BASIC DECISIONS ABOUT THE DURATION OF THE THESIS PREPARING A THESIS PROPOSAL REGISTERING FOR YOUR THESIS CREDITS RESEARCHING AND WRITING THE THESIS MATTERS OF STYLE AND FORMAT THESIS DEFENSE (ORAL EXAMINATION) DEPOSITING COPIES OF THE FINAL PRODUCT FOR BINDING FOR FACULTY THESIS DIRECTORSSUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION SELECTED TITLES OF RECENT HISTORY HONORS THESES SAMPLE HISTORY HONORS THESIS COVER PAGE SAMPLE HISTORY HONORS THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Department of History ɫӰ A GUIDE FOR STUDENTS AND FACULTY WHAT IS AN HONORS THESIS? An honors thesis is an original, independent research project undertaken with the guidance of a faculty mentor and culminating in a significant paper. As a history student, you are familiar with the essays and papers written in our regular courses, and this is at once similar and different. The two forms are similar in the sense that both are characterized by a persuasive argument, judicious use of evidence, originality of thought, and clarity of expression. But they differ in two important waysan honors thesis is a very much larger project, and it is based on original research carried out according to the standards of the discipline. Although as an undergraduate you are unlikely to make a truly world-shattering discovery, you should expect your honors thesis to make, in at least a modest way, what scholars call a contribution to the field. You may hear people refer to an honors thesis as a senior thesis. In some ways, this phrase is misleading because many students start their theses before the senior year. But if such a phrase denotes a sense of maturity and culmination, then it is not entirely wrong. An honors thesis allows you to use your accumulated skills and knowledge to study an important question, test a hypothesis, or produce something truly creativeand to do so on your own, independently. Thus, an honors thesis is the ultimate, defining accomplishment of your undergraduate education. It is not the same as the paper completed in HIST 480, Senior Thesis, although completing an honors thesis will fulfill the same graduation requirement. The form and length of honors theses vary greatly by topic; recently, most theses have been forty to sixty pages, but some have been longer or shorter. SHOULD I DO A THESIS? The department encourages its best students to do a thesis, which together with HIST 487 Honors Colloquium fulfills the requirements for the History Honors Program. You can do a thesis and enroll in the History Honors Program without being in the Honors College, although if you are in the Honors College a thesis will count toward your honors credits over there. If you do not have space in your schedule for HIST 487 and the complete History Honors Program, you can still choose to write a thesis. If you do a thesis, it substitutes for one of your regular degree requirementsfor history majors, HIST 480 Senior Seminar; for social studies education majors, HIST 401, 402, 403 404 or 480. So, you have a choicethesis or not? A thesis is not the right choice for every student. Discovering new knowledge and turning it into a thesis can be tremendously exhilarating, but it demands a serious investment of your time and energy. You cant be merely going through the motions or doing this because someone else thought you should. If you arent dedicated to the project or do not have adequate time to devote to it, you are unlikely to end up with a product in which you can take pride, and you may not have much fun doing it. A quality thesis demands a quality commitment from you. A thesis is not the only right choice or even the best choice for every career path. In some cases, other experiencesif they allow you to demonstrate independence, proficiency, and maturity in your fieldcan be just as valuable or even more so. But even if your field emphasizes other experiences such as student teaching or an internship, do not be too quick to dismiss the possibility and value of an honors thesis. Theres nothing wrong with having more than one culminating experiencea thesis and an internship, for instanceif you can fit them in. Doing one does not necessarily preclude the other. You can think both/and rather than either/or. What then are some good reasons in favor of writing an honors thesis? First, the work can be incredibly rewarding. You can derive great satisfaction from designing a significant project and seeing it through to a successful conclusion. Knowing that you did it once, and thus can do it again in the future, builds legitimate self-confidence. Working closely on a one-to-one basis over an extended time period with a faculty thesis director can lead to mutual respect and intellectual discussions that are almost impossible to duplicate in any other setting. Along the way, there is tremendous intellectual excitement when you find new information, confirm a hypothesis, or finally understand how the pieces of a puzzle fit together. One student called those her flashbulb moments when the light goes on and all of a sudden you understand something in a way you never thought of it before. This is the same kind of excitement that researchers have shared for centuries, at least as far back as the day Archimedes first shouted Eureka! Second, a thesis is a superb opportunity to develop your research and communication abilities. Your knowledge will increase and your skills will grow exponentially. Writing a thesis also tests and strengthens your ability to employ initiative, to focus, to be persistent, and to manage time well. This makes a thesis exceptionally good preparation for the world of work or for graduate or professional school. Third, a thesis can open other opportunities to you. If your research is important enough and well written, all