Outstanding students who are considering applying to graduate school in history are especially encouraged to write a senior thesis. But doing a thesis is also a valuable experience for outstanding students who love history but have chosen other career paths. A completed senior thesis can serve as a superb writing sample for future employers and graduate schools in all fields. It stands as a clear demonstration of a student’s seriousness of purpose and proven excellence. Moreover, a history major who becomes a lawyer or a doctor or a diplomat may never have another opportunity to immerse himself or herself in the past and grapple with a significant historical problem.
Students who want to write a senior thesis normally follow these steps:
1) Preparation
Prospective thesis students should take their seminar (4930) during their
junior year. The seminar is an ideal setting for getting to know a professor
more closely than usual. Indeed, thesis topics often spring from these research-based
courses. Taking the seminar thus allows a student to begin developing research
skills, identifying potential thesis topics, and discussing options with professors.
Identifying a topic is a very important part of the process. While professors
will assist students, it is up to them to find a topic that:
a) will maintain their interest for two or more semesters;
b) will enable the student to make a contribution to our understanding of
history;
c) has a manageable scope.
Students who are well advanced in this process should apply to the University Scholars Program (which pays $2500 over the summer to do research with a faculty mentor) and for departmental research awards in the spring of their junior year.
2) Advising
The thesis is undertaken under the direction of a faculty member in the department.
It is the student’s responsibility to identify an advisor. Professors
are not likely to accept students whom they have not had in an upper-division
course. Please note that a thesis supervisor must be a regular, tenure-track
member of the department and not a teaching assistant or an adjunct professor.
Once a faculty member has agreed to supervise the thesis, the student and
the professor will work together to refine the topic.
3) Registration
Once a supervisor has been identified, students should see Linda Opper in
the History Department Office to sign up for HIS 4970. Thesis students should
be enrolled in four hours of HIS 4970 over the course of two semesters. Students
writing a thesis are strongly encouraged to take a lighter-than-usual course
load because of the intense nature of the research and writing processes.
4) Research
Begin conducting research the semester or summer before officially enrolled
for HIS 4970. Build a bibliography of both primary sources and secondary sources
(consider purchasing a bibliographic software like ProCite or Endnote to organize
notes). This may require working with the Inter-Library Loan Department and/or
preparing to travel to libraries and archives outside Gainesville. Students
will conduct the bulk of the research (in both the documents and the secondary
literature) during the first semester for which they are enrolled in HIS 4970.
To facilitate the research process, students should identify a set of research
questions, work to familiarize themselves thoroughly with the existing scholarship
on the topic, and begin to formulate an argument. Regular consultation with
one’s supervisor also helps keep research on track and productive. Students
should be both thorough and extremely careful taking notes to avoid plagiarism.
6) Writing
Writing ideally takes place concurrently with research. Keeping a research
journal and beginning to outline helps bring the project into focus. Writing
in earnest should begin toward the end of the first semester. Begin writing
even if the research seems incomplete. Most students will have never written
a paper longer than 15-20 pages, so it is critical to make steady progress.
Students should work with their supervisors to come up with a writing schedule
that leaves plenty of time for the revision process. Most supervisors will
want to read individual chapters or sections as well as one complete draft
of the thesis. Theses are unlikely to be awarded highest honors unless they
have undergone significant revision and are extremely polished. Follow the
writing format of the Chicago Manual of Style (or its abridged version known
as “Turabian”). Use footnotes, rather than endnotes or MLA-style
citations, to identify sources and develop secondary points that do not need
to appear in the main body of the thesis.
7) Final copy
Once the thesis is written and closely proofread, organize it with the following
sections:
a) title page
b) mandatory abstract form
(available at the Honors Program website)
c) acknowledgements (optional)
d) table of contents
e) approximately 40 pages of text including an introduction (that lays out
the topic and research problem, presents the argument, and situates the thesis
within the existing literature), chapters or sections, and a conclusion
f) a comprehensive bibliography with primary and secondary sources listed
separately
Number the pages and have the thesis bound.
8) Submission
There are two ways to submit a thesis, depending on whether the supervisor
believes it should be considered for highest honors.
If the student completes the thesis to the satisfaction of the supervisor, but the supervisor believes it is not competitive for highest honors, then two copies of the final draft are due on the last day of classes (usually a Wednesday). One bound copy must be submitted to the Department of History office, the other unbound copy to the Academic Advising Center.
If the supervisor believes the thesis is worthy of
consideration for highest honors, then the student must submit five bound
copies fourteen days before the last day of classes so the Undergraduate Committee
has sufficient time to read all submitted theses. The Undergraduate Coordinator
will inform the student and the supervisor by the last day of classes whether
the thesis has been awarded high honors or highest honors. On the last day
of class the student must also submit an unbound copy to the Academic Advising
Center.
Writing a Senior Thesis
