senior thesis proposal example

• Honors Undergraduate Thesis
• Program Resources

Thesis Proposal Examples

The Honors Undergraduate Thesis program requires students to submit a research proposal to the Office of Honors Research prior to advancing to the Thesis semester.

Generally, a scientific research proposal will include a brief introduction to the research topic, a literature review, and a methodology that will explain how the student plans to meet the objectives of the research. A proposal in the Arts and Humanities will generally include an introduction and a creative work (e.g. screenplays, short stories, artwork) or theoretical analysis.

Students will create a signature cover page for the thesis proposal that will list the entire committee and HUT Liaison. The Thesis proposal cover page template can be found here .

The following are examples of substantially researched, properly formatted research proposals and their respective signature pages. These examples should be used for reference only and not necessarily as templates. Students should his or her Thesis Chair and committee regarding the structure of the proposal, information that should be present, and documentation style.

What is a Thesis Proposal?

A thesis proposal is a document that outlines the thesis topic, defines the issues that the thesis will address, and explains why the topic warrants further research. It should identify a problem and provide a proposed solution to that problem.

Proposals representative of the sciences (both hard sciences and social sciences) should generally include the following:

• A brief introduction, which will define the thesis topic and explain the purpose of the thesis.
• A literature review that outlines the most relevant readings and theories which pertain to the thesis topic.
• A methodology section, which should include the research questions, hypotheses, participants, materials, and procedures.
• A bibliography or reference list. Most of the sources should be from peer reviewed articles or books. As with other academic papers, the use of internet sources should be limited.

For students conducting more theoretical or comparative analyses, the structure could also take the form of chapters that define and specify each concept, and a concluding chapter that brings all of these ideas together.

For students in the arts, a proposal and thesis may take the form of a creative project. In this instance, the proposal may include:

• A brief introduction, which includes the thesis statement, general intent of project, what the project should accomplish, and justification for considering the project a legitimate endeavor.
• A literature review, which includes any supporting literature that justifies the intention of the project.
• A method for accomplishing the project. Include any necessary background or equipment needed for the project, where the project will be conducted, and a proposed timeline for completion.
• A bibliography or reference list.

An alternative structure would be for students who are writing their own short stories, novellas, or screenplays.

Here, the thesis should include a clear mastery of the skill set by producing chapters of the novella, poetry selections, or the working/final screenplay. [/accordion-item][/accordion]

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Honors Theses

What this handout is about.

Writing a senior honors thesis, or any major research essay, can seem daunting at first. A thesis requires a reflective, multi-stage writing process. This handout will walk you through those stages. It is targeted at students in the humanities and social sciences, since their theses tend to involve more writing than projects in the hard sciences. Yet all thesis writers may find the organizational strategies helpful.

Introduction

What is an honors thesis.

That depends quite a bit on your field of study. However, all honors theses have at least two things in common:

• They are based on students’ original research.
• They take the form of a written manuscript, which presents the findings of that research. In the humanities, theses average 50-75 pages in length and consist of two or more chapters. In the social sciences, the manuscript may be shorter, depending on whether the project involves more quantitative than qualitative research. In the hard sciences, the manuscript may be shorter still, often taking the form of a sophisticated laboratory report.

Who can write an honors thesis?

In general, students who are at the end of their junior year, have an overall 3.2 GPA, and meet their departmental requirements can write a senior thesis. For information about your eligibility, contact:

• UNC Honors Program
• Your departmental administrators of undergraduate studies/honors

Why write an honors thesis?

Satisfy your intellectual curiosity This is the most compelling reason to write a thesis. Whether it’s the short stories of Flannery O’Connor or the challenges of urban poverty, you’ve studied topics in college that really piqued your interest. Now’s your chance to follow your passions, explore further, and contribute some original ideas and research in your field.

Develop transferable skills Whether you choose to stay in your field of study or not, the process of developing and crafting a feasible research project will hone skills that will serve you well in almost any future job. After all, most jobs require some form of problem solving and oral and written communication. Writing an honors thesis requires that you:

• ask smart questions
• acquire the investigative instincts needed to find answers
• navigate libraries, laboratories, archives, databases, and other research venues
• develop the flexibility to redirect your research if your initial plan flops
• master the art of time management
• hone your argumentation skills
• organize a lengthy piece of writing
• polish your oral communication skills by presenting and defending your project to faculty and peers

Work closely with faculty mentors At large research universities like Carolina, you’ve likely taken classes where you barely got to know your instructor. Writing a thesis offers the opportunity to work one-on-one with a with faculty adviser. Such mentors can enrich your intellectual development and later serve as invaluable references for graduate school and employment.

Open windows into future professions An honors thesis will give you a taste of what it’s like to do research in your field. Even if you’re a sociology major, you may not really know what it’s like to be a sociologist. Writing a sociology thesis would open a window into that world. It also might help you decide whether to pursue that field in graduate school or in your future career.

How do you write an honors thesis?

Get an idea of what’s expected.

It’s a good idea to review some of the honors theses other students have submitted to get a sense of what an honors thesis might look like and what kinds of things might be appropriate topics. Look for examples from the previous year in the Carolina Digital Repository. You may also be able to find past theses collected in your major department or at the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library. Pay special attention to theses written by students who share your major.

Choose a topic

Ideally, you should start thinking about topics early in your junior year, so you can begin your research and writing quickly during your senior year. (Many departments require that you submit a proposal for an honors thesis project during the spring of your junior year.)

How should you choose a topic?

• Read widely in the fields that interest you. Make a habit of browsing professional journals to survey the “hot” areas of research and to familiarize yourself with your field’s stylistic conventions. (You’ll find the most recent issues of the major professional journals in the periodicals reading room on the first floor of Davis Library).
• Set up appointments to talk with faculty in your field. This is a good idea, since you’ll eventually need to select an advisor and a second reader. Faculty also can help you start narrowing down potential topics.
• Look at honors theses from the past. The North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library holds UNC honors theses. To get a sense of the typical scope of a thesis, take a look at a sampling from your field.

What makes a good topic?

• It’s fascinating. Above all, choose something that grips your imagination. If you don’t, the chances are good that you’ll struggle to finish.
• It’s doable. Even if a topic interests you, it won’t work out unless you have access to the materials you need to research it. Also be sure that your topic is narrow enough. Let’s take an example: Say you’re interested in the efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and early 1980s. That’s a big topic that probably can’t be adequately covered in a single thesis. You need to find a case study within that larger topic. For example, maybe you’re particularly interested in the states that did not ratify the ERA. Of those states, perhaps you’ll select North Carolina, since you’ll have ready access to local research materials. And maybe you want to focus primarily on the ERA’s opponents. Beyond that, maybe you’re particularly interested in female opponents of the ERA. Now you’ve got a much more manageable topic: Women in North Carolina Who Opposed the ERA in the 1970s and 1980s.
• It contains a question. There’s a big difference between having a topic and having a guiding research question. Taking the above topic, perhaps your main question is: Why did some women in North Carolina oppose the ERA? You will, of course, generate other questions: Who were the most outspoken opponents? White women? Middle-class women? How did they oppose the ERA? Public protests? Legislative petitions? etc. etc. Yet it’s good to start with a guiding question that will focus your research.