or part of it might be published. There are local, regional, and sometime national conferences at which undergraduates can do a poster presentation, be on a panel, or read a paper based on their research. In the course of your thesis work, you might connect with prominent scholars working in the field or make contacts leading to research assistantships or summer employment. The fourth point follows logicallya thesis strengthens your resume. Why do employers and graduate schools care about your thesis? Primarily because it is the part of your education that is most identifiably yours. Completing a thesis says volumes about your work ethic. For employers, it means that you can be given a significant independent project and be trusted to organize and complete it. For graduate and professional schools, it testifies not only to your persistence, but also to your mastery of research skills that are critical components of higher level study. WHEN SHOULD I PLAN FOR AND BEGIN WORK ON MY THESIS? Students who have written a thesis would shout loudly: Start early! Start early! Not just at ɫӰ but nationally, one reason many students do not write a thesis is that they wait too long to start thinking about it, and when they finally do there is simply not enough time left to pick a topic, find a professor, get the necessary approvals, and do the work. Sadly, they are left out by default. Dont let that happen to you. Ideally, you want to have all the plans and approvals completed by the time you register for your thesis credits, and this is three to five months earlier than the start of the semester when you begin work. This means deadlines will come up faster than you expect. It will take you some time to settle on a topic, find a professor to direct your thesis, and get the necessary approvals. This isnt something you can do in last one or two days before registration. So this is the bottom line advice: Start early! Yes, it is usuallyalthough not alwayspossible for you to register at the last minute. You can sometimes add thesis credits to your schedule as late as the drop-add period at the beginning of a semester, but the more you try to do at the last minute, the more chance of something going wrong. Dont procrastinate! Be smart, and be early! Even as first-year students, it is not too early to talk with your academic adviser about a thesis. Obviously, you are nowhere near ready to pick a topic or decide which faculty member you want to work with. In fact, you probably arent sure if you even want to do a thesis or if its the best path to take. You may not even be certain about your career choice or your major. But you can tell your adviser that a thesis is something you are considering. You can try putting a thesis into your tentative four-year plan and see how well it fits with the other things you want to do. This isnt a time to make a decision one way or another. Its certainly not a time to reject a thesis out-of-hand as something impossible. Its a time to keep your eyes open and explore possibilities. During your sophomore year, you will want to continue thinking seriously and perhaps make some specific plans. Your four-year plan should be taking a more definite shape now. If you are thinking about spending part or all of your junior year aboard, or if student teaching or an internship is going to be part of your senior year, you will need to think about when you want to schedule your thesis. The sophomore year is when you sign up for departments History Honors Program. If your thesis is going to be a senior year activity, you still have some time, but if your four-year plan calls for you to start as a junior (see the next paragraph for some reasons why it might), you need to begin serious planning as a sophomore. Remember that you register for courses well ahead of time. You select second-semester junior courses in October of your junior year. Thats not very long after you return next fall, so its wise to talk with your adviser about possibilities before you leave for the summer. During your junior year, you finalize your plans if you have not already done so, and may begin actual work on the thesis. There are good reasons that your thesis advisor might recommend starting a thesis work in your junior year. An obvious one is that some students are away from campus for an internship or student teaching during their last year. Either of these activities will take your full attention, and it is not advisable to try to do a thesis at the same time. Even if you are going to be on campus for your entire senior year, you will find other demands on your time, such as job searches and interviews or complicated applications for graduate and professional schools. If your thesis is relatively far along during the fall of your senior year rather than just being started, your professors can write stronger and more detailed letters of reference explaining what you have accomplished. You can also schedule a conference presentation in time to include it on your resume, and you might be able to submit a section of your thesis as a writing sample to accompany your applications. As your plans begin to take shape, you will want to consider whether your research will involve unusually high costs for items such as equipment, supplies, or travel. If these expenses are significantly beyond what an undergraduate might ordinarily be expected to provide in course supplies, you might be able to apply for funding. (Alternately, you might need to modify your plan to meet your budget.) Your senior year will be occupied with completing your thesis. Since your work is in the final stages, you are also in a good position to answer questions from students in the classes behind you and to be part of a History Club program or HIST 200 presentation on honors