Honors Thesis Guide

Plan ahead! Developing a project, completing research or creative work, and writing your thesis will be a year-long effort at a minimum. Consult with your honors advisor and honors faculty representative to determine a timeline that is appropriate for you.

Freshman & Sophomore Years

• Explore major options; meet with faculty teaching your courses
• Ask faculty and advisors about research opportunities in your department
• Get involved in research to develop topics of interest

Junior Year

• Discuss thesis options with appropriate faculty
• Select a faculty supervisor and additional readers (if required)
• Review current literature
• Define your thesis topic
• Begin (or continue) thesis research

Senior Year, fall 

• Submit your Thesis Proposal form by the established deadline using the Honors Reporting Center.
• Finish thesis research
• Establish a comprehensive outline to inform your preliminary draft
• Submit a preliminary draft to your faculty supervisor

Senior Year, spring

• Please consult your faculty supervisor for discipline-specific guidelines
• Submit final draft to supervisor and readers by the established deadline.
• Submit revised draft to committee and arrange public presentation (if presentation is required by your department) by the established deadline.
• Submit your Thesis Completion by the established deadline using the Honors Reporting Center.
• Submit PDF copy of thesis according to submission guidelines.

Whatever form it takes, the purposes of the Honors Thesis are many—all of which develop skills that will serve our students well after graduation. The Honors Thesis must go above and beyond any project done for a course other than thesis or directed-studies/independent-studies courses. It may expand upon a term paper written for a course, but may not simply be a repurposed project completed for another course or requirement. The Honors Thesis must demonstrate that the student:

• Has developed excellent writing skills;
• Understands the project's relevance to the field of study and/or to society;
• Is able to apply theories and methods of research, analysis, or interpretation, or artistic techniques as appropriate to the field;
• Has cited appropriate sources;
• Is able to critically examine the work of other scholars or artists and relate that work to the thesis;
• Has contributed original research, ideas, knowledge, interpretations, or creative expression at a level appropriate for undergraduate study, such that the thesis goes beyond describing existing work;
• Has the ability to digest pre-existing work, present and summarize it succinctly, and, hence, articulate the context in which the student’s new work is situated;
• Has the ability to propose an idea in brief (i.e., the thesis proposal), and then bring that idea to fruition within a given timeline;
• Has the ability to present writing or recordings whose quality and polish are at a publishable or public-presentation level (even if the data, research, or ideas are still at a preliminary level);
• Has the ability to present ideas clearly and compellingly to an audience of non-specialists;
• Has the ability to go beyond programmatic or major capstone requirements for non-UHP students.

Moreover, a summa cum laude Honors Thesis must also demonstrate:

• The ability to do original (i.e., not an extended literature review or synopsis of previous work), highest-quality work;
• The ability to meet department- or program-specific stipulations for summa-level thesis work, as defined on our Major and Thesis Requirements page.

Supervision and Approval

All Honors Theses require approval by a committee of three members—the main thesis advisor and two other readers. One of the three members (not necessarily the main thesis advisor) must be a tenured or tenure-track faculty member in the student's home department. Other members may be tenured, tenure-track, contract, affiliate, adjunct, emeritus, and/or P&A faculty members at the University of Minnesota. Faculty members from other institutions, graduate students, and community members with expertise relevant to the student's topic may serve on the committee if approved by the departmental Honors Faculty Representative (listed by major) and by UHP. The process for approval is for the Honors Faculty Representative to email UHP's director to explain in a couple of sentences the potential committee member's qualifications, and to then receive approval from the director.

All Honors Theses require approval by a committee of three members—the main thesis advisor and two other readers. One of the three members (not necessarily the main thesis advisor) must be a tenured or tenure-track faculty member in the student's home department. Other members may be tenured, tenure-track, contract, affiliate, adjunct, emeritus, and/or P&A faculty members at the University of Minnesota. Faculty members from other institutions, graduate students, and community members with expertise relevant to the student's topic may serve on the committee if approved by the departmental Honors Faculty Representative and by UHP. The process for approval is for the Honors Faculty Representative to email UHP's director to explain in a couple of sentences the potential committee member's qualifications, and to then receive approval from the director.

