Approach faculty people for advice. &#160The first faculty member you speak with may be unable to direct your thesis, but could provide you with feedback with regards to your subject and be useful for finding somebody which will be your consultant. The start of the task is frequently exploratory the greater people you can speak with concerning this, the greater the process goes.

Select a general subject. Students usually desire to operate in their major, however, you may wish to get familiar with an interdisciplinary thesis. During this situation you have to show proficiency in fields and uncover a college member who’ll direct your thesis just as one interdisciplinary work.

Consult with other students regarding projects. Even when they’re damaged in your discipline, they’ll be the very best source for understanding the process out of your side.

Take a look at other Honors Theses. The MD Anderson Library along with the Honors College have copies of previous theses out of your department. You have to consider just as much in your field as you can to be able to understand the amount of work that’s expected, and to observe previous students have construed the type of the Senior Honors Thesis.

Download the library call number form to discover where your department’s theses can be found in the MD Anderson Library.

Approach faculty people for advice. The first faculty member you speak with may be unable to direct your thesis, but could provide you with feedback with regards to your subject and be useful for finding somebody which will be your consultant. The start of the task is frequently exploratory the greater people you can speak with concerning this, the greater the process goes.

Ask a college member to direct your thesis. Knowing these products subject you have to pursue, ask a college member to direct your thesis. When the faculty member hasn’t directed a thesis before, Work of Undergraduate Research along with the Honors College can offer faculty guidelines and respond to questions.

Complete the Verification of Eligibility (Form 1) &#160and (for several majors) an over-all Petition Form (Form 2). Under normal conditions, the Director of Undergraduate Studies in your department (not your thesis consultant) will give you eligibility to start a thesis project. This sort needs to be came back to Karen Weber at the office of Undergraduate Research, room 211 within the Honors College, MD Anderson Library. At this time you’ll indicate if you’re qualified for &#8220Honors in primary,&#8221 &#8220University Honors,&#8221 or both. The &#8220University Honors&#8221 designation is awarded to students undertaking interdisciplinary theses and to individuals who’ll graduate as individuals in the Honors College.&#160Regarding the&#160General Petition Form, &#160if this sort is required, select “#17. Other” and acquire your thesis director to sign the shape since the Consultant/Instructor. Within the explanation section write: &#8220Please enroll me towards the Senior Honors Thesis hrs for [your major].&#160This form should visit your departmental academic consultant.

Write a prospectus. An average prospectus is 3-5 pages extended, and could give a brief bibliography. The prospectus is supposed to assist you to narrow the main focus in the project just before beginning the job. You need to narrow the subject having a manageable size. Students coping with the job that’s too big in scope frequently think it is too hard finishing. Also bear in mind, the prospectus doesn’t reflect finished work some regions of your thesis may change whenever you get the job done. However, if changes are created for the thesis, modifications must be reflected in a new edition within the prospectus. The prospectus ought to be the contract or plan-of-action for your thesis.

Choose a second readers inside the field. The initial readers can allow you to identify another readers. The 2nd readers will have to approve your prospectus then begin to see the final kind of your thesis for the defense.

Submit the prospectus coupled with Prospectus Approval (Form 3) for that thesis director and 2nd readers for signatures, then to Karen Weber in room 211 within the Honors College. It’s suggested this can be printed using the finish within the semester before beginning&#160the project. It must be printed no after the beginning of the semester you’re beginning the task.&#160 When the second visitors both pleased with the prospectus, Work of Undergraduate Research will measure the prospectus and assign another Honors readers for everyone across the committee. Karen will condition you via email when an Honors readers remains selected for everyone within your committee.

Sign up for 3399H (or equivalent) &#8220Senior Honors Thesis&#8221 in your major. (Interdisciplinary theses will most likely be designated as HON 3399H.) The section number will most likely get offers for through the Director of Undergraduate Studies within the department in the major after you have completed the Verification of Eligibility Form (Form 1) &#160and (for several majors) a&#160General Petition Form.

Produce a request the different procedures in the work, including deadlines. Your faculty consultant can allow you to devise a timetable and discover reasonable expectations for your work inside the after a while periods. It’s essential that you simply keep to the timeline that you simply create to accomplish. This allows you to remain on course and make sure you get the job done as time passes to satisfy the binding deadlines set from your college.

Begin (or continue) writing/research. Keep in mind the Honors Thesis could be a major commitment of your energy so you must begin early for anybody who is able to finish rapidly.

