We recommend that our students purchase this book to aid them in completing their thesis projects.
A senior thesis is a requirement for many honors programs across the country, and the Honors Tutorial College is no exception. Since 2003, all HTC students have been required to complete a thesis in order to graduate from our college. Previously, many individual majors required a thesis or gave students the option to write one, but many did not. Now all of our students compose some kind of thesis project during their senior year. We talk about this requirement with perspective students as well as with our current ones, so it’s definitely not a surprise (though it might be seen by some students as an ominous — perhaps even onerous — requirement looming in their future).
Last night my assistant dean and I met with HTC sophomores to talk about their senior thesis requirement. While these students have at least another year before they have to turn their focus primarily to their thesis projects, we like to give them tips for how to use their junior year to maximize their thesis preparation. So, we talk to them about things like scheduling tutorials to give them added expertise in their research area, taking our pre-thesis junior composition course, scoping out a supportive thesis adviser, and other topics, all designed to help them succeed in this final requirement.
In preparing for this meeting, which took place in our fabulous new multipurpose room, I started to think about why we require a senior thesis. Is it just a requirement that we arbitrarily impose on our students? Or does it serve a specific purpose in creating the kind of graduates we want to produce? Not surprisingly, I think it’s the latter, but it’s important that I be able to articulate the goals and purposes of the thesis requirement as concretely as possible as I talk to students and prospective students about this requirement.
One of the many useful documents my predecessor created while she was dean was a booklet delineating our thesis guidelines. This booklet begins with a section entitled, “Why Is Thesis Work Important? What Is Thesis Work?” This section explains what a thesis is. As it states,
A thesis is . . .
- Based on substantial research using the standards inherent in a specific field.
- Demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the matters at issue.
- Offers an interpretation. That interpretation does not have to be unique, but it cannot be simply derivative–it must clearly demonstrate insight and creativity on your part.
- Conveys its conclusions in the form of a creative project or document that accords to guidelines designed to enhance its accessibility and its long-term preservation.
The majority of thesis work results in the production of a substantial written paper of variable length (the nature of your discipline often determines appropriate length), but depending upon your interests and the parameters of your discipline a major component of your thesis work can be, and in some fields should be, a project that makes use of other mediums and/or modes.
After reading last year’s theses, I decided to add a minimum length (for most projects) of 50 pages, which is actually much shorter than these projects tend to be — most are around a 100 pages. What surprised me most about our seniors’ thesis projects was just how significant most of their research really is. While an undergraduate thesis is clearly not the same as a graduate one, our students do an incredible amount of research and many are making an important, if nevertheless small, contribution to their field.