Goal-setting and time management

The senior year is an exceptionally busy time for college students. In addition to the usual load of courses and jobs, seniors have the daunting task of applying for jobs and/or graduate school. These demands are angst producing and time consuming If that scenario sounds familiar, don’t panic! Do start strategizing about how to make a time for your thesis. You may need to take a lighter course load or eliminate extracurricular activities. Even if the thesis is the only thing on your plate, you still need to make a systematic schedule for yourself. Most departments require that you take a class that guides you through the honors project, so deadlines likely will be set for you. Still, you should set your own goals for meeting those deadlines. Here are a few suggestions for goal setting and time management:

Start early. Keep in mind that many departments will require that you turn in your thesis sometime in early April, so don’t count on having the entire spring semester to finish your work. Ideally, you’ll start the research process the semester or summer before your senior year so that the writing process can begin early in the fall. Some goal-setting will be done for you if you are taking a required class that guides you through the honors project. But any substantive research project requires a clear timetable.

Set clear goals in making a timetable. Find out the final deadline for turning in your project to your department. Working backwards from that deadline, figure out how much time you can allow for the various stages of production.

Here is a sample timetable. Use it, however, with two caveats in mind:

• The timetable for your thesis might look very different depending on your departmental requirements.
• You may not wish to proceed through these stages in a linear fashion. You may want to revise chapter one before you write chapter two. Or you might want to write your introduction last, not first. This sample is designed simply to help you start thinking about how to customize your own schedule.

Sample timetable

Avoid falling into the trap of procrastination. Once you’ve set goals for yourself, stick to them! For some tips on how to do this, see our handout on procrastination .

Consistent production

It’s a good idea to try to squeeze in a bit of thesis work every day—even if it’s just fifteen minutes of journaling or brainstorming about your topic. Or maybe you’ll spend that fifteen minutes taking notes on a book. The important thing is to accomplish a bit of active production (i.e., putting words on paper) for your thesis every day. That way, you develop good writing habits that will help you keep your project moving forward.

Make yourself accountable to someone other than yourself

Since most of you will be taking a required thesis seminar, you will have deadlines. Yet you might want to form a writing group or enlist a peer reader, some person or people who can help you stick to your goals. Moreover, if your advisor encourages you to work mostly independently, don’t be afraid to ask them to set up periodic meetings at which you’ll turn in installments of your project.

Brainstorming and freewriting

One of the biggest challenges of a lengthy writing project is keeping the creative juices flowing. Here’s where freewriting can help. Try keeping a small notebook handy where you jot down stray ideas that pop into your head. Or schedule time to freewrite. You may find that such exercises “free” you up to articulate your argument and generate new ideas. Here are some questions to stimulate freewriting.

Questions for basic brainstorming at the beginning of your project:

• What do I already know about this topic?
• Why do I care about this topic?
• Why is this topic important to people other than myself
• What more do I want to learn about this topic?
• What is the main question that I am trying to answer?
• Where can I look for additional information?
• Who is my audience and how can I reach them?
• How will my work inform my larger field of study?
• What’s the main goal of my research project?

Questions for reflection throughout your project:

• What’s my main argument? How has it changed since I began the project?
• What’s the most important evidence that I have in support of my “big point”?
• What questions do my sources not answer?
• How does my case study inform or challenge my field writ large?
• Does my project reinforce or contradict noted scholars in my field? How?
• What is the most surprising finding of my research?
• What is the most frustrating part of this project?
• What is the most rewarding part of this project?
• What will be my work’s most important contribution?

Research and note-taking

In conducting research, you will need to find both primary sources (“firsthand” sources that come directly from the period/events/people you are studying) and secondary sources (“secondhand” sources that are filtered through the interpretations of experts in your field.) The nature of your research will vary tremendously, depending on what field you’re in. For some general suggestions on finding sources, consult the UNC Libraries tutorials . Whatever the exact nature of the research you’re conducting, you’ll be taking lots of notes and should reflect critically on how you do that. Too often it’s assumed that the research phase of a project involves very little substantive writing (i.e., writing that involves thinking). We sit down with our research materials and plunder them for basic facts and useful quotations. That mechanical type of information-recording is important. But a more thoughtful type of writing and analytical thinking is also essential at this stage. Some general guidelines for note-taking:

First of all, develop a research system. There are lots of ways to take and organize your notes. Whether you choose to use note cards, computer databases, or notebooks, follow two cardinal rules:

• Make careful distinctions between direct quotations and your paraphrasing! This is critical if you want to be sure to avoid accidentally plagiarizing someone else’s work. For more on this, see our handout on plagiarism .
• Record full citations for each source. Don’t get lazy here! It will be far more difficult to find the proper citation later than to write it down now.

Keeping those rules in mind, here’s a template for the types of information that your note cards/legal pad sheets/computer files should include for each of your sources:

Abbreviated subject heading: Include two or three words to remind you of what this sources is about (this shorthand categorization is essential for the later sorting of your sources).

Complete bibliographic citation:

• author, title, publisher, copyright date, and page numbers for published works
• box and folder numbers and document descriptions for archival sources
• complete web page title, author, address, and date accessed for online sources

Notes on facts, quotations, and arguments: Depending on the type of source you’re using, the content of your notes will vary. If, for example, you’re using US Census data, then you’ll mainly be writing down statistics and numbers. If you’re looking at someone else’s diary, you might jot down a number of quotations that illustrate the subject’s feelings and perspectives. If you’re looking at a secondary source, you’ll want to make note not just of factual information provided by the author but also of their key arguments.

Your interpretation of the source: This is the most important part of note-taking. Don’t just record facts. Go ahead and take a stab at interpreting them. As historians Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff insist, “A note is a thought.” So what do these thoughts entail? Ask yourself questions about the context and significance of each source.

Interpreting the context of a source:

• Who wrote/created the source?
• When, and under what circumstances, was it written/created?
• Why was it written/created? What was the agenda behind the source?
• How was it written/created?
• If using a secondary source: How does it speak to other scholarship in the field?

Interpreting the significance of a source:

• How does this source answer (or complicate) my guiding research questions?
• Does it pose new questions for my project? What are they?
• Does it challenge my fundamental argument? If so, how?
• Given the source’s context, how reliable is it?

You don’t need to answer all of these questions for each source, but you should set a goal of engaging in at least one or two sentences of thoughtful, interpretative writing for each source. If you do so, you’ll make much easier the next task that awaits you: drafting.

The dread of drafting

Why do we often dread drafting? We dread drafting because it requires synthesis, one of the more difficult forms of thinking and interpretation. If you’ve been free-writing and taking thoughtful notes during the research phase of your project, then the drafting should be far less painful. Here are some tips on how to get started:

Sort your “evidence” or research into analytical categories:

• Some people file note cards into categories.
• The technologically-oriented among us take notes using computer database programs that have built-in sorting mechanisms.
• Others cut and paste evidence into detailed outlines on their computer.
• Still others stack books, notes, and photocopies into topically-arranged piles.There is not a single right way, but this step—in some form or fashion—is essential!

