Suggested Format for Campuswide Honors Thesis

IMPORTANT NOTE: Each discipline is unique and the ways to present your research may be many and varied. However, since so many Honors students have indicated that a “suggested format” would be helpful, we have created this outline. It should not be viewed as rigid or mandatory – your thesis should be written with the guidance of a faculty member appropriate to your topic and she/he usually can give you some advice as to what pieces of this suggested format you need to include in your thesis.Format should be consistent throughout and, wherever possible, appropriate to your discipline. Style manuals such as APA or the guidelines established by the Bio Sci Excellence in Research Program are examples students have followed.

1. Title page (title, centered; your name and the date, i.e., June, 1997), your faculty advisor’s name & department should be indicated in the lower section of the page)
2. Acknowledgments (if you want to do this)
3. Abstract (brief summary of the purpose, methods, and results of your
  research/thesis)
4. Table of Contents (if appropriate)
  Some students have also organized items 5-9 as chapters – discuss the appropriate format with your faculty advisor.
5. Introduction/Overview/Hypothesis (outline of the topic/problem; what you set out to do and why; perhaps list some anticipated results)
6. Background, literature review/previous research, definition of terms
7. Methodology (i.e., methods & measures, model, subjects, instrumentation, variables, procedures)
8. Results/findings/conclusion & discussion of same
9. Bibliography
10. Tables, charts, appendices, pictures, surveys, etc.