Introduction
If you are reading this manual, you are probably preparing to begin a graduate level research project that will culminate in a written master thesis. Many students like yourself approach the idea of a thesis with fear, frustration, and some amount of fantasy. This manual has been designed to alleviate the fear, minimize the frustration, and replace fantasy with reality.
The graduate level research project assignment is designed to give you the opportunity to engage in original research under the guidance of your major department. While many students see the thesis requirement as one more hurdle they must clear before graduation, the thesis is actually designed for you to shape the direction of your own education, pursuing a topic that you are interested in while working with professors who are scholars in the field. The thesis process is a student-guided process. As a student preparing to begin that process, you have many decisions to make. This manual is designed to help you make those decisions.
This manual includes specific guidelines that you must follow in order to have your final thesis project meet the high standards of the graduate school at Mississippi College. While your individual departments will have a style book which will guide many of the details of your presentation, preparations, and formatting, some specific issues must be uniform for all theses prepared by Mississippi College graduate students. You are responsible for familiarizing yourself with these requirements. Where this manual contradicts your department's style book, this manual should be followed in consultation with your directing professor. Where this manual is silent, your department's style book will be your guide. Where both are silent, your thesis committee will guide you in making decisions.
It is primarily your responsibility to determine if sufficient source material, to which you have access, exists to justify a thesis on the subject you have in mind. On the other hand, you do not want to pick a topic that has been "overworked": one more thesis on a frequently investigated subject will have little chance of contributing anything of significance to the existing literature. It is best to have several possibilities in mind and explore the most promising ones with your directing professor. Eventually you and the directing professor will choose a thesis committee who will read and review your work. First, however, in consultation with a major professor you will prepare a written proposal as the initial step in your research process (see prospectus format, page 17). This proposal will be submitted to your department chair and the graduate school dean for approval. Upon approval of the proposal, you can begin formal research into the chosen topic.
The checklist provided on the following pages will serve as a guide throughout the entire process. Remember, you have the responsibility to make sure that all of the steps are fulfilled. Directing professors are often busy with other projects and teaching duties and may inadvertently forget a part of the procedure. By following the checklist you can avoid unnecessary delays.
You also have the responsibility of establishing your own workable time line for your project. You should check the deadlines for supplying material to the Registrar's and Graduate Offices, for completing written and oral examinations within the department, and the submitting of final thesis copies. Working with your directing professor, you should maintain a schedule that will insure meeting those deadlines.
The final thesis project will not only be your prized work, it will also take a place in the Speed Library of Mississippi College and within your major department. As the researcher, author, and editor of the project, you are responsible for the final success of the work. It is your creation. In it you will demonstrate to your professors, to the larger scholarly community and to yourself that you can (1) explore a topic with careful primary and secondary research (2) organize and present your material logically and informatively, and (3) produce a thoughtful, original contribution to your chosen field. With those goals in mind, you are ready to begin your thesis project.
The following checklist will provide guidance for timely preparation of a thesis. Please refer to it often and contact your directing professor or the Graduate Office for clarification.