If you’ve been forcing yourself to put subject headings on your notes as you go along, you’ll have generated a number of important analytical categories. Now, you need to refine those categories and sort your evidence. Everyone has a different “sorting style.”

Formulate working arguments for your entire thesis and individual chapters. Once you’ve sorted your evidence, you need to spend some time thinking about your project’s “big picture.” You need to be able to answer two questions in specific terms:

• What is the overall argument of my thesis?
• What are the sub-arguments of each chapter and how do they relate to my main argument?

Keep in mind that “working arguments” may change after you start writing. But a senior thesis is big and potentially unwieldy. If you leave this business of argument to chance, you may end up with a tangle of ideas. See our handout on arguments and handout on thesis statements for some general advice on formulating arguments.

Divide your thesis into manageable chunks. The surest road to frustration at this stage is getting obsessed with the big picture. What? Didn’t we just say that you needed to focus on the big picture? Yes, by all means, yes. You do need to focus on the big picture in order to get a conceptual handle on your project, but you also need to break your thesis down into manageable chunks of writing. For example, take a small stack of note cards and flesh them out on paper. Or write through one point on a chapter outline. Those small bits of prose will add up quickly.

Just start! Even if it’s not at the beginning. Are you having trouble writing those first few pages of your chapter? Sometimes the introduction is the toughest place to start. You should have a rough idea of your overall argument before you begin writing one of the main chapters, but you might find it easier to start writing in the middle of a chapter of somewhere other than word one. Grab hold where you evidence is strongest and your ideas are clearest.

Keep up the momentum! Assuming the first draft won’t be your last draft, try to get your thoughts on paper without spending too much time fussing over minor stylistic concerns. At the drafting stage, it’s all about getting those ideas on paper. Once that task is done, you can turn your attention to revising.

Peter Elbow, in Writing With Power, suggests that writing is difficult because it requires two conflicting tasks: creating and criticizing. While these two tasks are intimately intertwined, the drafting stage focuses on creating, while revising requires criticizing. If you leave your revising to the last minute, then you’ve left out a crucial stage of the writing process. See our handout for some general tips on revising . The challenges of revising an honors thesis may include:

Juggling feedback from multiple readers

A senior thesis may mark the first time that you have had to juggle feedback from a wide range of readers:

• your adviser
• a second (and sometimes third) faculty reader
• the professor and students in your honors thesis seminar

You may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of incorporating all this advice. Keep in mind that some advice is better than others. You will probably want to take most seriously the advice of your adviser since they carry the most weight in giving your project a stamp of approval. But sometimes your adviser may give you more advice than you can digest. If so, don’t be afraid to approach them—in a polite and cooperative spirit, of course—and ask for some help in prioritizing that advice. See our handout for some tips on getting and receiving feedback .

Refining your argument

It’s especially easy in writing a lengthy work to lose sight of your main ideas. So spend some time after you’ve drafted to go back and clarify your overall argument and the individual chapter arguments and make sure they match the evidence you present.

Organizing and reorganizing

Again, in writing a 50-75 page thesis, things can get jumbled. You may find it particularly helpful to make a “reverse outline” of each of your chapters. That will help you to see the big sections in your work and move things around so there’s a logical flow of ideas. See our handout on  organization  for more organizational suggestions and tips on making a reverse outline

Plugging in holes in your evidence

It’s unlikely that you anticipated everything you needed to look up before you drafted your thesis. Save some time at the revising stage to plug in the holes in your research. Make sure that you have both primary and secondary evidence to support and contextualize your main ideas.

Saving time for the small stuff

Even though your argument, evidence, and organization are most important, leave plenty of time to polish your prose. At this point, you’ve spent a very long time on your thesis. Don’t let minor blemishes (misspellings and incorrect grammar) distract your readers!

Formatting and final touches

You’re almost done! You’ve researched, drafted, and revised your thesis; now you need to take care of those pesky little formatting matters. An honors thesis should replicate—on a smaller scale—the appearance of a dissertation or master’s thesis. So, you need to include the “trappings” of a formal piece of academic work. For specific questions on formatting matters, check with your department to see if it has a style guide that you should use. For general formatting guidelines, consult the Graduate School’s Guide to Dissertations and Theses . Keeping in mind the caveat that you should always check with your department first about its stylistic guidelines, here’s a brief overview of the final “finishing touches” that you’ll need to put on your honors thesis:

• Honors Thesis
• Name of Department
• University of North Carolina
• These parts of the thesis will vary in format depending on whether your discipline uses MLA, APA, CBE, or Chicago (also known in its shortened version as Turabian) style. Whichever style you’re using, stick to the rules and be consistent. It might be helpful to buy an appropriate style guide. Or consult the UNC LibrariesYear Citations/footnotes and works cited/reference pages  citation tutorial
• In addition, in the bottom left corner, you need to leave space for your adviser and faculty readers to sign their names. For example:

Approved by: _____________________

Adviser: Prof. Jane Doe

• This is not a required component of an honors thesis. However, if you want to thank particular librarians, archivists, interviewees, and advisers, here’s the place to do it. You should include an acknowledgments page if you received a grant from the university or an outside agency that supported your research. It’s a good idea to acknowledge folks who helped you with a major project, but do not feel the need to go overboard with copious and flowery expressions of gratitude. You can—and should—always write additional thank-you notes to people who gave you assistance.
• Formatted much like the table of contents.
• You’ll need to save this until the end, because it needs to reflect your final pagination. Once you’ve made all changes to the body of the thesis, then type up your table of contents with the titles of each section aligned on the left and the page numbers on which those sections begin flush right.
• Each page of your thesis needs a number, although not all page numbers are displayed. All pages that precede the first page of the main text (i.e., your introduction or chapter one) are numbered with small roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.). All pages thereafter use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.).
• Your text should be double spaced (except, in some cases, long excerpts of quoted material), in a 12 point font and a standard font style (e.g., Times New Roman). An honors thesis isn’t the place to experiment with funky fonts—they won’t enhance your work, they’ll only distract your readers.
• In general, leave a one-inch inch margin on all sides. However, for the copy of your thesis that will be bound by the library, you need to leave a 1.25-inch margin on the left.

How do I defend my honors thesis?

Graciously, enthusiastically, and confidently. The term defense is scary and misleading—it conjures up images of a military exercise or an athletic maneuver. An academic defense ideally shouldn’t be a combative scene but a congenial conversation about the work’s merits and weaknesses. That said, the defense probably won’t be like the average conversation that you have with your friends. You’ll be the center of attention. And you may get some challenging questions. Thus, it’s a good idea to spend some time preparing yourself. First of all, you’ll want to prepare 5-10 minutes of opening comments. Here’s a good time to preempt some criticisms by frankly acknowledging what you think your work’s greatest strengths and weaknesses are. Then you may be asked some typical questions:

• What is the main argument of your thesis?
• How does it fit in with the work of Ms. Famous Scholar?
• Have you read the work of Mr. Important Author?

NOTE: Don’t get too flustered if you haven’t! Most scholars have their favorite authors and books and may bring one or more of them up, even if the person or book is only tangentially related to the topic at hand. Should you get this question, answer honestly and simply jot down the title or the author’s name for future reference. No one expects you to have read everything that’s out there.

