The Senior Thesis Proposal Style Guide

GPA and course requirements for writing a Senior Honors Thesis:

• for College Honors:
• • you must graduate with an overall GPA of at least 3.50
  • you must have complete three honors courses (if you have not completed this requirement by the start of your senior year, contact Dr. Catone immediately)
• for Departmental Distinction
• • you must graduate with an overall GPA of at least 3.25
  • You must graduate with a GPA in your concentration of at least 3.50; see Dr. Catone with questions about your GPA

Proposal Requirements

Although your final proposal will be submitted electronically using a web form, you should use the following style guide to draft your proposal. You will then be able to copy and paste the contents of your proposal into the web form for submission. Your thesis proposal will be two to three pages in length and will contain the following sections:

• an account of how you became interested in the project
• your goals for the project
• a tentative hypothesis or thesis; for art/theatre projects, a contextualization of your goals
• your proposed methods of inquiry
• a summary of preliminary research
• a preliminary bibliography
• a timeline for the project containing a brief outline of monthly progress goals

Avoiding common oversights:

The Honors Committee will flag proposals that lack a clear goal, hypothesis, or context. Also, proposals that do not contain a sufficient bibliography will be returned for revision. Please be sure to include all seven of the sections listed above in your proposal.

Timetable for submitting proposal: