Master’s students working under the English MA Plan I at
Sam Houston State University have the option of writing a thesis
to fulfill six of the thirty-six hours required for the degree.
A working definition of a thesis, a discussion of why one would
choose to write a thesis, and the step-by-step process of producing
the thesis follow:
What Is a Master’s Thesis?
The thesis is a well-researched, well-developed, and well-articulated
essay of scholarship/criticism or a carefully considered and crafted
body of creative work. It is essentially a long essay or a cohesive
creative work and not a doctoral dissertation: You should
not seek to produce a monograph of several hundred pages. Instead,
find a topic and a focus that you can manage in about six-eight
months.
While there are no length requirements cast in granite, most scholarly
and creative theses run between sixty and eighty pages (excluding
title, abstract, and works cited pages). Although the thesis project
itself usually guides both the length and structure of the work,
a scholarly thesis is typically divided into four or five chapters,
with an introduction. The creative thesis may be something like
a cycle of short fiction or poetry, a novel, a full-length screenplay,
or a collection of familiar essays; the body of creative work is
prefaced with a critical introduction that lays out the author’s
aesthetic.
Copies of approved English theses from years past, both creative
and scholarly, are kept in the Department of English office. Have
a look at several. You’ll find much variety here, but look
for what is common to them in approaches, structure, and ambitions.
To Write a Thesis or Not?
Some students prefer the structure of classwork to the riskier
independence of writing a thesis, and they choose to take the two
extra classes rather than write the thesis. Plan I of the English
MA is such that it allows the option for students of varying interests,
ambitions, and energies.
Why, then, might one choose to write a thesis? First, and perhaps
most selfishly, a thesis project allows you to indulge yourself
in researching and making an argument about a particular topic dear
to you or to produce a cohesive body of creative work that has long
been your great interest and ambition. Perhaps a topic in a class
along the way has excited you and you wish to indulge yourself in
nothing but glorious researching and writing about that topic for
several months. Or perhaps you have been writing short fiction or
poetry for years and see in the thesis an opportunity at last to
bring your work into focus and into fruition.
A second reason concerns the very nature of what we do in a graduate
program: One of the goals of the English MA Program at Sam Houston
State University is to make of you an independent critical thinker
and writer. Term essay assignments and comprehensive examinations,
as agonizing as they may sometimes seem, work to that purpose by
requiring that you research a subject at length and craft a waterproof
and convincing argument about the subject. Creative and professional
writing portfolio assignments similarly work to make you independent
thinkers and writers. These goals in mind, the MA thesis may serve
as a kind of capstone project for you; it demonstrates to yourself
and the graduate faculty that in and through this graduate program
you have, in fact, become the independent critical thinker and scholar
who can converse intelligently and articulately about literature
and language with other critics and scholars and the independent
writer whose words carry weight in the world.
Despite some prevailing myths, you need not complete an MA thesis
for admission into a PhD program, if you plan to apply for one.
However, as a third reason, writing a thesis can serve as a kind
of warm-up for the more extensive dissertation research and writing
required of doctoral candidates. And while we would never suggest
in your Master’s program that you lock yourself into a subject
and approach for a doctoral dissertation before you have had PhD
classwork, writing the MA thesis may inspire more extensive research
and writing about a particular subject later in your career.
Steps in Writing the Thesis:
The following is a detailed step-by-step guide to writing the MA
thesis in English. Please read carefully through these steps before
beginning work on the project so that you have a good understanding
of the sequence of events from start to finish. The model timelines
for completing the thesis, which follow this overview, may guide
you in mapping out the steps semester by semester.
A. Beginning: Prerequisites, Selection of Topic, and Finding
a Director
- The thesis option is available only to those English MA students
on Plan I who have been accepted in regular admission status and
have declared a major (been accepted as degree candidates). If
you have not already fulfilled the requirements for candidacy
and filed a declaration of major form, you must do so before beginning
work on the thesis. See Declaration
of Major.
Aside from the other information requested on the major form, designate
the following:
- Degree:
MA
- Major Code:
ENG
- Minor Code:
THE
- A student who undertakes a creative thesis must have successfully
completed two graduate-level creative writing workshops.
- Decide upon the author, texts, and literary age that you will
investigate in the thesis or the type of creative or professional
project that you will undertake. Be sure that you choose a subject
that will sustain your interests and energies for six to eight
months.
