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Undergraduate Honors Thesis Submission

This page contains three sections:

A complete listing of the DCA's collection of Undergraduate Honors Theses is available in the Tufts Digital Library.


Style and Citation Guidelines

The Thesis Honors Program is administered by the Office of the Dean of the Colleges. http://ase.tufts.edu/deancoll/


Paper and margins

The thesis must be in high quality print, double-spaced, printed on high quality 8 1/2 x 11 inch bond paper. While not required, paper that meets Standard #Z3948 of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is recommended. There should be a one-inch margin at the top and bottom and at the left and right sides of the page. The right margin should not be justified (aligned) unless it can be done without leaving large gaps between words.


Citations

Instructions for citing references are contained in any of the standard style manuals:

A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, by K. Turabian (LB2369 .T8 1987)

The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White (PE1408 .S772 1979)

Chicago Manual of Style (Z253 .U69 1993).

To cite electronic resources, e.g. Internet sites, consult Electronic Styles; a Handbook for Citing Electronic Information, second edition, by Xia Li and Nancy B. Crane (PN171.F56 L5 1996).


Title Page

The title pages of past honors theses have varied widely. The title should be centered on the horizontal measure of the area within the margins of a page of text. It should be one-third of the way down the vertical measure of the page and should be typed in capital and lower case letters with no end punctuation. If it takes more than one line, it should be double spaced and the second line should begin with a capital letter whether or not it otherwise would do so. Centered five lines below it should be the statement: An honors thesis (or project) for the Department of __________. On the next double-spaced line below should be centered the by-line. The author's name should be in the same form as in other official college records. On the last line of the typing area of the page should be centered: Tufts University, [Year].


Acknowledgments

An honors paper is a normal requirement for a degree with honors. Acknowledgment of help received from members of the department concerned is seldom necessary. In general, acknowledgments should be restrained statements of thanks for aid from outside or unusual sources. Dedication pages, while appropriate in a published book, are not considered appropriate in an academic paper; their inclusion is discouraged.


Pagination and Binding

"Every page of the paper, including blank pages, must be assigned a page number. Although counted in the pagination, the number should not appear on the title page or on other display pages such as the copyright, epigraph, or part titles." (Turabian, Section 14.6; see also Sections 14.7 - 14.9) The thesis should be "velo bound" with a clear mylar cover on the front and a heavy stock paper on the back. The title page should show as the first page after the clear mylar cover.


"Non-Traditional" Projects

Some honors projects result in products other than the traditional printed text (e.g. videotape, CD, large format artwork, etc.). Please contact the University Archives for information about submitting these types of projects.



College of Engineering Thesis Honors Program


Provided by the Office of the Dean of the Colleges, August, 1998
  • Your name must have been on the Dean's List at least once before your senior year to be eligible.
  • Consult your academic advisor about the requirements of the program, usually during the junior year.
  • Find a prospective thesis advisor and discuss the thesis topic with that advisor, usually during the junior year.
  • Assemble an advisory conunittee, possibly with your principal advisor's help, during the junior year.
  • Obtain your advisor's consent and departmental approval, and submit the "Thesis Honors Candidate" form (attached) to Carol Downing in the Office of the Dean of the Colleges, Ballou Hall.
  • Conduct research for at least two semesters (under departmental special topics/ thesis course designations) and complete thesis work.
  • It is recommended that you defend your thesis before your advisory committee by mid-April (or about one month before you are to graduate).
  • Advisory committee decides if thesis receives honors and, if so, what level of honors (honors, high honors, highest honors) and makes recommendation to the Dean of the Colleges.
  • Thesis honors, if any, are indicated on the student's transcript (separately from cum, magna, and summa).


Undergraduate Research Fund: Application Guidelines


Provided by the Office of the Dean of the Colleges, August, 1998

Students may request funding for senior theses, independent studies, interdisciplinary minors projects, or other proposals emphasizing original research that are directly supervised by a Tufts faculty member. Supplies, library cards, photocopying, and payment of research subjects are examples of appropriate expenses. Books, binding of theses, computers and other "durable goods" would not normally be appropriate, nor would payment of a salary.

Following are the guidelines and procedures to be used in applying for these funds:

  1. Students should submit a letter to Dean Swap, requesting funding from the Undergraduate Research Fund, with a brief discussion of the project, an itemized budget, and other sources of funding. This should be accompanied by a supporting letter from the faculty sponsor, who should indicate the nature of cost sharing. Most grants will be in the $100 to $500 range.
  2. Approvals will be on a rolling basis; proposals will not be in direct competition with one another. The program will end when the funds for the year are exhausted.
  3. Reimbursements will be made upon submission of receipts and completion of appropriate financial forms. I promise a speedy turn-around.
  4. For our records, I would appreciate a brief report by the student on each funded project.
  5. Please do not ask the Provost for additional funding.