| Specific Activity related to thesis preparation | Date Completed | |
| Have you chosen a specific professor to direct your thesis? | ||
| Has your specific topic been approved by your departmental advisor? | ||
| Have you submitted a prospectus to your director and the Graduate Dean as noted in this manual? | ||
| Do you own a current edition of the research style manual your department uses? | ||
| Do you know the specific Graduate Office deadlines as noted in this manual? | ||
| Has your directing professor approved your final good rough draft before
you hire an outside reader? (Contact Graduate Office for current list of
approved readers*)
[This reading is done at your expense. Expect to pay between $12.00-20.00 per hour--average time 2 to 3 hours.] |
||
| Have your comprehensive examinations been scheduled at least three weeks before the end of the fall or spring semester or two weeks before the end of the summer session? | ||
| Has your thesis defense committee been given copies of your thesis incorporating any corrections to date from faculty and reader? | ||
| Have you prepared four perfect, error-free copies following the guidelines in this manual? The paper you use for your original and copies must have a fiber content of at least 25% cotton rag fiber content. | ||
| Have the approval sheets (4 copies) in your thesis been signed by Thesis and Comprehensive Exam Oral Defense committee members, and your thesis director? (These will be bound into your thesis.) | ||
| Have you paid your thesis binding fee in the Bursar's Office? Keep the receipt. You must bring it to the Graduate Office when you turn in your thesis copies for binding. | ||
| Have you brought an original and three error-free copies, thesis binding fee receipt, signed approval sheets, and mailing or forwarding address to the Graduate Office BEFORE the deadline? | ||
| Have your incomplete grades for Thesis I/II for previous semesters been officially removed? (Contact the Graduate School for form used for this purpose.) Your grade must be officially changed before you will be cleared for participation in commencement. |
A student's advisory committee is made up of a directing professor and two other members of the student's department, usually designated as second and third readers. The student should choose a directing professor carefully after consulting with the director of graduate studies in the department. Then in consultation with the directing professor the student chooses the second and third readers. The student is responsible for contacting professors and inviting them to serve on his or her committee. The directing professor and the two readers will consult with the student about the most effective schedule for the completion of the research project. Students planning to complete graduate work in the summer should be aware that professors often pursue their own research during summer months and may be unavailable during certain periods. In addition to reading and offering revision suggestions for the thesis, the advisory committee will also serve as the student's examination committee.
A prospectus is intended to give you an opportunity to explore and plan for the writing of a thesis or research report. In this proposal you may use section headings as illustrated in the appendix, or use a narrative form. When choosing the narrative include the same points from the illustrated prospectus but without the demarcation of headers. The prospectus should be three to five pages in length. Include a working title of the study, a brief background statement and a bibliography related to your study. Include your statement of purpose and the contribution your topic will make to the field. Propose your method of study and identify its scope. The decision about which style manual to follow is made by you and your directing professor at this step. Submit your prospectus while involved in a bibliography course or early in Thesis I. Once your prospectus has been approved, you can proceed with your study. Remember any research project involving survey of or treatment to human subjects must be approved by {Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects }.
As You Write. . .
Scholars often borrow ideas, insights, and interpretations from one another. Whenever you borrow from another scholar, whether by paraphrasing or directly quoting, always give that person credit unless the information used is a commonly accepted fact (that Herman Melville was born in New York City, for example, or Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941). To put forward someone else's idea or interpretation as your own is plagiarism. If you repeat verbatim what someone else has written, you must put the words in quotation marks and identify the source in a footnote or endnote. If you paraphrase an interpretation, you must likewise document the source. When in doubt, credit your source. In any case, you should quote very sparingly and then only to reinforce or illustrate a central point.
Footnotes or Endnotes within Chapters
Footnotes should be referenced by superscript numbers inserted in the text at an appropriate break, preferably the end of a sentence or paragraph. If your text is organized by chapters, number the footnotes consecutively throughout each chapter and begin again in the next chapter.
Explanatory Footnotes and Endnotes
Students sometime fail to use explanatory footnotes or endnotes because they are unsure of how to use them. As a rule, information that relates to a particular topic, but is not regarded as important enough to be included in the text, can be included in an explanatory note. The note offers a place for you to include interesting or peripheral material without interrupting the flow of your narrative.
You should write as much as possible in the active voice ("Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941," for example). Passive voice is not incorrect, and at times may be used for variety or transition ("Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan on December 7, 1941," for example). However, you should avoid the tendency to write predominantly in the passive voice.
Alphabetizing in Bibliographies and Reference Lists
Disregard "A," "An," and "The" when they appear as the first word of a title.
Block quotations are lengthy excerpts from a source (defined in Turabian, for example, as a quote of two or more sentences that will fill four or more lines on your page). They should be set off from the rest of the text by indentation and single spacing, but not with quotation marks.
Do not use contractions unless they are part of a direct quotation.
If you omit words, phrases, or paragraphs in a quotation you must indicate it by using an ellipsis. The most commonly used forms are: 1) when the omission falls within a sentence [use three period dots]; 2) when the omission comes at the end of a sentence [use four period dots]. Material omitted from the beginning of a sentence is usually not signaled by ellipses.
