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Thesis
The final requirement
for the MA is the master’s thesis. Depending on a range of factors–your
nonacademic time commitments, the amount of relevant research that you have
done in your course work and internship, and so forth–your thesis should
take from 6 months to a year to complete. You will work under the
supervision of your Program Committee; your Program Committee chair will
serve as your thesis director. While our program offers a great deal of
flexibility, there are two important constraints on your choice of a thesis
topic:
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You must choose a
topic that a member of the English department’s graduate faculty is
qualified to direct. No graduate program can offer its student unlimited
choice of courses and thesis topics; part of the commitment you make when
you enter a program is to recognize the parameters of what it can offer
(see also the section entitled “Your Area of Concentration and Your
Program Committee”). As previously noted, your thesis advisor should be
the faculty member best qualified to direct your thesis.
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You must choose a
topic that grows out of and reflects the rest of your work in the MA
Program. Your thesis is your opportunity to demonstrate the skills and
knowledge that you have acquired in the MA Program by engaging in an
extended research project; it is what you are working toward in the rest
of the program.
With the assistance of
your Program Committee– and if appropriate, the Director of Graduate
Studies–you will first narrow your general area of interest to a specific
thesis topic; in this stage, you may want to do preliminary research on two
or more possible topics before you make a final decision. Once you have
chosen a specific topic and have done sufficient research to determine that
it will allow you to make an original contribution to the scholarly and/or
professional dialogue in the field, you will submit to the English
Department Graduate Studies Committee a Thesis Proposal.
The
Thesis Proposal consists of a cover form, to be signed by you and all
the members of your Program Committee, a narrative description of the thesis
project, a timetable for completion, and an annotated bibliography. (A more
detailed description of the Thesis Proposal and a proposal cover form are
included in this guide.) After your thesis is approved, you may register for
thesis hours. Because the graduate school’s deadline for completion of
degree requirements and submission of the bound copies of the thesis is the
10th of the month in which a student wishes to graduate, the English
Department requires that completed thesis manuscripts be presented to the
Program Committee by the 15th of the preceding month. (For example, graduate
school deadline: December 10 for December graduation; Program committee
deadline: November 15.)
As you work on your
thesis, be sure to follow the instructions in “A Guide to the Preparation of
Theses and Dissertations” and memo on “Thesis Format Check and Deposit,”
both available from the Graduate Secretary. You should also be aware of the
graduate school deadlines for completion of degree requirements and
submission of the bound copies of the thesis. You are required to submit one
bound copy of your thesis to the English Department, in addition to the copy
required by the graduate school. It is conventional, but not required, to
give your thesis director a bound copy as well.
A
Guide to the Preparation Theses and Disseratations
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