theses. Finally, you will want to take time to thank those who helped you with your thesis, and to take some well-deserved pride in what you have achieved. STEP BY STEP GETTING IDEAS/EXPLORING POSSIBILITIES There are a number of things that will help you generate ideas. You can talk with other students who are currently writing theses, and you can read some of the earlier theses that are on file. In advanced courses you can pay attention to the nature of research done by historians who study this field. What kinds of questions do they ask? What methods or approaches do they use? Sometimes looking at the titles of conference papers or journal articles can help you see how historians formulate questions and present arguments. Talk with as many people as you canfrom other students to your academic adviser to your favorite professors. Professors are particularly good at helping you generate ideas and evaluate possible topics. FINDING A TOPIC Your first decision is to choose the sub-area of your discipline that you want to focus on. What really interests you? Is it ancient Greece or the French Revolution or modern Korea? Are you interested in political, cultural or economic history? This doesnt mean a vague, lukewarm interest. It means what are you passionate about? If you are going to spend up to a year studying something, you had better be really interested in it. For some students, this is an easy decisionits the area covered by the courses you could hardly wait to get into and loved the whole way through. Once youve settled on a general area of interest, you can start to narrow it down. What fascinates you most about the French Revolutionthe peasants, the bourgeoisie, or the aristocracy? What sources can you locate and use for a study of Roman Egypt? You need to be very practical here. To take an extreme case, no matter how interested you are in studying the political machinations of the Meiji court, its probably not a smart choice if you are located in Pennsylvania and dont already know Japanese. Access to sources and the ability to use them are important limits to what you can do. The boundaries for acceptable thesis topics vary but some common principles apply. A thesis topic should raise a question or questions for which answers are not readily apparent. It should allow you to demonstrate your ability to use primary sources, and to tackle creatively a problem considered significant in the field. It has to be feasible given the time you have and given the library, and other resources that are available. Dont try to come up with one perfect, well-defined idea all by yourself. A better approach at this stage is to make a list of several ideas that seem plausible to you and then identify a professor who might be willing to direct your thesis. Once youve found a faculty member to work with, he or she will be able to help you evaluate and choose among the ideas youve generated. As an expert in the field, he or she might see possibilities and obstacles that you have missed. Most good thesis topics emerge out of conversations between students and their thesis directors, just as many good topics for the smaller papers you wrote in regular courses grew out of conversations you had with your professors. If you are having trouble thinking of a topic, it can be useful to remind yourself that you sometimes struggled to come up with a good topic for other papersand yet somehow, after talking with other students and the professor, it all came together in the end. Dont give up too easily or think you have to plan your thesis alone. You are expected to seek help and guidance. FINDING A FACULTY MEMBER TO DIRECT THE THESIS It is your responsibility to find an ɫӰ faculty member willing to guide you through the thesis project and give you a grade at the end. This person is called your thesis director. How do you find such a person? First, your topic and director have to be a match. If you want to do a thesis on forestry in Northern France you will need a director who will be able to help you. In some cases the topic you are thinking of may not have an exact match among the faculty. What if you want to work on suppression of spirit mediums in Late Yi Korea? We dont have any experts on Korean popular religion, but we do have faculty who work on witchcraft in Europe, nineteenth century American religion, and social reform in China. Most faculty are very willing to help you out, but they also know that past a certain point they really cant give you useful advice. How do you know which professors have which expertise? The department web page will give you a general idea. A brochure with brief biographies of history faculty is available in the department office. The courses that faculty teach and their publications are also good clues (check the history department display case!). Often the best information will come from your academic adviser because faculty colleagues always know each others work well. Second, your thesis director should be someone with whom you think you can work well. Professors and students are no less human than anyone else, and some personalities and learning styles match better than others. In many cases, you will already know your director well from prior coursework, and he or she will know you. If you do not know each other well, you each may want to spend some time in conversation before making a commitment. Remember that the professor is making a large time commitment to you, just as you are to the project. You both need to feel good about what you are undertaking. You should not be hesitant about approaching a professor. Most professors love to have thesis students, and they will consider it a compliment that you are asking them to be your director. It is, of course, possible that they may already have taken