Thesis

By your last term, you should have finished 14 credits of research and be enrolled in 4 credits of BRR403 (syllabus). Try to finish any remaining research no later than the beginning of this term, leaving plenty of time to write your thesis. At the beginning of your last term, prepare a brief thesis outline in consultation with your mentor. Also, plan ahead: let your mentor know when you hope to give your final seminar, and make sure he or she will be available.

Thesis format:

Your thesis will be written in the format of a manuscript submitted to a scientific journal in your field. You and your mentor will select an appropriate journal. You will follow this format exactly, except that the Introduction and Methods sections of your thesis may be expanded to provide more detail than what is found in a typical journal article. The average thesis is about 25 double-spaced text pages, plus 6-8 tables and figures.  At the discretion of the mentor, additional material may be added in an appendix. Link to examples in Library archive.

A helpful checklist you can use to critique your thesis can be found here.

Thesis/BRR403 Meetings:

You will attend BRR403 during the term you are writing your thesis (usually your final term). The usual meeting time for BRR 403 is Mondays at 5 pm. When you come to the first meeting, you will bring a journal article from the journal you have selected to use for format.

Finishing your thesis: timeline:

The BRR advisor will help you schedule your final seminar/thesis defense, to be held no later than Friday before dead week.

You should give drafts of each thesis section to your mentor as you complete them.

Submit a complete draft copy of your thesis to your faculty mentor no later than three weeks prior to final seminar/defense date. Your advisor will meet with you to give you back an edited draft two weeks before your final defense.

Submit a revised copy of the thesis to the faculty mentor, secondary advisor, and BRR director no later than one week prior to final seminar/defense date.  This copy should contain the Thesis Title Page and Signatures Page, which you and your committee will sign when the final thesis is approved. [note: clicking on the Thesis Title Page link will download an RTF version of the title and signture pages, which you can open in Word or cut and paste into a Word document. You will insert your information in the highlighted sections and remove the highlighting].

Honors College thesis formatting requirements are slightly different: see link. If you are in Honors College, follow their required format.

Your committee will give you suggestions and editorial changes to the thesis at your defense. Using these, edit and submit a final copy of the thesis to your faculty mentor and BRR director. Obtain signatures from your committee on the signatures page and give a signed final copy to the advisor by Wednesday of finals week.

NOTE THAT THE UNIVERSITY HONORS COLLEGE HAS DIFFERENT REQUIREMENTS FOR THE THESIS COMMITTEE, TITLE PAGE FORMAT, AND DEADLINES (deadlines are earlier)! YOU WILL HAVE TO HAND IN A BOUND COPY OF YOUR THESIS TO HONORS COLLEGE, WHEREAS BRR RECQUIRES AN ELECTRONIC COPY.

IF YOU ARE IN THE HONORS COLLEGE, IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO FIND OUT DETAILS OF THESE HONORS COLLEGE REQUIREMENTS.