Planning and Initiating a Senior Thesis
Any senior major in the department may elect to do a senior thesis. The interested student should consult with his or her major advisor and/or the department chair concerning possible topics and faculty expertise in the department. It is then up to the student to contact appropriate faculty, to ask one of them to act as his or her “thesis advisor,” and to plan the timing and relevant course preparation for the thesis course.
Registering for Senior Thesis
At the time the student registers for SOC 399 or ANTH 399, they must have a short (1-2 page) description of the work to be undertaken in the thesis, and this must be signed by the student’s thesis advisor. Without such evidence of forethought and approval, the department chair will not allow registration in the course.
Thesis Grading Procedures
Assessment of senior theses and final grades for SOC 399 and ANTH 399 are handled differently from other courses. These special rules emphasize the faculty’s view that writing a senior thesis should be a special experience for students – the capstone of their undergraduate education. In particular:
- The only formal requirement in the course is the thesis itself (i.e., there are no exams, short papers, or critiques of readings). Although a given thesis advisor may request that sections of the thesis be turned in at various times during the semester or ask for other short assignments, it is only the final draft of the thesis that determines the course grade.
- Two faculty members (the thesis advisor and one other faculty appointed by the department chair) read any given senior thesis and together determine its grade. To graduate with honors, a student must submit a thesis that BOTH faculty members agree is worthy of honors. This grading policy applies equally to all theses. The grade of "A" is reserved for only those theses worthy of department honors. Grades of “A-” and lower will be given to those theses that do not qualify for departmental honors.
- Only senior theses that are at least 8,500 words (not including references) can receive a passing grade. In the case of a non-traditional thesis (such as a documentary film, for example), the final project must reflect an equivalent amount of work to an 8,500 word traditional paper to receive a passing grade.
- Individual faculty advisors may have additional requirements for the senior thesis in addition to those listed here.
- The final draft of a senior thesis is due the first day of the final exam period of the semester in which the 399 course is taken. This allows sufficient time for proper evaluation by the faculty.
- Note that, in addition to completing an honors-worthy senior thesis, students must also have a major GPA of 3.5 to graduate with honors from the department. But all of the department’s majors have the option of completing a senior thesis, whether they are eligible for departmental honors or not.
Thesis Assessment Criteria
All theses will be assessed according to the following standards:
- Coherence. The thesis should fit together into a coherent whole, with an introduction, which sets forth the purpose of the research, a review of theoretical issues and prior research, statement of method of data collection results, and conclusion. These parts should be interconnected; e.g. the data collection should follow from the purpose and literature review, the conclusion should follow from the results and show how they are linked to prior research and to the stated hypotheses.
- Originality. The thesis can be based on your own data collection or on a review of library/archival materials or analysis of existing data sets. It is not essential that you collect new data; it is essential that you analyze the material you collect in an original way.
- Critical mastery of literature. You should demonstrate that you not only have reviewed the existing literature, but that you understand the debates within that literature and can critique the authors appropriately.
- Central argument. The thesis should set forth a key proposition or set of propositions that you wish to evaluate, based on the literature review. This central argument is what holds the thesis together and determines what kinds of data you collect and how you analyze them. It is an important part of what makes the thesis coherent, and it should be obvious in the introduction and in the conclusion, where you may show that it has been supported by your investigation, or refuted by it.