• Why did you choose this particular case study to explore your topic?
• If you were to expand this project in graduate school, how would you do so?

Should you get some biting criticism of your work, try not to get defensive. Yes, this is a defense, but you’ll probably only fan the flames if you lose your cool. Keep in mind that all academic work has flaws or weaknesses, and you can be sure that your professors have received criticisms of their own work. It’s part of the academic enterprise. Accept criticism graciously and learn from it. If you receive criticism that is unfair, stand up for yourself confidently, but in a good spirit. Above all, try to have fun! A defense is a rare opportunity to have eminent scholars in your field focus on YOU and your ideas and work. And the defense marks the end of a long and arduous journey. You have every right to be proud of your accomplishments!

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Atchity, Kenneth. 1986. A Writer’s Time: A Guide to the Creative Process from Vision Through Revision . New York: W.W. Norton.

Barzun, Jacques, and Henry F. Graff. 2012. The Modern Researcher , 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Elbow, Peter. 1998. Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process . New York: Oxford University Press.

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. 2014. “They Say/I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing , 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Lamott, Anne. 1994. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life . New York: Pantheon.

Lasch, Christopher. 2002. Plain Style: A Guide to Written English. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Turabian, Kate. 2018. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, Dissertations , 9th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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• Senior Thesis Writing Guides

The senior thesis is typically the most challenging writing project undertaken by undergraduate students. The writing guides below aim to introduce students both to the specific methods and conventions of writing original research in their area of concentration and to effective writing process.

• Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines
• Course-Specific Writing Guides
• Disciplinary Writing Guides
• Gen Ed Writing Guides

How to write a thesis proposal

I. Framework II. Structure of a thesis proposal III. Order in which to write the proposal IV. Tips V. Resources

I. Framework

• An environmental issue is identified.
• Other people's work on the topic is collected and evaluated.
• Data necessary to solving the problem are either collected by the student, or obtained independently.
• Data are analyzed using techniques appropriate to the data set.
• Results of the analysis are reported and are interpreted in light of the initial environmental issue.
• the thesis topic addresses a significant environmental problem;
• an organized plan is in place for collecting or obtaining data to help solve the problem;
• methods of data analysis have been identified and are appropriate to the data set.

II. Structure of a thesis proposal

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Thesis statement
• Approach/methods
• Preliminary results and discussion
• Work plan including time table
• Implications of research
• List of references
• contains short, descriptive title of the proposed thesis project  (should be fairly self-explanatory)
• and author, institution, department, resreach mentor, mentor's institution, and date of delivery
• the abstract is a brief summary of your thesis proposal
• its length should not exceed ~200 words
• present a brief introduction to the issue
• make the key statement of your thesis
• give a summary of how you want to address the issue
• include a possible implication of your work, if successfully completed
• list all headings and subheadings with page numbers
• indent subheadings
• this section sets the context for your proposed project and must capture the reader's interest
• explain the background of your study starting from a broad picture narrowing in on your research question
• review what is known about your research topic as far as it is relevant to your thesis
• cite relevant references
• the introduction should be at a level that makes it easy to understand for readers with a general science background, for example your classmates
• in a couple of sentences, state your thesis
• this statement can take the form of a hypothesis, research question, project statement, or goal statement
• the thesis statement should capture the essence of your intended project and also help to put boundaries around it
• this section contains an overall description of your approach,  materials, and procedures
• what methods will be used?
• how will data be collected and analyzed?
• what materials will be used?
• include calculations, technique, procedure, equipment, and calibration graphs
• detail limitations, assumptions, and range of validity
• citations should be limited to data sources and more complete descriptions of procedures
• do not include results and discussion of results here
• present any results you already have obtained
• discuss how they fit in the framework of your thesis
• describe in detail what you plan to do until completion of your senior thesis project
• list the stages of your project in a table format
• indicate deadlines you have set for completing each stage of the project, including any work you have already completed
• discuss any particular challenges that need to be overcome
• what new knowledge will the proposed project produce that we do not already know?
• why is it worth knowing, what are the major implications?
• cite all ideas, concepts, text, data that are not your own
• if you make a statement, back it up with your own data or a reference
• all references cited in the text must be listed
• cite single-author references by the surname of the author (followed by date of the publication in parenthesis)
• ... according to Hays (1994)
• ... population growth is one of the greatest environmental concerns facing future generations (Hays, 1994).
• cite double-author references by the surnames of both authors (followed by date of the publication in parenthesis)
• e.g. Simpson and Hays (1994)
• cite more than double-author references by the surname of the first author followed by et al. and then the date of the publication
• e.g. Pfirman, Simpson and Hays would be:
• Pfirman et al. (1994)
• cite newspaper articles using the newspaper name and date, e.g.
• ....this problem was also recently discussed in the press (New York Times, 1/15/00)
• do not use footnotes
• list all references cited in the text in alphabetical order using the following format for different types of material:
• Hunt, S. (1966) Carbohydrate and amino acid composition of the egg capsules of the whelk. Nature , 210, 436-437.
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1997) Commonly asked questions about ozone. http://www.noaa.gov/public-affairs/grounders/ozo1.html, 9/27/97.
• Pfirman, S.L., M. Stute, H.J. Simpson, and J. Hays (1996) Undergraduate research at Barnard and Columbia, Journal of Research , 11, 213-214.
• Pechenik, J.A. (1987) A short guide to writing about biology. Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 194pp.
• Pitelka, D.R., and F.M. Child (1964) Review of ciliary structure and function. In: Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa , Vol. 3 (S.H. Hutner, editor), Academic Press, New York, 131-198.
• Sambrotto, R. (1997) lecture notes, Environmental Data Analysis, Barnard College, Oct 2, 1997.
• Stute, M., J.F. Clark, P. Schlosser, W.S. Broecker, and G. Bonani (1995) A high altitude continental paleotemperature record derived from noble gases dissolved in groundwater from the San Juan Basin, New Mexico. Quat. Res. , 43, 209-220.
• New York Times (1/15/00) PCBs in the Hudson still an issue, A2.
• it is acceptable to put the initials of the individual authors behind their last names, e.g. Pfirman, S.L., Stute, M., Simpson, H.J., and Hays, J (1996) Undergraduate research at ......

III. Order in which to write the proposal

• Make an outline of your thesis proposal  before you start writing
• Prepare figures and tables
• Figure captions
• Discussion of your data
• Inferences from your data
• Bibliography
• "Pictures say more than a thousand words!" Figures serve to illustrate important aspects  of the background material, sample data, and analysis techniques.
• A well chosen and well labeled figure can reduce text length, and improve proposal clarity.  Proposals often contain figures from other articles.  These can be appropriate, but you should consider modifying them if the modifications will improve your point.
• The whole process of making a drawing is important for two reasons.  First, it clarifies your thinking.  If you don’t understand the process, you can’t draw it. Second, good drawings are very valuable.  Other scientists will understand your paper better if you can make a drawing of your ideas.  A co-author of mine has advised me: make figures that other people will want to steal.  They will cite your paper because they want to use your figure in their paper.
• Make cartoons using a scientific drawing program.  Depending upon the subject of your paper, a cartoon might incorporate the following:
• a picture of the scientific equipment that you are using and an explanation of how it works;
• a drawing of a cycle showing steps, feedback loops, and bifurcations: this can include chemical or mathematical equations;
• a flow chart showing the steps in a process and the possible causes and consequences.
• Incorporate graphs in the text or on separated sheets inserted in the thesis proposal
• Modern computer technology such as scanners and drafting programs are available in the department to help you create or modify pictures.