Seek help when needed. Make certain not to permit you to ultimately be overwhelmed.

Sign up for 4399H (or equivalent) &#8220Senior Honors Thesis&#8221 in your major.&#160 For several majors, therefore it may produce a&#160General Petition Form. If&#160this form is required, select “#17. Other” and acquire your thesis director to sign the shape since the Consultant/Instructor. Within the explanation section write: &#8220Please enroll me towards the Senior Honors Thesis hrs for [your major].&#160This form should visit your departmental academic consultant.

Continue writing. Looking after your project manageable frequently involves dividing up into smaller sized sized sized parts. Your thesis director will condition Work of Undergraduate Research in the progress.

Eight days before graduation:

1. Provide your consultant a hard draft within the thesis. Right now in route, your consultant will help you shape your thesis towards the draft you’ll give readers for the dental defense.

Schedule an dental defense. Choose a time that’s convenient for the readers, ideally a couple of days before graduation and prior to the binding deadline set from your college. The dental defense will likely become the perfect major chance to acquire feedback out of your readers before binding your thesis. Readers may demand some revisions, so ensure to schedule sufficient time to create individuals changes prior to the binding deadlines. If you want to own your defense within the Honors College seminar rooms, they could be reserved ahead of time while using Honors College office.

One-a couple of days prior to the dental defense:

All readers should obtain a copy within the version you have to safeguard. Download a appropriate amount of Defense Evaluation Forms furthermore with a copy within the Final Evaluation Form to create with you for that defense.

Inside the Dental Defense:

Most generally, you’ll provide a presentation or narrative with regards to your project then respond to your questions all the 3 readers.&#160Should your committee people approve it, we encourage you to definitely certainly certainly invite your peers, mentors, and visitors for that defense.

Should you effectively pass the defense, the teacher of record (your thesis director) will submit grades for 3399H and 4399H.

Once the final kind of the thesis is bound and printed to function of Undergraduate Research, part of the Honors College will condition work of Records and Registration, along with the appropriate designation, College Honors (for interdisciplinary theses), Honors in primary, or College Honors and Honors in primary will probably be incorporated for the official transcript.

Immediately after final revisions with no under every week before your college’s binding deadline:

Prepare the very best copy for binding using the binding formatting guidelines for the College of Engineering. &#160Miranda Vernon-Harrison &#160is your contact inside the Cullen College of Engineering.

DEADLINES FOR SUBMISSION :

BS Honors Thesis Needs:&#160 Graduating BS Honors thesis students are crucial to look into the measures within the internet based guide for preparing and writing their theses. The quantity of copies printed is designated using the student’s consultant, typically not the same as 4-5 copies. BS students will have to submit their manuscripts and signature pages for the College Graduate Coordinator for review and final approval. These students have to do as instructed for paper needs and submission deadlines for Traditional Binding only. Graduating BS Honors Thesis students aren’t needed to build up an electronic submission at this time. &#160

Be Aware:&#160 All UH theses needs to be maroon with gold etching across the bound cover. The College Copy Center understands the UH needs for bound theses.

Contacts for help in Finishing a Senior Honors Thesis

UH Writing Center &#160- provides writing instruction and advice to UH students&#160

Office of Undergraduate Research &#160- offers details about senior honors thesis program solutions general questions about deadlines, rules, along with other logistical matters assigns Honors readers to thesis committee hr person is&#160&#160Karen Weber &#160,&#160713-743-3367

MLA Guide for Authors of Research Papers (sixth edition) &#160- covers the mechanics of writing, for example punctuation, quotation, and documentation of sources

Strunk and White’s The Weather of favor (fourth edition) &#160- outlines the concepts of composition, grammar, word usage and misusage, and way with words

The thesis or dissertation needs to be a document in the finest professional standards. It’s also appear practice for the student to set up a document that suits the factors for publication within the relevant professional journals. Because the original copy within the thesis or dissertation will most likely be stored within the College Libraries, and copied for microfilming along with other purposes, the paper along with the production must stick to standards of extended archive existence and apparent reproducibility. In addition, a digital copy within the thesis or dissertation is needed using the College of Engineering for archiving using the department.