- Choose a thesis director from among the graduate English faculty.
Because you will be working closely with your director for some
time on a specialized topic, find a member of the faculty with
expertise and interest in the general field of the thesis topic
and, for your own sanity and that of your director, someone with
whom you can work productively and amicably. (See Graduate
English Faculty for further guidance.)
Having decided upon a possible director, be sure to ask
the professor if he or she is willing and able to supervise the
project; don’t presume. Most faculty are willing to serve
without hesitation, but occasionally such circumstances as sabbatical
absences, editorial duties or publishing commitments, and pre-tenure
preparations make thesis supervision difficult.
A student who writes a creative thesis must work under the direction
of a recognized graduate creative writing faculty member.
- Sit down with the director and decide upon the other two readers
for your thesis committee. Ideally all three members of the committee
will have interests, training, or experience in the general field
of the thesis topic.
In appropriate cases, one of the readers may come from outside
the Department of English.
B. First Semester of Thesis Work: Preliminary Paperwork
and the Thesis Prospectus
- For the first semester of thesis work, enroll in ENG 698 (Thesis
I). The goals of this course are to read extensively in your subject,
to complete and submit necessary preliminary paperwork, to produce
an approved thesis prospectus, and to draft an introduction or
first chapter. Your committee may also require that you complete
one or more other preliminary steps (for example, an annotated
bibliography or other review of the literature).
During this semester, a candidate who undertakes a thesis involving
human subjects (for example, in interviews for oral histories
or surveys for statistical measurements) must also submit paperwork
for approval by the Sam Houston State University Office of Research
and Special Programs. For further information, see the ORSP
Web Page.
- Fill out an Appointment
of Thesis Committee Form and submit it to the Graduate
Director at the beginning of the semester. This form does not
require original signatures from your committee members, and you
need describe your project in only a very generalized way at this
point. If at any time the members of your thesis committee change,
you must immediately submit a new appointment of committee form.
- In consultation with your director, develop a carefully considered
thesis prospectus. The prospectus requires that you describe the
nature of your project fully, discuss the critical contexts for
your work and the relation of your work to other relevant research
or creative work in the field, and identify all source materials
and facilities available for the successful completion of your
project. Obviously you are not writing the thesis itself at this
point, but the prospectus should demonstrate that you have a good
plan and that you know the critical/scholarly or creative contexts
into which your work will fit. The prospectus, as the product
of a semester’s worth of work (especially reading in the
subject), must be very carefully considered and very well-developed.
Your director, readers, and the administrators who oversee the
program will not approve an underdeveloped or hastily conceived
proposal.
If you are writing a scholarly thesis, the prospectus must address
the following:
- Describe fully the nature of your project: In some detail,
what is the topic? What are the contexts? What is the rationale
for undertaking the project? How will you develop and structure
the work?
- Outline your proposed procedure and methods of investigation.
- Discuss the relationship of your study to other relevant research
and findings by scholars in your general area of concentration.
- Comment on all source materials and/or facilities available
for the successful completion of your research, and attach a
preliminary bibliography.
See the Model
Prospectus for a Scholarly Thesis.
If you are writing a creative thesis, the prospectus must address
the following:
- Describe fully the nature of your creative project: What is
it generically? What is the rationale for undertaking it? How
do you define your aesthetic? How will you develop and structure
the work?
- Discuss specifically the context for your project—literary,
critical, historical, or otherwise—that will be examined
in your critical introduction to the project.
- Comment on all source materials and/or facilities available
for the successful completion of your project, including its
critical introduction. As appropriate, attach a provisional
bibliography of sources for the introduction.
See the Model
Prospectus for a Creative Thesis.
- Typically the thesis candidate will write the prospectus in
consultation with the director, then distribute it to the other
two readers for approval. The approved prospectus must be submitted
to the Graduate Director by the final class day of the term.
Be sure that your committee members have the prospectus in
plenty of time for them to read, consider, and, as appropriate,
ask for revisions and development. Do not—do not—force
your readers into a time crunch by demanding that they read the
proposal a day or so before the deadline.
- Having written the thesis prospectus to the approval of your
director and two readers, submit the prospectus with the Thesis
Prospectus Form attached, as cover, to the Graduate
Director by the final class day of the term. The form must bear
the original signatures of the thesis director and the other two
readers on the thesis committee.