Grammar/spelling

• Poor grammar and spelling distract from the content of the proposal.  The reader focuses on the grammar and spelling problems and misses keys points made in the text.  Modern word processing programs have grammar and spell checkers.  Use them.
• Read your proposal aloud - then  have a friend read it aloud. If your sentences seem too long, make two or three sentences instead of one.  Try to write the same way that you speak when you are explaining a concept. Most people speak more clearly than they write.
• You should have read your proposal over at least 5 times before handing it in
• Simple wording is generally better
• If you get comments from others that seem completely irrelevant to you, your paper is not written clearly enough never use a complex word if a simpler word will do

V. Resources/Acknowlegements

The senior seminar website has a very detailed document on " How to write a thesis " which you might want to look at. Most of the tips given there are relevant for your thesis proposal as well. Recommended books on scientific writing Some of the material on this page was adapted from: http://www.geo.utep.edu/Grad_Info/prop_guide.html http://www.hartwick.edu/anthropology/proposal.htm http://csdl.ics.hawaii.edu/FAQ/FAQ/thesis-proposal.html http://www.butler.edu/honors/PropsTheses.html

• Sustainability

Senior Thesis Proposal Guidelines

Empirical research thesis.

All seniors interested in writing a senior thesis involving empirical research for their graduation requirement are required to submit proposals and receive approval from the department. These proposals should conform to the American Psychological Association style. That is, they should be organized in sections as follows:

1. The  COVER PAGE should appear in APA style.

2. The  ABSTRACT should contain a brief summary of the content and purpose of your proposed research. The length is typically 100-250 words, but usually no more than 120 words. The abstract should describe the problem under investigation (in one sentence if possible), the subjects (specifying important characteristics such as number, type, age, sex), the experimental method, (including apparatus, data-gathering procedures, complete test names), and the potential findings / implications.

3. The  INTRODUCTION should outline the background research and reasoning which form the basis of your hypothesis. For your thesis proposal you should only describe directly relevant findings. The purpose of the introduction is to inform the reader of the specific problem under study, the research strategy used and how the problem is related to prior work. In writing the introduction, keep these three questions in mind: (a) What is the point (hypothesis) of the study? (b) What is the rationale or logical link between the study and the research design? (c) What is the relationship between the study and previous work in the area? By the end of the introduction the reader should understand the relevant background research and the question(s) you hope to answer.

4. The  METHOD section should indicate your proposed method and research design. Describe the methods that you will use to answer the question outlined in the introduction. It is very important that your proposed methods permit you to answer the question(s) you outline. This portion of your proposal will typically contain subsections for participants, materials, and procedures.

5. The  RESULTS section should detail the analyses you plan to run. You might want to include in this section a brief description of the predicted findings.

6. The  DISCUSSION section should go into more depth regarding your expected results and their implications. How will this research advance our understanding of the area under investigation?

7. The  REFERENCE section should contain a listing of all of the references listed in your proposal in proper APA style.

Proposals are approved by the third week in each semester. Revisions or elaborations of the proposal may occasionally be requested by the Department.

To help you in writing your proposal, a sample is available here (PDF 151 kb) (and also on Lyceum).

Community-Based Research Thesis

All seniors interested in using community-based research (CBR) as their graduation requirement are required to submit proposals and receive approval before they can proceed. Community-based research proposals follow APA style but may deviate from it somewhat; the method section needs a subheading called “site description,” for example.  At a minimum, a proposal should include the following in roughly the same order:

1. An introduction that includes a three- to five-page summary of research that may be relevant to the work. For example, if you are working with autistic children at Margaret Murphy, but are not yet 100% sure of your research focus, you will review the research literature on autism in the age group you will work with.

2. A method section that includes a description of the site/agency/workplace of your community partner. If you know what kind of data collection you will do, it belongs here.

3. A results section that describes what kind of data you will collect and what kind of analysis you will apply to the data, either quantitative, qualitative, or both.

4. A brief discussion of what your results contribute to your community partner and to the field of psychology.

5. A statement of any other work you may produce for your community partner.

6. References should be in APA style.

Please note that the seminar instructor sets a due date for these proposals. It is usually a little later than other proposals in order to allow time for communication with community partners.

Theoretical Review and Integration

A literature review paper critically evaluates the previous research in a field of study. The purpose of the review is to summarize what is known for the reader and to point out the strengths and shortcomings of prior research. You may write about any aspect of the topic you wish, although your paper must be organized in a logical way. Review articles are most often organized topically . One section, for example, may review research on human beings, and another section may review studies with other animals.  Or the different sections could review articles supporting different competing theories. If you plan on writing a theoretical review then your proposal should:

1. Begin by setting the stage for the review you will write. Briefly describe the specific area of research and the types of studies that you will review. If there are two (or more) sides to the issue, be sure to mention that here. Also, if necessary you should give any operational definitions in the first part of the paper. If you plan on focusing on only certain aspects of the prior literature then you should address this issue somewhere in the opening section. Be aware that if you plan on focusing on only a portion of the prior literature then you will need to clearly articulate (and defend) this decision at the outset.

2. In the body of the paper you will describe the way you plan to organize your review.  Be sure to use section headings in the body of your paper and describe the major research articles you plan on including in each section.

3. The discussion/conclusion/closing section should start with a brief summary of the issues you believe you will cover. This section should then discuss the implications of the review.  What will this review add to the literature?  Why is this review needed?  For example, after reviewing all of the research, do you suspect that you will discover areas that haven’t yet been studied that should be? Based on your review, do you think you will find converging evidence from a number of studies that indicate a specific theory should be modified?

For examples of review articles see these journals:

• Psychological Bulletin
• General articles published in Psychological Science
• Perspectives on Psychological Science
• Current Directions in Psychological Science
• Reviews articles published in Psychonomic Bulletin and Review
• Clinical Psychology Review
• Health Psychology Review
• European Review of Social Psychology

Proposals are approved by the third week in each semester. Revisions or elaborations of the proposal may occasionally be requested by the Department. To help you in writing your proposal, two samples are available here and here  (both PDF files).  (They are also on Lyceum.)

Future Students

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This program rewards students for conducting an original, independent project at a level well above those found in a traditional course.

• Senior Thesis Program
• Academic Offices & Resources

Successful completion of the Senior Thesis Project will:

• Enhance your application to graduate school or post-graduation employment
• Earn public recognition at graduation
• Include your project in the Library’s permanent collection

View, download, and print the  Senior Thesis Program Factsheet  (pdf).

Get Involved

Eligibility, course work.

