The thesis or project must be approved in advance by the professor under whose direction the work is being done. As part of the Honors in Major Study program, the candidate must complete a written thesis or research project prepared exclusively for the satisfaction of this program and file acceptable copies of the thesis or report on the project in the College Library not later than Reading Day in the term in which the student is registered for the Honors Thesis course. (See Library Deposit.) Changes and/or exceptions in requirements or deadlines must be approved by the Board of Review.
Two high-quality, Black & White copies of an honor's thesis must be submitted to the library. A third copy should be prepared for the directing professor, if desired. Students are advised to retain personal copies of the thesis.
In its final form, the thesis must be printed, single-sided, on high quality paper. Students should purchase paper from the bookstore (or elsewhere). The Technology Services Department does not supply paper for the printing of theses. Use at least 20-lb weight paper with a minimum cotton content of 25% for the copies to be submitted to the library. Unless approval by the departments is granted because of a need for a different format, the thesis must be 8½ × 11 inches in size.
The thesis must be printed (laser printing is preferred) on one side only of the paper with black ink. The text should be double-spaced, but extended quotations may be single-spaced if indented slightly from each margin. Text should be in a standard font, no larger than 14 point and no smaller than 10 points. At the discretion of the professor in charge, certain symbols such as exponents and subscripts may be neatly executed by hand with black ink. Since the finished thesis is to be treated as a book and since it is to be considered as an index of the ability and character of its author, the final copy should be correct in spelling and punctuation. There should be no non-standard abbreviations, cancellations, or irregularity of spacing of either line or words.
The use and placing of footnotes in the thesis should be consistent with the standard bibliographic form approved for use by the department. Guides illustrating the correct use and form for footnotes are available in the library (see Style Manuals) and in the College Bookstore.
Photographs, diagrams, charts, graphs, and tables may be executed on graph, chart, bond or photo-reproduction paper and/or mounted on bond typing paper in such a way as not to be injured by the bending of the page or binding of the volume. When convenient, small illustrations may be placed in the text. All illustrations must be included with each copy of the thesis deposited in the library.
Plates must be numbered consecutively as they appear in the thesis and paged consecutively with the text. Plates larger than the 8½ × 11 inch page size must be folded to leave a binding space on the left margin of at least 2 inches, and any folded edge should fall one-half inch within the corresponding edge of the thesis. A large sheet should be folded as suggested below:
Care must be exercised in folding a sheet so that it may be unfolded readily after the thesis has been bound, and so that it will not be cut when the thesis is cut by the binder. Instead of inserting folded sheets, it is desirable to reduce drawings to the 8½ page size by means of photocopying. If it is necessary to employ a folded sheet, it should be of paper similar to that used for the printed pages and as small as is consistent with legibility of the contents of the page.
The left margins must be at least 1½ inches wide. All other margins must be at least 1 inch wide. Illustrations also should conform to this requirement.
Copies of material in non-print format—DVDs, CDs, videos, diskettes, etc.—should be included with each copy of the thesis deposited with the library.
The usual make-up of the thesis should be:
An abstract is not an essential part of the thesis, but some style guides recommend or require one, and will give instructions for writing an abstract.
The bibliography shall be placed following the text in a form approved for use by the department. Guides illustrating the correct use and form of bibliographies are available in the library (see Style Manuals) and in the College Bookstore.
The completed thesis must be approved by the professor under whose direction the work was done. Use the form for certification of approval (PDF or MS Word Format) as a guideline. The certificate of approval must be signed by the thesis advisor and placed in the thesis following the title page.
All figures, tables, charts, graphs, drawings, plates and other illustrations are to be listed on a page following the table of contents, numbered consecutively in either Arabic or Roman numerals in the order in which they appear in the thesis. The number of the illustration(s) should appear at the left of each entry, and the number of the page on which each illustration appears should be indicated at the right of the entry.
Each thesis must have a table of contents immediately following the certificate of approval. It must list all the principal topics or subdivisions of the thesis and their initial page numbers.
Text should follow the style (APA, Chicago , MLA, etc.) of the thesis discipline.
In order to ensure consistency among Whitman theses, the title page should follow closely the sample (PDF or MS Word Format) with respect to order, spacing, and capitalization. Exceptions with regard to color and design may be made at the discretion of the College Librarian. In general, abbreviations should not be used. The author’s name must be typed in full as it is to appear on the commencement program.
Two unbound, single-sided copies of the completed thesis must be deposited in the library. They must meet the approval of the College Librarian as to form. They must not be folded or punched.
Library Abstract FormAn abstract form (PDF or MS Word Format) must be submitted with the thesis that gives your name and a short description of the thesis content. Only one copy needs to be submitted. This is not the same as the abstract that may be required by the department or style guide. See Requirements for Honor Thesis Library Deposit for all requisites.
Students desiring to have personal copies of theses bound at their expense can order copies for $10 a piece, which includes tax and shipping.