Thesis Process

The thesis is a portfolio of three papers written during the course of the students graduate school career accompanied by a critical comment which elaborates on the lessons that these papers teach and the thematic linkages between them.

Students are expected to have written at least one major paper prior to enrolling in Pre-Thesis. During the Pre-Thesis course students will have that paper critiqued and make revisions to it in order to re-craft it into a submission that is appropriate for their thesis portfolio. During Pre-Thesis, students will also revise or write a second paper, under the direction of the instructor, which will serve as their second thesis portfolio paper. By the conclusion of Pre-Thesis, all students will have two of their three required thesis papers completed. Students are expected to write a third paper during their remaining courses which will, along with the two generated by Pre-Thesis, be submitted to the thesis review committee.

Prior to enrolling in Research and Thesis, students will submit their three candidate papers for approval to the thesis review committee. If the committee accepts those papers, students may enroll in research and thesis during which they will make final revisions to those papers under the supervision of the thesis advisor and compose the critical comment.