Head-Start for the Senior Thesis
Step 1: Establish personal career goals and a
five-year plan. It’s time for commitment. Career Services can help at http://careerservices.evansville.edu. Check out Career Alternatives at http://www.uni.edu/walsh/linda1.html.
Check out Graduate Schools at http://www.uni.edu/walsh/linda2.html
and start preparing for
the GRE or MCAT now (see links at end).
Step 2:
Select an area of interest and possible thesis topics that support your
career goals. Investigate these topics to identify a
meaningful concentration for your thesis review. Your textbook may be helpful. Consultation with faculty and career-goal
professionals is strongly encouraged. You must obtain formal approval of a thesis
topic from the Instructor (this topic is still likely to be refined over the
course of your literature search) -- you may do this by email over the summer.
Step 3: Initiate the
literature search as soon as possible. You need to find if your preferred topic
works. Plan to search starting with Annual
Review articles to other more specific reviews and research reports in
journals. Concentrate on recent material
published within the last 10 years.
Thesis topics usually evolve and change somewhat over the course of this
search.
(a) Find and
read recent Annual Review of Psychology articles that cover your topic (and
perhaps other Annual Review articles – there are Annual Reviews of Neuroscience, Public Health, Sociology, Medicine,
etc.). These reviews should help you
identify existent literature pertinent to your interests. Importantly, if you cannot find a review
covering your preferred topic, you may
need to select an alternative topic.
To search for Annual Review
articles on your preferred topic, click http://psych.annualreviews.org/search.dtl or http://neuro.annualreviews.org/search.dtl. You can read the full text of psychology review articles on line at our Library website:
click http://www2.evansville.edu/libweb/,
under Databases by Subject click Psychology, and then click Annual Review of Psychology FT – you
may also access the other Annual Reviews
from this page. For off-campus access, go to http://libproxy.evansville.edu/login
and enter your Student ID barcode number. Hardcopy Annual Reviews are also
available in our Library (and the Instructor’s office has most of the Annual Reviews of Psychology back to
1965).
b) Conduct PsycINFO, MEDLINE, and PsycARTICLES
searches to obtain the most recent reviews and research reports—the last will
provide full-text articles. To conduct
these searches, click http://www2.evansville.edu/libweb/,
under Databases by Subject click Psychology, and then click PsycINFO PFT, Medline PFT, or PsycARTICLES
FT.
Enter the key search terms for your topic. Print out important abstracts (or save to a
floppy or hard disk). If the journals
are not in our Library or available from PsycARTICLES, order photocopies
of the articles through our Interlibrary Loan service (assess http://www2.evansville.edu/libweb/,
click Request Forms, sign in, and
request the article.
(c) Reprints
of articles can often be obtained by emailing
the authors. Author addresses are a part
of the MEDLINE output, and e-mail
addresses are usually available at the author’s institutional website (find
with http://www.google.com/). Ask for a ‘reprint’ of the article and also
ask for reprints or 'preprints' of any subsequent or related work. These minor direct contacts have helped
some select a graduate program. Also, check out their websites.
Step 4: Build your
Literature Portfolio. Collect your printouts of online
search abstracts, interlibrary loan photocopies, photocopies of key book
sections, and PDF files of PsycARTICLES (full-text
journal articles). Store everything in a
quality folder, and burn a CD of your PDF files that have been downloaded from
My Documents folder or your personal PC. This Portfolio will be used to prepare
your Thesis Prospectus and Thesis, and it must be submitted with and as part of
your Thesis.
Step 5:
Prepare your Thesis Prospectus by the end of Fall Recess. This
Prospectus is due about one month before submission of the Thesis. This Prospectus will present you refined
topic (the title page), an initial introduction to the topic, a proposed
outline of your thesis, and the references obtained from your literature
search. You will also include a detailed
statement explaining your career goals and how the selected topic relates to
those goals. Prospectus Format: Title
Page (1 page), Personal Relevance Preface (1 pages), Table of Contents (1-2
pages), Preliminary Introduction (3-5 pages), Tentative Outline of Section
Headings and Subheadings each section with one or more text sentences (1-5 pages), References (1-5 pages). The Prospectus must strictly adhere to the new APA format (Publication Manual, 5th Edition). The
Prospectus file is the beginning of your Thesis file – the first working draft
– and it will be expanded into the Thesis.
Step 6:
The Senior Thesis is due on or
before November 10th.
Most acceptable theses range from 30 to 60 pages citing 25 or more
references contained in the accompanying
portfolio. Papers that have been
submitted in other courses are not acceptable as Senior Theses—in whole or in
part. Late submissions are penalized
with a progressively lowered grade.
What’s Expected:
Good Content: All Senior Theses will thoroughly review the literature—primary journal articles that report research data as well as the secondary literature (books and review articles that may summarize those research reports). Avoid overuse of a few secondary references! All literature relevant to the topic will be methodically searched, effectively organized, and concisely presented in your thesis. Then, this review is to be intelligently evaluated for unique insights, valid conclusions, and noteworthy perspectives. Any original research on the topic (your own study) should be integrated as a primary report following this review and evaluation (good research begins with a good literature review—your results should contribute to that literature and knowledge). As a goal for your thesis effort, you are to become an “expert”—knowing more about the topic than your faculty reader (the best theses are those that educated the grader). This expertise can help achieve those stated career goals.
Good
Construction: Senior Theses will be well written and
carefully edited. Effective writing
skills must be demonstrated to pass the course—regardless other performance. If needed, you are authorized to obtain
assistance writing and editing your thesis from our Writing Center (you must acknowledge this and any other assistance
with a title footnote). Avoid
verbosity. Avoid awkward and
nonparallel constructions. Avoid
discursive and logical transition errors.
Avoid lexical and grammatical (semantic and syntactic) errors. Avoid APA citation and format errors. Direct quotations may not exceed 5% of the
total word count. To obtain your best
work, start early and put in the time to write, rewrite, edit, and rewrite some
more.
Graduate Record Examination (GRE) information
at http://www.gre.org/. For
preparation see Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/tag/gre/ref=tag_dpp_cust_itdp_bn_t
(good reports for Kaplan's Premier). If you think you might go to graduate
school – ever – take the GRE now
and take the subject test in psychology just after our Senior Comprehensive
Examination – you will never be better prepared.
Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) information at http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/start.htm. Medical school application information at http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/start.htm. For preparation see Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Kaplan-2007-2008-Premier-Program-CD-ROM/dp/1419541978/ref=pd_sim_b_title_9.
Association
for Psychological Science website at http://www.psychologicalscience.org/: general information for STUDENTS.
American
Psychological Association website at http://www.apa.org/: general information for students at http://www.apa.org/students/.
National Association of Social
Workers at http://www.socialworkers.org/ with
information for students at https://www.socialworkers.org/profession/overview.asp.
Society
for Neuroscience website at http://www.sfn.org/: general information about
neuroscience and links to other related websites.