Do not use the first person within the body of your thesis or research report. First person may be used in the introduction, acknowledgments, and conclusion, provided it is not done to excess.
When you mention an individual for the first time you should give the full name and, if appropriate, position. This may be nothing more than President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but it should always be done. Once an individual has been identified completely, it is not necessary to precede every mention of the name with the title. Titles should be capitalized only when used with a name: "President Roosevelt appeared. . ." as opposed to "The president appeared. . . ."
Uneven or "ragged" right margins are preferred for theses and research reports. Set your computer for left margin justification only.
Avoiding Sexism and Racism in Language
Avoid male terms when referring to circumstances that apply to both sexes; use "him or her," "humankind" instead of "mankind," or rephrase to eliminate male-only wording. "Negro" is no longer acceptable; use "African-American" or "black." Indeed, you should use appropriate terms for any racial or ethnic group you mention. Consult your directing professor if you are unsure of the proper terminology.
Material on the Internet seldom undergoes the refereeing process that is meant to establish scholarly credibility. As a result, it is imperative that researchers who want to use Internet information consider the source. A useful guide to evaluating World Wide Web information is itself on the Internet, at:
A second issue that must be address when using Internet sources is citation
of the material. The best place to find guidance for your situation is
in the manuals produced by professional associations. Two examples are:
You should consult the Web site for the association in your field to obtain its guidelines.
Your thesis or research report must be typewritten or printed using a letter quality laser or ink jet printer. Submit an original (marked as such) and three copies to the Graduate School in manila envelopes. Thesis copies may be carbon, photocopies, letter quality ink jet or laser. Print the original and all copies in black ink on 8 x 11 inch white typewriter or laser bond paper. (Your paper should be at least 25% rag content and 20 pound weight). Use of correction paper or fluids of any kind is prohibited.
Submit four copies of your thesis to your directing professor at least three days before the comprehensive examination. Schedule thesis defense (considered part of your comprehensive exam) at least three weeks before the end of the last fall or spring semester of attendance (one and one-half weeks before the end of the summer session). Make corrections resulting from the defense of the thesis before submitting it to the Graduate Office for binding. Four error-free copies of your thesis are due in the Graduate Office no later than two weeks before the end of the semester (four days before summer session final exams). Submit each copy in a manila envelope with a photocopy of the title page attached. Refer to the following chart for order of assembly for your finished paper.
As you complete the project. . . .
| Thesis/Research Report Parts | Pagination |
| Approval Sheet | No page number assigned |
| Title Page
Fly Sheet (blank page) |
Lower case Roman numerals
(Assigned but not shown) |
| *Copyright page
*Dedication page Acknowledgments Abstract *Preface Table of Contents List of Tables List of Figures List of Plates (if used) List of Symbols and Abbreviations |
Lower case Roman numerals
(Shown, example: iii, iv, v, vi, . . . centered, 1 inch from bottom of page) |
| Body of thesis (chapter divisions)
Separation sheet (blank sheet) Bibliography, Works Cited, or List of References Separation sheet (if appendix is included) *Appendix Vita |
Show Arabic numerals starting with 1
(centered, 1 inch from bottom on first page of chapters; one inch from top right corner on all others) |
| *Asterisk indicates optional part; all others are required. | |
Figure 1. Arrangement of thesis/research report parts.
Prepare five copies of your abstract, not more than 150 words in length, to submit with your thesis. One abstract is bound into each of the copies (four) and one is retained by the Graduate School. The abstract should be a concise statement about the entire work and not just your introductory paragraph or conclusion.
The margin for the left side of the paper is to be 1 ½ inches. All other margins must be 1 inch. These margins are required to facilitate binding your finished thesis. Failure to adhere to these margins may cause damage to your final bound document. All tables, illustrations, plates, maps and figures must fall within the required margins.