on as many thesis students as they can handle or made other commitments that make it impossible to work with you in any given semester. But the vast majority will be eager to work with you if they can possibly manage it. Professors who may seem distant or even daunting in other circumstances can become suddenly enthusiastic when they find out that you are passionate about the very same things that they are. Just as in other human relationships, common interests and common tasks make a good foundation for cordiality and mutual respect. SELECTING A THESIS COMMITTEE It is a long-standing academic tradition for theses to be evaluated by more than one professor. The usual practice is a committee of three, including your thesis director. With the help of your director, you will need to identify at least two other people to be on your thesis committee. At least one of the two must be a professor from the history department; the other may be someone from history or another department, a member of the universitys administrative or professional staff, or even an expert from outside ɫӰ. You and your director may wish to decide on the composition of your committee right away, but you may, if you think it wise, delay a decision until you have a clearer idea about the nature of your thesis and what additional expertise you might need on your committee. The amount of contact you have with these two additional readers, as they are often called, will vary. Sometimes one of them is put on the committee to help you with a particular aspect of the work, and you will consult on that point. In other instances you may see very little of them until the end of the project when they read your thesis and sit as a panel for an oral examination. PREPARING A THESIS PROPOSAL With the help of your thesis director, you must prepare a written thesis proposalthat is, an explanation of what you plan to do. There are sample proposals from past years on file in the History Department office. There are two good reasons why you must write a thesis proposalbecause the university needs it to give you approval to add the thesis to your schedule and because you need it to clarify your own plans. The Request for Independent Study form that you must use to register for your thesis requires that you attach a proposal. The form asks for: (1) a rationale for conducting an independent study, (2) the purpose of the study, (3) objectives, (4) activities to accomplish objectives, (5) required reading or bibliography, (6) evaluation process, (7) use for special purpose such as Honors credit, and (8) number of credits. If you are doing a thesis over more than one semester, you need to fill out the independent study form each semester and adjust the proposal appropriately for what you expect to accomplish during that part of the work. Even if the university regulations did not require a proposal, prudent students would want one for their own benefit. A good proposal guarantees that you have a plan that will work because you have to confront questions that you might otherwise skip over. Is your plan practical given the time you have? Will you be able to get the data or primary sources you need? Will you need equipment or access to special collections of documents? What is a reasonable timetable to accomplish each step of the work? Will you need to apply for any grants of money to cover extraordinary expenses? Do you and your director have the same expectations about what you are going to accomplish? When you draw up your final plan, keep it sharply focused. Above all else, you want to avoid getting half-way through and realizing that your project is too big to finish on time. You can always add another dimension later if you find yourself running ahead of schedule (unlikely!), but it is much harder to cut and pare when youre in a panic mode because time is running out. Part of the first semester work involves narrowing the topic, you may not be able to attach a fully developed thesis proposal to that semesters independent study form. In fact, preparing a full proposal may be one expected outcome of your first-semesters work. But even if your first-semester proposal is broader and more tentative, you still want to be as concrete as possible in terms of what you expect to accomplish and how your thesis director is going to evaluate your progress. Important note: If your research involves human subjects, you may need to seek approval from the universitys Institutional Review Board. This certifies that your research follows ethical procedures in its dealings with individuals. Your director will be able to tell you whether you need to seek such approval. Oral history projects can sometimes require this sort of approval. REGISTERING FOR YOUR THESIS CREDITS You register for HIST 483 (the departments own honors thesis number) by completing a Request for Independent Study form, which is available in the History Department Office. Your thesis director will help you fill out this form. You must attach a copy of your thesis proposal to the form. The form requires signatures from your thesis director, academic adviser, department chair, and college dean. Special note if you an Honors College student: It is very important that you or your thesis director write HONORS COLLEGE STUDENT plainly in the top margin so that the cost of your independent study is charged to the correct university budget line. The deans office will send the Request for Independent Study form to the Registrar/Scheduling Office. The Registrar/Scheduling Office will add the course automatically to your scheduleyou do not need to use URSA to add it yourself. Two cautions about this automatic scheduling: (1) If the addition of your thesis will push your schedule into an overloadmore than 17shyou must go to your college