What Is a Senior Thesis

A senior thesis is a large, independent research project that students take on during their senior year of high school or college to fulfill their graduation requirement. It is the culminating work of their studies at a particular institution, and it represents their ability to conduct research and write effectively. For some students, a senior thesis is a requirement for graduating with honors. Students typically work closely with an advisor and choose a question or topic to explore before carrying out an extensive research plan. Style Manuals and the Paper's Organization The structure of your research paper will depend, in part, on the style manual that is required by your instructor. Different disciplines, such as history, science, or education, have different rules to abide by when it comes to research paper construction, organization, and modes of citation. The styles for different types of assignment include: Modern Language Association (MLA): The disciplines that tend to prefer the MLA style guide include literature, arts, and the humanities, such as linguistics, religion, and philosophy. To follow this style, you will use parenthetical citations to indicate your sources  and a works cited page to show the list of books and articles you consulted. American Psychological Association (APA): The APA style manual tends to be used in psychology, education, and some of the social sciences. This type of report may require the following: Title pageAbstractIntroductionMethodResultsDiscussionReferencesTablesFiguresAppendix Chicago style: The Chicago Manual of Style is used in most college-level history courses as well as professional publications that contain scholarly articles. Chicago style may call for endnotes or footnotes corresponding to a bibliography page at the back or the author-date style of in-text citation, which uses parenthetical citations and a references page at the end. Turabian style: Turabian is a student version of Chicago style. It requires some of the same formatting techniques as Chicago, but it includes special rules for writing college-level papers, such as book reports. A Turabian research paper may call for endnotes or footnotes and a bibliography. Science style: Science instructors may require students to use a format that is similar to the structure used in publishing papers in scientific journals. The elements you would include in this sort of paper include: Title pageAbstractList of materials and methods usedResults of your methods and experimentsDiscussionReferencesAcknowledgments American Medical Association (AMA): The AMA style book might be required for students in medical or premedical degree programs in college. Parts of an AMA research paper might include: Title pageAbstractProper headings and listsTables and figuresIn-text citationsReference list Choose Your Topic Carefully Starting off with a bad, difficult, or narrow topic likely wont lead to a positive result. Dont choose a question or statement thats so broad that its overwhelming and could comprise a lifetime of research or a topic thats so narrow youll struggle to compose 10 pages. Consider a topic that has a lot of recent research so you wont struggle to put your hands on current or adequate sources. Select a topic that interests you. Putting in long hours on a subject that bores you will be arduous—and ripe for procrastination.  If a professor recommends an area of interest, make sure it excites you. Also, consider expanding a paper youve already written; youll hit the ground running because youve already done some research and know the topic. Last, consult with your advisor before finalizing your topic. You dont want to put in a lot of hours on a subject that is rejected by your instructor. Organize Your Time Plan to spend half of your time researching and the other half writing. Often, students spend too much time researching and then find themselves in a crunch, madly writing in the final hours. Give yourself goals to reach along certain signposts, such as the number of hours you want to have invested each week or by a certain date or how much you want to have completed in those same timeframes. Organize Your Research Compose your works cited or bibliography entries as you work on your paper. This is especially important if your style manual requires you to use access dates for any online sources that you review or requires page numbers be included in the citations. You dont want to end up at the very end of the project and not know what day you looked at a particular website or have to search through a hard-copy book looking for a quote that you included in the paper. Save PDFs of online sites, too, as you wouldnt want to need to look back at something and not be able to get online or find that the article has been removed since you read it. Choose an Advisor You Trust This may be your first opportunity to work with direct supervision. Choose an advisor whos familiar with the field, and ideally select someone you like and whose classes youve already taken. That way youll have a rapport from the start.   Consult Your Instructor Remember that your instructor is the final authority on the details and requirements of your paper. Read through all instructions, and have a conversation with your instructor at the start of the project to determine his or her preferences and requirements. Have a cheat sheet or checklist of this information; dont expect yourself to remember all year every question you asked or instruction you were given.