To be eligible to register for the Longwood Senior Thesis Program , a student must have:

• a strong interest in doing independent research
• a 3.0 overall grade point average on work taken at Longwood
• a 3.0 average in courses taken at Longwood for the major
• agreement of a faculty member to serve as a sponsor
• permission of the Longwood Senior Thesis (LST) Committee

In consultation with the faculty sponsor, develop a research topic and prepare a research proposal.

Proposals should not exceed 7-8 double-spaced pages (not including figures, tables, and bibliography). The proposal is then presented before the Longwood Senior Thesis Committee.

Submit your Longwood Senior Thesis Proposal on Digital Commons @ Longwood .

• Proposal Example 1 Biology
• Proposal Example 2 Biology
• Proposal Example 3 Business
• Proposal Example 4 Business
• Proposal Example 5 Chemistry
• Proposal Example 6 Chemistry
• Proposal Example 7 English
• Proposal Example 8 Hark
• Proposal Example 9 Hark
• Proposal Example 10 History

The Senior Thesis Program is undertaken by motivated students who wish to pursue their scholarship interests outside of the classroom.

Completion of the project requires that students enroll in two consecutive 3-credit courses, typically with the second of those courses within their senior year.

The thesis acts as the major product of your 499 course and needs to be written with a structure that is appropriate to your field of study or major.

The guidelines of which need to be discussed with your thesis advisor.

In general, the theses tend to be between 20 to 40 pages in length with a detailed introduction to the literature on the project topic.

Then a description of the project, work performed, and its outcomes.

Past approved undergraduate theses can be found on  Longwood Digital Commons .

• LST Example Thesis 1  (pdf)
• LST Example Thesis 2  (pdf)
• LST Example Thesis 3  (pdf)
• Prepare proposed project in collaboration with a faculty sponsor
• Present proposal to LST committee members
• Enroll in 498 course and complete or nearly complete proposed project
• Report progress to examination committee members
• Enroll in 499 course and complete project work (if needed)
• Write thesis
• Present work at the Longwood Student Showcase
• Defend thesis project with the examination committee

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Senior thesis examples.

Graduating seniors in Biological Sciences have the option of submitting a senior thesis for consideration for Honors and Research Prizes .  Below are some examples of particularly outstanding theses from recent years (pdf):

Sledd Thesis

Thesis Helpers

Find the best tips and advice to improve your writing. Or, have a top expert write your paper.

How to Write a Senior Thesis? Student’s Manual

If you’re an undergraduate student, you might know that you will be required to write a senior thesis to graduate. You may also know that this will be the most challenging project that you might have to undertake during your academic career. But, what is a senior thesis? And, how do you write it successfully within the provided timeframe?

Well, a senior thesis is an independent, large research project that learners are required to undertake during their college or high school senior year as a graduation requirement. It is also called a senior honors thesis. This project marks the culmination of the study work of students at a learning institution. It represents the ability of the leaders to conduct independent research and present their findings in writing effectively. In most cases, undertaking this project successfully is a requirement for learners to graduate with honors.

On joining high school or college, many students ask, “Is a senior thesis required for my program?” Knowing whether you will be required to write this paper early is important because it enables you to prepare for it. Thus, you avoid struggling to learn how to write a senior thesis at the last minute. Nevertheless, this project shouldn’t give you sleepless nights. Just follow these steps when writing a senior thesis.

Choose a Senior Thesis Topic you’re Passionate About

Writing senior thesis papers gives most students the first opportunity to choose their preferred topics to write about. This provides incredible autonomy. But, if you choose a topic that you aren’t passionate about, dedicating hours or days exploring it in detail will be difficult.

Completing college and high school senior thesis entails writing in an unscripted world. This converts dreaming into praxis while enabling learners to expand academic horizons past what they are accustomed to.

This project presents an outlet for converting the imaginary world into something tangible and real that mentors and peers can read, understand, and challenge. These possibilities make it possible for students to get senior thesis topics that invoke feelings of zeal.

If unsure of what to write about, explore senior thesis topic ideas online. These can be a good place to start the process of choosing a topic for your thesis. The internet has many sources where you can find great ideas for history senior thesis topics and senior thesis topic psychology experts and students would like to read about. Explore these sources to find a topic you will find interesting to write about.

Write a Senior Thesis Outline

Once you’ve chosen a topic, conduct some research to know the main topics to include in your paper. Come up with an outline that will enable you to present your main topics and their supporting evidence. An outline is a structure that shows how you will present the information gathered through in-depth research.

Your outline can include the senior thesis title page, the introduction , the body section with the chapters to be included, and the conclusion. How you outline your paper should depend on the information you wish to include and the instructions provided by your professor.

The outline should solve tasks like:

• Reveal your topic and thesis statement
• Show the expediency and relevance of the project
• Show the chosen methodological base
• Expound your senior thesis ideas or thoughts consistently and logically
• Draw conclusions objectively

To avoid missing important information, your outline should include a senior thesis cover page, the introduction, theoretical part, practical part, scientific novelty evidence, conclusions, bibliography, and applications. These sections should be logically completed and detailed.

Each senior thesis format may vary but it should reflect the main ideas of the entire project. It should also show the essence of every subparagraph and chapter if they are parts of the work.

Define the Objectives and Goals of Your Thesis

There are many college and high school senior thesis topics you may have chosen. So, why did you choose this particular topic for your paper? What do you want to accomplish by the end of your project? Whether you’re writing a CMC senior thesis or a UF senior thesis, you should have clear goals and objectives of your project.

When writing this paper, a goal can be to consolidate and systemize a theory in a specialty within the course of solving a practical problem and identifying independent work’s abilities. Tasks should also be formulated. For instance, a task can be to formulate literature on a topic after studying it, researching, and learning its basic concepts and terms. You can use a senior thesis example in your field to see how the author has defined their goals and objectives in the paper.

Make and Stick to a Schedule for Writing Your Senior Thesis Paper

Perhaps, the question that’s lingering in your mind now is, “how long is a senior thesis?” Well, most professors expect students to write between 70 and 89-page magnum opus. However, some would rather have learners write a strong article-sized thesis of between 25 and 40 pages. Thus, most professors look for quality rather than quantity.

But, regardless of your senior thesis length, have a schedule for writing it and stick to it. You can have something like a to-do list. This will make you feel like you have accomplished something whenever you cross off something from the list. You can have a weekly checklist or schedule that coincides with your writing process.

Procrastination may have plagued your past in academics. Nevertheless, bear in mind the fact that you might not succeed with your senior thesis defense if you keep procrastinating. Therefore, come up with a schedule and stick to it throughout or ask thesis services to help you.

Your schedule should highlight when to submit your senior thesis proposal, as well as when to write certain sections, when to complete the first draft and when your final draft will be due. The schedule should enable you to visualize both the short-term and long-term objectives of your writing project.

Start Writing

Whether you’re writing a Princeton senior thesis or Yale senior thesis, the structure is almost the same. You have to include certain parts and focus on writing each section at a time.

Your paper should include the following sections, according to the normal academic standards:

• The title page
• Table of contents
• The abstract
• A five-page introduction
• The main part
• A conclusion with two to three pages
• Bibliographic list
• Applications

To know the content to include in each of these sections, find and read good senior thesis examples. Most schools and faculties have samples that can guide students in writing these papers. Therefore, talk to your professor to see if they can get you a sample thesis.