deans office and get permission. The Scheduling Office will not add the course unless you have permission for the overload. (2) If waiting for the course to be added automatically leaves your schedule temporarily with less than the minimal load required by your financial aid, call this to the attention of the Honors College. This is usually not a problem unless you have waited until the very last minute to file for approval so that there is not enough time for the form to be processed before you encounter difficulties. Remember! You must fill out and submit an Independent Study form and proposal twiceone for each semester. That is, the second semester credits will not appear by magic on your schedule. You must register for the second semester the same way you did for the first. RESEARCHING AND WRITING THE THESIS A thesis is based on original research done according to the standards of the disciplinestandards that you have been learning as you progressed through your coursework. But within the larger field of history, every little sub-specialty has its own quirks and tricks of the trade. This is the guidance that you should expect from your thesis director and why it is important that this professors expertise be as close as possible to your research topic. Much of the best advice about research and writing is therefore topic specific. But there is some handy advice that is generally applicable. Here are several good rules to remember: Research and writing will take more time than you expect. Be very certain that you save enough time in the semester for writing and revising. There is a great temptation to think that you can never have enough researchtheres always one more book you can read, one more person you could interview, one more document you could analyze. Your director will help you recognize when enough is enough and its time to write it up. Dont assume that research will end when you first start writing. Often you dont realize the weaknesses in your research until you start writing. The process of writing should inform your research and vice versa. As you are doing your research find a friend who is interested enough in what you are doing (or polite enough) to let you talk out loud about what you are finding. Talking is often a good way of beginning to make sense of what you are discovering. Your thesis director will be a good listener, too. Set up regular meetings with your thesis director. Keeping talking about how things are going. When you have a week in which you havent made much headway, it may be even more important to talk than when you are bursting with excitement and cant wait to tell your director what youve accomplished. Block out time in your weekly schedule for work on your thesis. Your thesis cant survive on bits and pieces of spare time. This is particularly important if you are prone to procrastination. Its a rare project that is lucky enough to escape having something go wronga source that you thought was available in translation is not, the interlibrary loan is slow in arriving, the person you most wanted to interview decides to take an extended vacation in Australia. Scream if you must, then take a deep breath, and move on. It happens to the best, most seasoned researchers, too. Just as with your earlier, smaller papers, this paper is going to need to go through multiple drafts. Having one or two trusted peer editors as well as your professor can help, too. You want this to be your best workallow time for polishing the prose for grammar and style. If writing forty pages seems to daunting, think in smaller, manageable sections. Authors never say, Im going to sit down this morning and write a book. Rather, they say, This morning, Im going to write the first section of chapter two. MATTERS OF STYLE AND FORMAT Your paper should be organized and written in a manner consistent with the Chicago or Turabian style, which is standard in the field. If you and your adviser know that you will be submitting your paper as an article for a particular journal, you may be advised to follow the documentation style of that journal. Your thesis director will be able to give you guidance on these points. Other matters of format: Follow the format of the sample title page [LINK] and approval page [LINK} Margins should be generous--1 inches on the left to allow for binding, 1 inches on the top and bottom, and 1 inch on the right. Additional details regarding format can be found in the most recent editions of the ɫӰ Graduate Schools Thesis Manual, the Chicago Manual of Style, or Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. THESIS DEFENSE (OR ORAL EXAMINATION) For nearly a thousand yearsthat is, for as long as university students have been writing thesesthe last hurdle in the process has been an oral examination. Your thesis director and the two other readers you have chosen make up the examining committee. Often this meeting is referred to as defending your thesis, although in modern times examinations are usually much more cordial and less adversarial than the word defense would imply. Most students find it rewarding and intellectually exciting to spend an hour discussing their project with three people who have already expressed great interest by agreeing to be mentors. If you have been in close communication with your thesis director and committee during the research and writing stages, and if you can say with assurance that you have done your best work, there is no reason not to approach the oral examination with confidence and good cheer. Your thesis director will be in charge of the session, and you should ask him or her what you might expect in terms of procedures and types of questions. You may be asked to begin the exam with a statement of your thesis and a brief summary of your work (if