International University Audentes

School of International Relations

Guidelines for Students and Supervisors of Bachelor’s Thesis 2008-2009

As a final step before graduation students write and defend a thesis. It involves an intensive period of research and writing in a style that will seem both strange and cumbersome. As the paper will be graded by two different professors, each with his or her own biases and areas of expertise, it is necessary that all adhere to a common format and style.

IUA has chosen the Modern Language Association style for all theses written both for Bachelor’s degrees and Master’s degrees. This style is thoroughly explained in the MLA Handbook used in the Thesis Seminar classes. Additionally, there are copies of the handbook available in the library.

Deadlines have been established to ensure that the student is progressing at a pace that allows him/her to finish the thesis on time. The final due date is quite early, due to the necessity of two instructors reading and grading the thesis. 

The Mechanics:

Many students are concerned about the question of length. Suffice to say that the faculty is divided on this issue. Because of this, students should plan for a minimum of 30-60 pages depending upon the advisor. The advisor will give his or her specific requirements at the beginning of the term. The advisors all agree that superfluous material inserted strategically solely to increase the length of the paper is not an acceptable way to make up for weak preparation.

The paper should be organized with a title page, abstract, abstract in your native language (optional), table of contents, body of the thesis, back matter, and list of works cited. The minimum length requirements apply ONLY to the body of the thesis. Front and back matter do not count. 

The title page will be standardized, using the format given below:

 TITLE PAGE

In MLA style, the bibliography is titled “Works Cited.” This means that the only items that the student can list here are works that actually appear as a citation in the text. One cannot add references to this to make it appear as if more research has been done. 

Often, students do not fully read the instructions for preparation of the paper. There are a few GLARING errors that detract from the quality of the paper and traditionally annoy readers.

1. Do not justify the right margin. No matter how nice it looks in books and in magazines, do not do it here.

2. Make sure the works cited section is properly alphabetized. The paper is in English, so you should alphabetize according to the English alphabet.

3. If you use British English, use it all the time. If you use American English, use it all the time. It is very annoying to read “As the flag was raised, the bugler played ‘Honour the colors’”.

4. ALWAYS write in the third person. Do not use “I”, “me”, “you”, and especially “we”

5. The title of the paper is limited to 120 characters in English, and 120 characters in Estonian. The thesis advisor will submit the titles to the registrar, but it is the student’s responsibility to get an Estonian translation of his/her title. It must be in academically acceptable Estonian. Each advisor, depending upon his or her linguistic background, will explain their specific procedure.

6. Plagiarism is the sure way to fail. It cannot be overstressed that this is to be THE STUDENT’S OWN WORK, and not one which has been cut and pasted from the Internet or other sources. 

The Thesis Statement:

Before starting writing students are recommended to visit the following websites on how to write a thesis:

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/thesis.html

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/

The purpose of the paper is to make a statement and prove it, or define a problem and solve it. It is during the introduction that the thesis must be stated and very clearly stated. This is not the place for subtlety. It is most frustrating for the reader to finish the introduction and not know what the writer intends to prove or solve.

The statement to be proven cannot be a common knowledge statement or something so broad as to be obviously not provable within the constraints of the paper. Examples of writing with no thesis (and examples to be avoided) are magazine and newspaper articles. In proving the thesis, you will almost always have to use comparisons, and the selection of these is critical.  Do not select only comparisons that support your thesis. This will make it look like you are hiding some data that may refute you. Instead, locate comparisons where alternatives were used, and where they subsequently failed. This helps the paper be unbiased in its data.

Students are to show competency in the field and provide empirical support for the thesis statement.

Prerequisites to the Bachelor’s Thesis are:

1.      3^rd year status

2.      Good academic standing (GPA above 2.00)

3.      The course Thesis Seminar passed with a grade of  2 or better.

Formalities:

The students are responsible for regular meetings with their supervisors. The students must contact the advisor by the end of November in order to be able to register for the thesis in January. The Fall semester is the time for students to do empirical work. By February the student must have completed research and have an outline of the thesis ready. No bound copy of the thesis from a student will be accepted for grading without previous regular meetings with the supervisor. At these meetings, which should take place every two to three weeks, the students should discuss their progress and ask questions about their priorities, any difficulties with materials, etc. The supervisors have the task to make sure that the students are engaged independent research of their own rather than relying too heavily on previously published material. They should guide the students in their research in order to help them find all important sources and to write an analysis which covers the chosen topic in an adequate and meaningful way. Where necessary, the supervisors should advise on time management, restrictions of the topic, etc. Finally, to the extent possible, the supervisors must ensure by way of the meetings that the students at the end hand in an original piece of their own writing and not a cut-and-paste job, half restated, half straightforwardly plagiarized.

Grading:

The supervisors give a grade for the thesis on the grading scale from 5 to 0.

In this grade the supervisors should take into account:

§         Deadlines

- the observance of all deadlines by the student. The omission of deadlines can lead to failure. It is up to supervisor to consider whether any exception is tolerated.