Proofread Your Work

This is the last step in the process of writing this paper. Whether you have written a UF psychology senior thesis or a graphic design senior thesis, make sure that you proofread your work to remove all errors.

Focus on the following when proofreading your work:

• Logical or smooth development of the content of your thesis
• Work structure
• Flow of your thought and sentence structure
• All errors, including contextual, stylistic, punctuation, spelling, and grammatical.
• Thesis formatting

Make sure that you have presented your senior thesis psychology or senior thesis UF work in a clear and easy to understand manner.

You no longer have to ask, ‘what is senior thesis?’ That’s because this article has explained everything you need to know about this paper. Follow the guidelines and tips provided here to complete your project successfully whether you’re writing a senior thesis Princeton or Yale paper.

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Senior Thesis

A senior thesis gives you a chance to dive deeper into a research topic of interest. It is the culmination of your undergraduate research career at one of the best biochemistry departments in the country. The thesis experience will help you develop your reading, research, and writing skills, and many students find this a rewarding experience in which to develop new skills through independent work. Senior theses are two-semester commitments, and senior honors theses are often required by Honors programs here at UW–Madison. Senior Thesis (691-692) and Senior Honors Thesis (681-682) are two-semester course sequences for students in the lab of a Biochemistry department faculty member. You must be a senior and you cannot take the two semesters concurrently.

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Getting permission to enroll

Work with your thesis advisor (the faculty member who is the PI of your lab) to complete

• Your Senior Thesis Proposal Form (download here) , signed by your thesis advisor
• Your Research Proposal

Turn in your completed Research Proposal Form and Research Proposal to the Biochemistry/Microbiology Undergraduate Advising Hub ( [email protected] ) by the end of the third week of class.

Thesis proposal guidelines

Your senior thesis or senior honors thesis proposal should be two to five double-spaced pages with 1-inch margins and 11-12 pt font. The abstract and references are included in the 5-page limit and the proposal should follow disciplinary guidelines and use headers appropriate to the field. If you are uncertain about how to format your proposal, talk to your thesis advisor. All proposals should contain the following:

• An abstract of the proposed research (200 words or less, may be single-spaced)
• Introduction and literature review, detailing the originality and significance of the proposed project
• Methods section, describing plans for data collection and analysis
• Timeline for completion of project
• Conclusion/future directions
• References (may be single-spaced)

These guidelines are adapted from the Hilldale/Holstrom Application with permission from the Office of Undergraduate Academic Awards. Your thesis advisor may have additional requirements or recommendations.

Thesis guidelines

Overall, your senior thesis should follow a similar format as a Masters or Doctoral thesis. Consult with your thesis advisor for guidance.

• Title Page : Cover Page (download here) signed by your thesis advisor
• Introduction and Literature Review : Provide a short introduction to the questions addressed in the thesis, including a review of the relevant literature. The literature review need not be extensive, but it should summarize the status of the field at the time the project was undertaken. This section should conclude with a clear, concise statement of the hypothesis to be tested or the questions to be answered.
• Materials and Methods : In this section, you should report the materials (usually biological and/or chemical) used in the experiments and describe all techniques. If a technique has been used essentially as reported in the literature, it can be referenced without further description. You should note any significant modifications of the original report. Methods should be reported in enough detail to allow an interested colleague to reproduce the experiments.
• Results : You should describe the major experimental findings, which are usually summarized in the form of tables or figures. Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively, with each on a separate page. They may be inserted into the text as needed (usually as the page immediately following the text page on which a given table or figure is first mentioned) or collected together at the end of the thesis.
• Discussion and Conclusions : You should provide a discussion, interpretation, and summary of the thesis findings. The conclusions that can be drawn from the data should be stated clearly and defended concisely. It is often appropriate to discuss the results in relation to the findings of other investigators, particularly if the conclusions appear to be in conflict with those of others.
• References : You should collect all references cited in the text together in a bibliographic listing at the end of the thesis. Use a consistent format for all references. References may be cited in the text by number (in parentheses or as superscripts) and listed in the Reference section in order of citation. Alternatively, references may be cited by name and listed alphabetically in the References section. In the latter case, papers with one or two authors are usually cited in the text by name(s) and year (i.e., Smith and Barnish, 1999), whereas papers with three or more authors are usually cited as the first author et al. with the year (i.e., Barnish et al., 1999).
• Other Sections : It is helpful to include a short (≤1 page) abstract or summary and a table of contents at the beginning of the thesis. The thesis may also include a page of acknowledgments to express appreciation to those who were especially helpful in the work.
• Appendices : Experimental details or findings that are only tangentially relevant to the thesis may be included as appendices, if it seems desirable to preserve a record of the information.

Additional resources:

• ACS Style Guide – contains details on scientific writing, & guidelines for figures, tables, citations, references, etc.
• Helpful writing guide: Scientific Writing
• UW-Madison doctoral thesis guidelines: https://grad.wisc.edu/current-students/doctoral-guide/
• UW-Madison Writing Center: https://writing.wisc.edu/

Final thesis submission

We recommend that you give a completed copy of your thesis to your thesis advisor three weeks before the semester ends, so they have enough time to review your work and assign a grade.

You also need to turn in your thesis with a signed Cover Sheet to the Biochemistry / Microbiology Undergraduate Advising Hub ( [email protected] )​​​ by the last day of class of your second Senior Thesis semester. If you are in an honors program, check with them to see if they have an earlier deadline.

If you anticipate needing additional time to complete your work, you must discuss this with your thesis advisor and have the advisor inform Biochemistry/Microbiology Undergraduate Advising Hub ( [email protected] )​. You will receive a grade of incomplete and you will not officially graduate until the thesis is reviewed and the incomplete grade is changed to a letter grade.

The grade for the thesis will be given by your thesis advisor. During the first semester, your thesis advisor will give you a grade of “P” for progress or “F” for non-attendance/non-contact. Your thesis advisor will assign the letter grade at the end of your second semester, and it will serve as both the first and second semester grade. The thesis advisor will assign the grade through MyUW.

Student checklist for Biochemistry Theses

Semester before thesis work begins:

• Speak with a professor about doing a thesis in their lab.
• Begin work on the research proposal, which includes an experimental plan, methods and procedures, expected results, and the significance of the work (2-5 pages).
• Get authorized to enroll! Turn your Research Proposal Form and your Research Proposal in to the Biochemistry/Microbiology Undergraduate Advising Hub ( [email protected] ) this semester or by the end of the third week of class of your first semester of thesis work.
• Enroll in BIOCHEM 681 or 691

Start of first semester of thesis work:

• Turn in your Research Proposal Form and your Research Proposal to the Biochemistry/Microbiology Undergraduate Advising Hub ( [email protected] ) by the end of the third week of class.
• Enroll in BIOCHEM 681 or 691 by the end of the third week of class, if you haven’t already.
• Work on your thesis!