so, you will want to prepare rather than trying to wing it). The members of the committee will then take turns asking you questions. Your adviser or committee may have some final changes or corrections for you to make before you print out the final copy that is going to be bound and preserved. This is, in fact, a fairly common occurrence, and you should schedule the defense early enough to allow for these final corrections. When you have satisfied your committee, each will sign the approval page attesting that your work meets the standards of your field for an undergraduate honors thesis. (Rather than having your professors sign one approval sheet and photocopying it, you will want to create a sheet of original signatures for each copy of the thesis you need.) DEPOSITING AND BINDING THE THESIS All students must submit a copy of the final thesis. These will be bound and shelved in the History Department office suite with those of your classmates. If you are an Honors College student you must also provide two copies of your thesis to the Honors College FOR FACULTY THESIS DIRECTORS SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION This supplemental information is for professors who are directing undergraduate history honors theses. First, the History Department is exceptionally grateful for your willingness to undertake this responsibility. While the satisfaction of directing a very able students work may ultimately provide its own best reward, the university does provide modest compensation under the CBA guidelines for independent study payment. You and your student will be recognized at the History Department commencement. If your student is in the Cook Honors College, your name will be listed as the students thesis director in the Honors College graduation program as well, and you will be invited to attend the ceremony and join the students and their guests as they celebrate their accomplishments. Note: PLEASE READ THE GENERAL STUDENT-ORIENTED SECTIONS OF THIS GUIDE. You are encouraged to read carefully the student-oriented sections of this guide for two reasons. First, it is important for you to know what students are being told about their choices and responsibilities. Second, much of the detail about procedures is not repeated here. The faculty section of the guide supplements but does not replace the student sections. HISTORY STUDENTS AND THE THESIS EXPERIENCE A thesis is required for students enrolled in the History Honors Program. Qualified history majors may do a thesis even if they do not have room in their schedules for the entire honors program. Students who are in the Honors College may also use these credits toward their honors requirements there; the Honors College encourages its students to write a thesis, but does not require them to do so. This recognizes that, although an honors thesis is an excellent culminating experience, it is not equally appropriate for all majors or career paths. Should students approach you about the appropriateness of a thesis, you might discuss with them some of the questions and issues found under Should I Do a Thesis? in main section this Guide. HELPING YOUR STUDENT REGISTER FOR A THESIS Undergraduate honors theses are handled as independent study credits. You should help the student fill out a Request for Independent Study (available in the History Department Office) and attach his or her thesis proposal to the form. Once the Request is approved, the student will be registered for the credits. Further information about procedures and about what constitutes an acceptable proposal is in the student section of this Guide. All Request for Independent Study forms require the signature of the students adviser, department chairperson, and college dean. A well-written proposal will protect both you and the student from later misunderstandings about what was expected. See the relevant sections in the student part of this Guide. Special note if your student is enrolled in the Honors College: It is very important that you or your thesis director write HONORS COLLEGE STUDENT plainly in the top margin so that the cost of the independent study is charged to the correct university budget line. (Honors College theses are charged to the Honors College, thus saving our department allotment for other students.) Remember! You and your student must submit an Independent Study Form and proposal twiceone for each semester. The second semester credits will not appear by magic on the students schedule. Unless the form is submitted for the second semester as well as the first, the student will not get creditand you will not be paid. THE THESIS PROPOSAL All Request for Independent Study forms require that a proposal be attached. Obviously, a well-written proposal not only helps keep the student focused, it also helps avoid subsequent misunderstandings about the quality or quantity of work you expect. If this thesis is a two-semester project, and part of the first semester work involves narrowing the topic, you and your student may not be able to attach a fully developed thesis proposal to that semesters independent study form. In fact, preparing a full proposal may be one expected outcome of the first-semesters work. But even if the first-semester proposal is broader and more tentative, you still want to be as concrete as possible in terms of what you expect the student to accomplish and how you intend to evaluate the progress. You and your student can look at sample proposals by using the link in the student section of this guide. Note: If the research involves human subjects, your student will need to seek approval from the universitys Institutional Review Board. You will need to help your student understand this process and file the appropriate paperwork. THE THESIS COMMITTEE The