Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Getting Ready
Practical Matters: Carefully read your programs thesis guidelines. Map out key dates/deadlines
Attitude: Dont be daunted by the length of the finished object. A thesis of 70 (or 30) pages is
essentially five (or two) 15 page papers.
Work Style
Work with the writing process that seems most comfortable to you, but be aware of the strengths and
weaknesses of the way you go about the task:
Planned out and organized
o Time lines (meeting realistic deadlines)
o Outlines (possibly limiting but providing structure)
o Polishing (sometimes done prematurely and a way of stalling) and documenting
Organic
o Deadlines flexible (but deadly for procrastinators)
o Evolving points (expansive)
o Not stalled by rough writing (but more work to tidy at the end)
Clear and direct prose: make sure your prose communicates clearly and that difficult ideas are
adequately explained:
o Define key concepts fully
o Explain key points in sufficient detail. Also
order your explanations in a logical way so that if a reader needs to understand X
before being able to understand Y, X is first adequately explained
o Consider your audience:
Technical language vs. obfuscation
o Dont feel you have to gussy up your prose style
Support: a thesis or dissertation constitutes the acme of research writing; therefore, the points
you make need to be supported by solid research that you will draw on using
o Paraphrase (cite source)
o Quotation (cite source)
Balance (too much/too little)
Integration (mechanical and substantial) (see Use of Quotation on Writing
Center web pages)
o . . . interwoven with your own critical engagement
Coherence/Synthesis: Coherence refers not only to whether your writing makes sense, but to
whether the relationships between the points you make in any one section of your thesis make
sense. If you simply lay out facts, quotations, ideas, etc., and dont link them, your thesis will be
disconnected, hard to follow, and may resemble a list of statements and claims.
o Micro: keep clearly before you the focus of each chapter and then monitor whether the
points you make actually connect to and support your focus.
Use words and phrases that signal relationships. For example: and, also,
additionally; thus, consequently, therefore; but, however, nevertheless, on the
other hand; as I pointed out in the previous paragraph
o Macro: revisit your thesis often and make sure
the content of any one chapter is doing the job of supporting the thesis
you are explicitly linking the content of each chapter not only to the overarching
thesis but also to points made in other chapters: as I established in chapter one,
this claim . . . ; as I will show in the next chapter . . .
Organization:
o Your thesis should be divided into chapters
o Make use of headings and sub-headings to mark distinct sections within chapters
Use different patterns of organization such as narrative, compare and contrast, process
analysis, cause and effect, etc., as needed
o Make clear to your reader how the different parts of your thesis connect and build into a
complete statement; use signposts
Revising and Editing: Allow time to re-see your thesis and how the parts do truly connect to
the whole. By the time you get to the end of what you write, you may find you have shifted your
perspective and need to do some significant rewriting in certain sections. Finally, read through
with an editors eye and look for typos, misspellings, misplaced commas, etc. Make sure your
format accords with the requirements described under Thesis Style Guide. Double-check your
quotations and documentation.
o
It is expected that the student will work closely with the faculty thesis
advisor in order to shape the thesis precise topic, coordinate the necessary
research, and reach agreement about the thesis exact length, format, and
style (e.g., Turabian, Chicago, Society of Biblical Literature, etc.).
The thesis does not receive a letter grade unless it is written as part of a
course or a directed study. In these contexts, the responsibility for
determining a letter grade lies solely with the instructor of the course or
directed study, and the grade does not, on its own, signal approval of the
thesis as a paper.
Submitting a Final Draft of the Thesis
A final draft of the thesis will be due to the thesis advisor no later than noon
on the first day of the final reading week in the semester which the student
will graduate. The thesis should be accompanied by a cover page that
includes space for the signatures of the thesis advisor, any second reader,
and the M.T.S. director. Students should submit the thesis by emailing
the final version to the thesis advisor and copying the M.T.S. director
and the Director of Academic Formation and Programs. A thesis
advisor may request that the student also submit a hard copy of the thesis.
After receiving the thesis, the faculty advisor and any second reader should
communicate approval or rejection of the thesis to the M.T.S. director, who
will then communicate the results to the Office of Academic Formation and
Programs. It is also acceptable for the thesis advisor to notify the Office of
Academic Formation and Programs directly of approval or rejection of the
thesis, who will then verify approval or rejection with the M.T.S director. If
the thesis is approved, the M.T.S. director will submit a copy of the signed
cover page to the Office of Academic Formation and Programs. Except in
those cases where the M.T.S. director is also a reader, the M.T.S. directors
signature does not indicate an evaluative judgment but serves only an
administrative function that aids in tracking the completion of the final
thesis.
The faculty thesis advisor is responsible for providing a written evaluation
of the thesis to the student. Especially in light of the fact that many M.T.S.
students hope to pursue further academic work, thesis advisors are
encouraged to supply ample comments when they review a thesis. Second
readers (if applicable) should also seek to provide student paper writers
with analytical comments on their work. Copies of these written evaluations
should be given to the Office of Academic Formation and Programs for
inclusion in students academic records.