- During this term, in order to get a good running start into
the second semester of thesis work, you will also draft an introduction
or early chapter of the work. This step does not require formal
administrative approval, so you should negotiate it with your
director and readers.
- If you successfully fulfill the formal requirements for ENG
698—the submission of the committee appointment form and
the submission of the approved thesis prospectus—the Graduate
Director will assign a grade of “Credit,” and you
will earn the first three of the required six hours of credit.
If you fail to complete the requirements, the Graduate Director
will assign a grade of “No Credit,” and you will be
required to take ENG 698 again. Because progress is difficult
to measure during this first semester, neither grade affects your
graduate GPA.
- You may not take an incomplete (IP) in ENG 698.
C. Second Semester of Thesis Work: Writing, Defending,
and Submitting the Thesis
- For the second semester of thesis work, enroll in ENG 699 (Thesis
II). The goals of this course are to complete and defend the thesis
and to submit it to the College and University for approval.
Writing the Thesis:
- Write the thesis according to the approved prospectus. In doing
so, it is best to establish with your thesis director a firm schedule
of dates for submitting sections. Keep in mind the deadlines for
defending and submitting the finished thesis for approvals.
- Submit a draft of the thesis to the reading committee. Some
directors prefer that thesis students complete the entire thesis
in draft before turning it over to the second and third readers
for comments; others prefer that the committee see the work in
progress, section by section. Whichever method you and your director
decide upon, it is your responsibility at all times to keep the
second and third readers informed of the progress that you are
making toward completion. Nothing should come as a last-minute
surprise for them.
Defending the Thesis Orally:
- With your director, establish a date and time for the oral defense
of your thesis, which should take place at least a day or two
before the Graduate Studies Office deadline, to allow time for
approvals and routing of paperwork. The defense deadline is typically
set by the Graduate Studies Office for beginning of April during
the spring term, the third week in June during the summer term,
and the beginning of November during the fall term. For specific
dates, see the Graduate Studies Office Thesis
Timeline.
It is the responsibility of your director to notify both the other
readers and the Graduate Director of the date and time of the
defense. The Graduate Director will supply the oral defense paperwork
to the thesis director. You or your director must supply the Graduate
Director with the following information for the Thesis Defense
Form:
The date and time of the defense
The final official title of the thesis
The names of the committee members
- At about the same time that you submit the draft to your reading
committee, and before defending the thesis orally, you must take
a copy of the draft, formatted to the best of your understanding,
to the Newton Gresham Library for approval of basic style and
format. As of Spring 2008, the staff member who examines and approves
the format is Laura Carter, who works in Circulation; her e-mail
address is lib_lem@shsu.edu,
her phone number 936-294-4686.
With the copy of the thesis (not yet on bond paper), provide a
copy of the approval sheet and of the abstract so that the Library
staff can check and approve the format of those documents as well.
The staff member should also provide you with a checklist of thesis
submission requirements and a schedule of fees for binding final
copies.
- Sit for the oral defense on the appointed day.
In general, during the oral defense, the scholarly thesis committee
seeks a detailed explanation of the genesis, purposes, methodologies,
and findings of the thesis and the value of those findings. While
the examiners may tie their questions to particular courses or
ancillary issues, their focus will remain on the thesis itself.
The defense of a creative thesis, like that for a scholarly thesis,
emphasizes the genesis, purposes, critical methodologies, and
rationale for the project and requires that the student explain
her or his aesthetic. Typically, the committee will ask about
long-range plans for the work.
Thesis defenses are generally pretty pleasant affairs: By the
time that you have completed the work, you will probably know
the subject as well, if not better, than any person in the examining
room. The oral defense gives you an opportunity to talk at length
about a project that by this time has become (and remains?) very
dear to you. (You have the option of opening the defense to the
public, a great opportunity for showing off your accomplishment
to friends, family, faculty, and fellow graduate students.)
During the oral defense, the committee members may ask that you
develop or correct parts of the thesis; if you have kept all members
of the committee informed about your progress and given them the
thesis in ample time for reading, there will likely be fewer corrections
or revisions. You will have about a week from the date of the
oral defense to make any such changes to the satisfaction of the
thesis committee.
At the end of the oral defense, the committee members will sign
the Thesis Defense Form, which records the results of the defense,
and give that to the Graduate Director.
The committee members should not yet sign the thesis approval
page.
- Make any changes to the thesis that your reading committee suggest
and, within a week of defending the thesis, return the revised
work to the thesis director. The director and two readers will
sign the thesis approval page only after they have been assured
that you have made any recommended revisions or corrections.