Senate-approved guidelines for HIST 483 call for a three-person thesis committee, including the thesis director. Since you know the expertise of ɫӰ faculty better than your student does, you will probably have to suggest some possible members. At least one of the readers must be from the History Department, and both may be. However, the third member can be any member of the ɫӰ faculty, administration, or professional staff or anyone from outside the university who has the expertise and willingness to read the thesis and participate in the oral defense. THE THESIS DEFENSE The concluding oral examination should follow the procedures typical of a graduate thesis defense, although with performance standards appropriate for an advanced undergraduate. Normally approximately one hour is allotted to the examination, although you may adjust this to fit the circumstances. DEPOSIT OF COPIES IN THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT AND THE HONORS COLLEGE One copy of the final product, signed by the thesis committee thesis, is bound and kept in the History Department offices. If your student is also enrolled in the Honors College, two additional copies are required for the Honors College. Whether your student is in the Honors College or not, the binding is handled by the Honors College at its expense. GRADING AND STANDARDS FOR AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS You are the best judge of standards within your particular area of expertise. On the one hand, you must remember that this is an undergraduate, not a graduate, thesis, but on the other hand, you should not underestimate the ability of an honors student to produce truly superior work when challenged to do so. When it comes to setting a grade, you will obviously want to consider seriously the judgments of the two readers, but the thesis director is the instructor of record, and ultimately the determination of a grade is your responsibility. BUDGET AND COST CENTER FOR HONORS THESES BY HONORS COLLEGE STUDENTS If the student is enrolled in the Cook Honors College, the thesis is not charged against the History Department allotment of independent study money. Be sure to write HONORS COLLEGE STUDENT boldly in the upper right hand corner of the Request for Independent Study form so that the cost is charged to the correct budget. FACULTY COMPENSATION The thesis director is compensated according to CBA guidelines for independent study payment. The Request for Independent Study form used to add the credits to the students schedule will also, when approved, automatically trigger your independent study payment. Note: this differs from the regulations governing compensation for graduate theses. The two readers contribute their time as part of their general professional responsibilities, but without additional payment. [LINK] SELECTED TITLES OF RECENT HISTORY HONORS THESES Angle, William, Eugene Debs and the Transition to Industrial Unionism, 1886-1894 Director: Prof. Irwin Marcus Barbour, Erin, The Transfer of Musical Culture from Africa and Spain to Cuba during the Colonial Period Director: Prof. Caleb Finegan Cook, Eric, The Singing School Movement in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, 1820-1885 Director: Prof. Charles Cashdollar Ferrell, Jennifer, Hound of Hell or Contemporary Critic: Machiavellis Critique of the Catholic Church Director: Prof. Lynn Botelho Hassan, Jennifer, Algeria, 1830-1962: A Pauperized Countrys Attempt to Gain Independence Director: Prof. Sharon Franklin-Rahkonen Hutchins, Jason, Encouraging Gods Lost Children: The Early Writings of Benjamin Tucker Tanner, African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1867-1872 Director: Prof. Wang Xi Hooks, Heather, The Battle of Kosovo: Nationalism in Medieval Serbia Director: Prof. Sharon Franklin-Rahkonen Matthews, Christopher, History with a Purpose: Political Motivations of the Left in Interpreting the Paris Commune of 1871 Director: Prof. Tamara Whited Matty, Denise, How Did Reputation Label People as Early Modern English Witches? Director: Prof. Lynn Botelho Nowak, Daniel, Extreme Nationalism, Extreme Consequences: Milosevic, the Serbs, and Kosovo. Director: Prof. Sharon Franklin-Rahkonen, Reppy, Jeremy, German East Africa in the Rechenberg Era, 1906-1911: Period of Change or Failed Vision? Director: Prof. Michele Wagner Skillen, Larry, The Breakdown of Civility: Preaching in the Parish of Groton, England, 1627-1628 Director: Prof. Lynn Botelho Snyder, Andrew, A Window of Solidarity in Steel: McKees Rocks, 1909. Director: Prof. Gary Bailey [Sample Thesis Cover Page] [Students who are not in the Honors College should omit those references] Popular religion in Colonial Bolivia and yuan dynasty China: A comparision of the roles of catholic and daoist clergy in reforming local practices An Honors Thesis Submitted to the Department of History and The Robert E. Cook Honors College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Arts Mary L. Field Robert E. Cook Honors College ɫӰ May 2001 [Sample Honors Thesis Approval Page] [Students who are not in the Honors College should omit those references] ɫӰ The Robert E. Cook Honors College and The Department of History We hereby approve the honors thesis of Mary L. Field Candidate for the degree Bachelor of Arts ________________ __________________________________________________________ Date Professor of History, Thesis Director ________________ __________________________________________________________ Date Professor of History ________________ __________________________________________________________ Date Professor of [History or other appropriate field] ________________ __________________________________________________________ Date Director, Robert E. 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