Refer to the table for pagination advice (page ). All materials preceding Chapter 1 should be assigned a lower case Roman numeral (I, ii, iii, iv, v. . . ). The title page is assigned a number but it is not printed on the page. Preliminary material and pages on which the major sections begin (Table of Contents, Acknowledgments, Chapters, Abstract, Dedication, etc.) are numbered in the center, one inch from the bottom edge of the paper. All other numbers should be one inch from the top, right-hand edge of the paper. See your style manual for header and specific pagination instructions. The general rule for pagination is that every page must be numbered or accounted for in numbering.
The acknowledgment page provides you with an opportunity to express appreciation to persons who have provided assistance in preparation and development of the thesis. Candidates who are writing acknowledgments are advised to examine several examples in books before writing their own. It should be one page in length.
Your vita (biographical sketch) should include the following items:
Full name, birth date and place
Educational background
Significant Honors and Awards
Major Interests
Work Experience
Objectives
Pay your thesis binding fee in the Bursar's Office, Nelson Hall. Present a copy of your binding fee receipt with the thesis copies to the Graduate Office. See the current class schedule for charges related to thesis binding. The binding fee covers the cost of binding four copies, including the copy to be returned to you.
Your copy of the thesis will be mailed to the address on file at the time of graduation. If you anticipate an address change during the binding period, please file the change with the Graduate Office. Your copy will be sent "certified return receipt requested" rate via the U.S. Postal Service.
Although responsibility for correcting errors lies
with the typist, the typist is not responsible for proof reading. The reader
is not responsible for proof reading. This responsibility rests with YOU.
No thesis should be submitted that has not been carefully proof-read. You
are discouraged from depending on spell-checking and grammar checking programs
as your proof-reader.
Please consult the Graduate School for updated information if you cannot contact the readers listed.
| Student Name: |
| Date Submitted: |
| Department Directing Research: |
| Style Manual to be followed: |
I. Working title of proposed research
The statement of title at this stage of thesis writing must be tentative, or it may be simply a description of the study to be undertaken. A tentative statement of title should reflect the central purpose of the study in a brief but accurate and comprehensive manner.
II. Give a brief statement on background and literature related to this study
This should indicate to the advisory committee the extent to which the thesis writer has become acquainted with the literature and other resources and other materials available on this subject.
III. Attach a working annotated bibliography
This section will ensure that the material available will support further study of the subject area. Annotation will show the committee the depth and quality of primary and secondary sources available.
IV. What contribution will this study make to the body of literature in your field or profession?
V. What are the limitations and the scope of this study?
Limitations as to time, size, numbers, and other factors should be stated
VI. Will live human subjects be an integral part of your study?
If yes, contact the {Institutional Review Board} for guidelines when using information gathered from live human subjects. Attach a copy of approval form you have submitted.
VII. Proposed method of study:
This statement should explain to the advisory committee how the study is to be undertaken.
| Approval from Advisor |
| Approval from Graduate Dean |
| Date Approved by Graduate Dean: |
| Approval of {IRB} to Proceed with A Study involving Human Subjects (Date Granted): |
(Sample Title Page for Thesis or Research Report)
(LINE 8)
(LINE 14)
(LINE 16)
(LINE 23)
(LINE 25)
(LINE 27)
(LINE 29)
(LINE 31)
(LINE 34)
(LINE 41)
(LINE 43)
(LINE 46)
(LINE 47)
(Sample approval page for thesis. Prepare one copy for each thesis to be bound--standard set: four copies.)
APPROVAL GRANTED BY:
Thesis Examination Committee
Oral Comprehensive Examination Committee
Director of the Study
| Dean of the Graduate School | Date |
In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of [insert field] degree at Mississippi College, I agree that the Library shall make it available to borrowers under rules of the Leland Speed Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of the source is made.
Permission for extensive quotation from or reproduction of this thesis may be granted by my major professor, or in his or her absence, by the Head of the Interlibrary Loan Services, when in the opinion of either, the proposed use of the material is for scholarly purposes. Any copying or use of the material in this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission.
| Signature |
| Date |
[Explanation: This statement, signed in ink (duplicated signatures are not acceptable), is required in EACH copy of a Master thesis or research report.]*