Submitting the Thesis for Administrative Approval:
- Submit the approved thesis (not yet on bond paper) to the Dean
of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences by the submission
deadline. Typically, this is set for ten-twelve days after the
defense deadline. For specific dates, see the Graduate Studies
Office Thesis
Timeline.
The approval sheet (on bond paper), signed by the thesis committee,
and the route sheet, with your director’s signature, should
accompany the finished thesis.
The Dean’s Office may wish to review your finished work,
but the thesis and route sheet are typically due in the Office
of the Director of Library Services within a couple days of the
College submission deadline. So if the College Office does not
return the thesis to you immediately with the Dean’s signature,
the staff there will call you within a day or two to pick it up
for the next stop.
- Having retrieved the signed thesis from the Dean’s Office,
you will then walk it, with the route sheet, to the following
offices, as specified on the sheet:
Director of Library Services (Ms. Ann Holder)
The Dean of Graduate Studies (Dr. Mitchell Muehsam)
The Dean of the Graduate Studies publishes a calendar of deadlines
for routing the thesis to each office on the sheet. See the Graduate
Studies Office Thesis
Timeline.
- Typically by the deadline for submitting the final thesis to
the Dean of Graduate Studies, you will also have to submit the
final copies to the Library for binding.
Here, at last reckoning, is a list of the required copies:
- One copy for the Newton Gresham Library archives (required):
on bond paper
- One copy for the Newton Gresham Library for circulation (required):
on bond paper
- One copy for the Department of English (required): on bond
paper
- One or more copies for personal use (optional): need not be
on bond paper
- One copy for your thesis director (optional): need not be
on bond paper
- With each copy, you must supply, on the appropriate paper type,
a copy of the abstract, signed by your thesis director, and the
signed approval sheet (you need original signatures on only one
of the approval sheets).
- The charge for binding each copy is $10.00 (with an 8.25 % tax).
The Library charges a $3.00 fee for any copy that you would like
mailed.
- The Dean of Graduate Studies will send the route sheet to the
final stop, the Registrar, who will then count the thesis as a
requirement completed for graduation, as specified by your degree
plan.
- If you complete the thesis on schedule at the end of this term,
you will receive a grade of “Credit” for ENG 699 and
the three remaining thesis credits. This grade does not affect
your graduate GPA. If you fail to complete the thesis during this
semester, you will receive an IP (“In Progress”) for
ENG 699 and will enroll in the same course for three credits in
each subsequent semester until you finish, at which time you will
receive a final grade and the three remaining thesis credits.
- Important Note: Once having registered for ENG 699, you must
enroll continuously in this course until you complete the thesis.
If you begin in ENG 699 and then withdraw from the program for
any amount of time, with the thesis incomplete (open as an IP),
when you enroll again in ENG 699 to complete the project you will
be required to pay back-tuition for those semesters during which
you were absent.
Suggested Timelines for Writing the Thesis:
The thesis is reserved for those students who have been accepted
into the English MA Program in regular admission status and are
pursuing Plan I with the thesis option. Students take thirty hours
of graduate English coursework and six hours of thesis.
The thesis is designed as a two-semester sequence of ENG 698 (Thesis
I) and ENG 699 (Thesis II). According to this plan, full-time students
work on the thesis in their third and fourth semesters. For a suggested
timeline, see Model
Timeline: Two-Semester Thesis Sequence.
It is possible in exceptional circumstances to take ENG 698 and
ENG 699 concurrently, although the graduate faculty generally discourage
this option. According to this plan, full-time students work on
the thesis in their fourth semester. Obviously this compresses the
process and requires that the candidate submit parts of the thesis
on a much more rigorous schedule of deadlines. For a suggested timeline,
see Model Timeline:
Single-Semester Thesis.
While the thesis is designed as a two-semester sequence of ENG
698 (Thesis I) and ENG 699 (Thesis II), a student may in exceptional
circumstances take the two courses concurrently. Obviously this
compresses the process and requires that the candidate turn
in parts of the thesis on a much more rigorous schedule of deadlines.
A student who takes ENG 698 and ENG 699 concurrently during
the semester in which she or he plans to graduate must submit
the prospectus much earlier in the term, according to the deadline
posted by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. See
the CHSS
Graduate Student Web Page for deadlines.
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