End of first semester and beginning of second semester of thesis work:

• Enroll in the second semester of your Senior Thesis course (BIOCHEM 682 or 692). If you are not authorized to enroll, then contact the Biochemistry / Microbiology Undergraduate Advising Hub ( [email protected] ).​​​​
• Your thesis advisor will issue you a “P” grade for “progress” for the first semester of thesis work. This is normal. The grade received for the second semester will automatically also apply to the first semester once it is issued.

Three weeks before end of second semester of thesis work:

• Complete your thesis!
• Have thesis advisor read your final thesis and sign your thesis cover sheet — the thesis advisor will then assign a grade electronically.
• Submit one copy of the finished thesis with the signed cover sheet to the Biochemistry/Microbiology Undergraduate Advising Hub ( [email protected] ) before the end of the last week of class.
• Note: Students in Honors programs may require earlier thesis submission and additional paperwork, depending on the program requirements and deadlines.

Senior Honor Thesis

Anthropology

Senior honors thesis.

The Anthropology Honors Thesis program provides outstanding seniors the opportunity to conduct original scholarly research under the mentorship of an anthropology faculty member, to write an honors thesis, and ultimately to graduate with departmental honors.

Students interested in the honors thesis program should plan to take a section of Anthropology 196, the upper-division Undergraduate Seminar, the semester before they intend to begin the two-semester senior thesis program. The departmental decision on admission to the senior thesis program will include consultation with the faculty instructor for this course.

The senior thesis requires two semesters that may begin in either fall or spring semester when the student has senior status. Normally, it is completed in a fall-spring sequence of semesters.

Registration in the two semester course Anthro H195 with the thesis advisor is required; a final grade for the course is awarded after the completion of Anthro H195B. The first semester is spent in the formulation of the topic, theoretical/literary exploration and research, methodological development, primary data collection/research/analysis, and beginning to write; the second semester is spent writing the thesis, submitting drafts to two readers for critical comments and suggestions in a timely manner, and polishing the final thesis.

Although there is no specific length requirement, a typical undergraduate Honors Thesis contains 50-100

pages of text, along with a bibliography, and often includes illustrations and tables.

Requirements

• Overall UC GPA 3.5 or higher at the time of application and when beginning the thesis.

• Major GPA 3.6 or higher at the time of application and when beginning the thesis.   NOTE: The major GPA is based solely on courses completed at Berkeley. •Anthropology 114 and the Methods requirement must be completed or in progress by the semester of application to the thesis program. If either or both courses are in progress at the time of application, they should be completed before the first semester of the thesis program (before enrolling in Anthro H195A). • A minimum of 8 upper-division units in Anthropology courses taken at UC Berkeley must have been completed at the time of application, with no fewer than 8 additional upper-division units in Anthropology courses in progress, for a total of at least 16 units in Anthropology at UC Berkeley completed before beginning the thesis (before enrolling in Anthro H195A). • No incompletes should be on record at the time of application or when beginning the thesis. All incomplete grades must be resolved before a student can submit an application for the thesis program.

Getting Started

Your first priority is settling on a general topic and a particular faculty advisor. If you are unsure which faculty member in the Anthropology Department might best help you, consult with the undergraduate advisor in 215 Anthropology and Art Practice Building (Formerly Known As Kroeber Hall). Prepare a brief thesis proposal--a statement of the research question and your plan of action including a discussion of the research methods you will employ. Visit your prospective thesis advisor with your proposal in hand and ask if they are able to sponsor you. If the response is "yes," then the subsequent process is largely up to you and your thesis advisor. If the answer is "no" (the faculty member may be on leave the coming year, unable to commit the time that you and your project merit, etc.), meet with additional faculty until you find sponsorship.

In addition to the sponsorship of an Anthropology professor as thesis advisor, the honors program requires you to have a second faculty sponsor, commonly referred to as the second reader. The second reader is only required to read and comment on a near-final version of the thesis, but may choose to play a greater role. In unique circumstances, the second reader may be a professor from another department, if approved by the Anthropology thesis advisor. Discuss with your thesis advisor who would make a good reader for your project, and arrange to meet with a prospective reader(s). If they agree to work with you as your Thesis Advisor, you are ready to complete the thesis process. Ask your main Faculty Advisor to email the Anthropology Undergrad Advisor, (me :), to request your enrollment into the Prof's H195A, during the enrollment phase. Although it is helpful to secure both thesis readers at the start of the process, the second reader is sometimes identified within the first or beginning of the second semester of the Thesis program. But remember to always consult with your Main Faculty Advisor on the who to approach for the Second Reader position.

NOTE: It is recommended that the student find out early that both readers agree on the same research methodology and range of required readings, that the project is not too large to be completed in two semesters, and that both readers be available (not on sabbatical or leave) for both semesters.

Once you obtain sponsorship from an Anthropology faculty member and second reader, have your main Advisor email the Undergrad Advisor to request enrollment. And please remember to request enrollment from the undergraduate advisor at the start of the second semester for enrollment into H195B, the second semester of the Thesis program. The honor coursework, (H195A & H195B) may count as 2 of the 5 Anthropology elective requirements for the major.

NOTE: Anthropology H195A and H195B are independent study courses; there is no instruction or class time involved. All the work for the thesis and these 2 courses is done independently.

Application Timeline

• Best timing is February of Junior Year (Fall/Spring thesis); September of Junior/Senior Year (Spring/Fall thesis): Prepare a brief thesis proposal and meet with the prospective thesis advisor(s). Get the consent of a faculty member of the Anthropology Department to serve as your sponsor.  Discuss the project, appropriate methodology and research methods, and preparation of sample bibliography with the faculty sponsor.

• A request from your Faculty Advisor to the Undergraduate Advisor initiates the enrollment process to begin the Thesis.

Applying for the Senior Honors Program

Students apply in the semester before they want to begin the senior honors program by taking the following steps:

(1) complete prerequisites:

• complete at least 8 units of Anthropology courses and be enrolled in at least 8 more units successfully
• complete a section of Anth 196
• complete Anth 114 and the Methods requirement or be enrolled in them when applying

(2) assemble a thesis committee:

• identify a faculty advisor who agrees to supervise Anth H195A and H195B
• present a thesis proposal, in writing, to the proposed faculty advisor for approval
• identify a second faculty reader, in consultation with the faculty advisor

            The second reader may be a professor from another department, if approved by the Anthropology             thesis advisor.

The faculty advisor confirms the proposal is acceptable by sending email to the Undergraduate Major Advisor approving enrollment in Anth H195A for the following semester. This step is required.

The Undergraduate Major Advisor confirms that course requirements have been met, and if they have, enrolls the student in the first semester of the two semester course Anthro H195. The student must request enrollment in H195B by the Undergraduate Major Advisor at the start of the second semester of the program.

Level of Honors and grade for the honors course sequence

Anth H195A is the first half of a single, two semester course. It is graded IP (in progress). A final grade for the two semesters, which count as 2 of the elective courses for the major, is assigned at the end of Anth H195B.

Level of honors is assessed separately from the grade for the two semester honors course sequence. Level of honors is based on the review of the final written thesis by the two readers. The Honors categories are Honors, High Honors, or Highest Honors.

If the thesis is not of the quality required for honors, a student may receive course credit with a letter grade only.