Summa cum laude theses require students to go above and beyond the requirements for cum laude and magna cum laude theses. The specifics for the students major may be found on our Major and Thesis Requirements page.

All students are required to take a classroom-based, Honors Thesis support course of at least one credit, one semester. Many majors and colleges provide such courses. UHP also provides HCol 3101H every spring and HCol 3102H every fall. You can find the required thesis coursework for your major on our Major and Thesis Requirements page. If the student's major or college offers an Honors Thesis course, taking a different course in lieu of this one requires approval of the Honors Faculty Representative. Completing the approved course with a passing grade fulfills the Honors Thesis course requirement. Additional thesis courses marked with an H or V may count as Honors courses if they comprise 2 or more credits. Additional research activity, whether recognized with credit or not, may count as a non-course experience.

Style Guides

When preparing your honors thesis and citing sources, follow the style guide that is most appropriate to your field of study. For example:

• Modern Language Association (MLA) style - common in the humanities
• American Psychological Association (APA) style - common in the social sciences
• Chicago style - common in history

Check with your faculty supervisor before choosing a style. Style and citation resources are available from the University Libraries.

Formatting

The following formatting parameters should be strictly followed in most cases. However, certain types of theses, such as collections of poetry, may vary from these guidelines if necessary to the integrity of the work, with the faculty supervisor's assent.

• Margins: at least 1" on all sides
• Type size: no smaller than 11 point; 12 point preferred; a smaller font may be used for footnotes or end notes
• Font: use a standard, easily-readable font, such as Times New Roman
• Spacing: double space all main text

Sections

Sections of the thesis include (and should be sequenced as follows):

• Title Page: Prepared according to the thesis title page template
• Acknowledgements (optional)
• Abstract or Summary: No more than one double-spaced page. For thesis projects in the creative and performing arts, the summary must provide specifics about the exhibition or performance that the written thesis complements.
• Non-technical Summary: (optional) recommended in cases where the abstract and thesis are too highly technical to be easily understood by non-specialists
• Table of Contents (optional)
• Body of the Thesis
• Appendices (optional)
• Bibliography or List of Works Cited

By the last day of final examinations in the semester in which you are graduating, you must:

• Submit your final thesis in PDF format via the "Thesis Completion" WorkflowGen process in the Honors Reporting Center

How to Create a PDF Document

• On a Mac: From the print dialog, select the PDF option from the lower left-hand corner. Or, from Microsoft Word, select "Save As" and change the format to PDF.
• On a Windows PC: From Microsoft Word, select "Save As" and change the file type to PDF.

Combine Multiple PDFs

Your thesis should be submitted as one singular file. Multiple PDF documents can be combined using Adobe Acrobat Pro (available in most campus computer labs). You can also use a free online tool such as SmallPDF.

Please note: the thesis completion form should not be included in this file.

Non-Electronic Documents

Non-electronic portions of your thesis should be scanned and included as part of your PDF. Scanners are available at the University computer labs in Coffman Memorial Union, Humphrey Center, McNeal Hall, and Walter Library.

The University Digital Conservancy provides permanent online access to academic works produced at the University. Benefits of placing your thesis in the conservancy include:

• Free, public accessibility
• Long-term storage and preservation
• Improved rankings in search engine results
• A direct, public URL for reference in resumes, applications, CVs, etc.

Submission Process

To have your honors thesis placed in the Digital Conservancy, you must submit the following forms to the honors office:

• a signed copy of the Digital Conservancy Deposit Agreement
• a Digital Conservancy Agreement Addendum signed by your faculty thesis advisor. At the discretion of your thesis advisor, signatures of additional readers or research contributors may be required.

After receiving these forms, the honors program will submit your thesis to the Digital Conservancy within a few months. Upon submission, you will receive instructions on how to access the digital copy of your thesis.

Further Submission Considerations

You may not want to submit your honors thesis to the conservancy if it:

• Contains sensitive data or information about potentially patentable inventions
• Is something you may want to commercially publish
• Involved other authors, collaborators, or advisors who have not granted their permission for you to submit.

View the Digital Conservancy Policies and Guidelines for more information.