These instructions give a guide for developing a greater-quality thesis or dissertation document, and formatting specifications to make sure some elementary consistency among engineering theses and dissertations. It’s the responsibility within the student to discover the following advice are met, minimizing for the department to make sure this before submitting the thesis or dissertation for that College of Engineering Dean for approval. In planning your thesis or dissertation the rules within the guide, Publishing Your Doctorate Dissertation with UMI Dissertation Publishing, supplied by ProQuest/UMI must be adopted. Download a duplicate in the guide. or realize it inside the department’s graduate coordinator. Other needs specific for that college are supplied below.

1. SUBMITTAL DATE Needs

Each doctorate candidate is envisioned obtaining a substantially complete kind of the dissertation within achieve of the PhD Committee no after 1.5 a few days prior to the Final Grades Deadline for the semester by which completion is planned. One or more month must then be permitted for Committee review of the dissertation, the thesis defense, for further writing if needed, and creation of final print and supporting documents. The dissertation defense must occur no after 15 days prior to the Final Grades Deadline allowing sufficient the actual at revision and needed approvals.

Following approval using the Ph.D. Committee for dissertations, or possibly the consultant(s) for M.S. theses, the right copies within the final and handle thesis or dissertation needs to be printed for that department using the following dates:&#160 May graduates, ten days prior to the Final Grades for Graduating Students Deadline August graduates, a few days prior to the Final Grades Deadline December graduates, a few days prior to the Final Grades Deadline. The department will submit the signed thesis or dissertation for that Dean within the College of Engineering using the Final Grades Deadline.

2. SUBMITTAL COPIES AND PROQUEST/COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING Needs

The School of Engineering necessitates following copies of M.S. theses and Ph.D. dissertations:

• Only one-sided paper copy of proper reproducible quality for that College of Engineering Dean’s Office (to obtain printed for that College Libraries and helpful for microfilming).
• One paper copy for that consultant.
• One paper copy for that department, so that you can the best departments when the thesis or dissertation is fantastic for some pot degree.
• One electronic file (PDF format) while using the entire thesis, for that department, so that you can the best departments when the thesis or dissertation is fantastic for some pot degree.
• One paper copy for the student.

Original signature pages will most likely link while using the copies for the College Libraries (using the Dean’s office), the department, along with the student. Only three original signature pages should accompany the thesis or dissertation printed for that department mind and Dean for review and approval.

Copies additionally towards the only-sided version for submittal for that Dean’s office might be double-sided. More copies might be produced for distribution, as requested getting students. The preparation within the thesis and dissertation and copies would be the student’s responsibility, unless of course obviously clearly departmental policies dictate otherwise.

Carnegie Mellon comes with a agreement with ProQuest/UMI to repeat and preserve M.S. theses and Ph.D. dissertations on microfilm for quick availability and retrievability to anybody who may want to get yourself a copy. The M.S. student or Ph.D. candidate must choose a publishing option on-page three in the ProQuest/UMI guide. If, in addition, the writer really wants to the task they’re doing via ProQuest, they ought to complete the very best form within the ProQuest/UMI guide and fasten payment as specified. A duplicate within the thesis or dissertation while using the appropriate documentation then will most likely be printed for that department’s graduate coordinator.

ProQuest/UMI makes it necessary that each thesis or dissertation depend with an abstract and title page. ProQuest/UMI necessitates abstract be 350 words or fewer however, it is not needed. ProQuest/UMI will truncate abstracts exceeding 350 words to be used, and could not customize the abstract within the publication transcript. When the author chooses, they might submit two abstracts: anyone to not exceed 350 words, for microfilming but another to not exceed 1,000 words, for the dissertation. For almost any more in depth explanation, reference the ProQuest/UMI guide. The School of Engineering recommends that abstracts not exceed 350 words.

The electronic kind of the thesis or dissertation will most likely be archived using the department round the non-public server. Inside a couple of departments, the writer will can publish the thesis or dissertation round the freely-accessible website maintained using the department. The writer will have to produce a form provided with the department to request such posting. All engineering thesis and dissertation authors might also publish their thesis or dissertation across the Carnegie Mellon Research Showcase electronic repository website: (repository.cmu.edu/ ). The writer will have to produce a form provided with the College Libraries to request such posting. Posting within the thesis or dissertation round the freely-accessible website doesn’t constitute a breach of Carnegie Mellon’s agreement with ProQuest/UMI. However, authors should think about carefully the implications connected with posting their thesis or dissertation round the freely-accessible website. Some publishers consider material that has been printed round the freely-accessible website as getting been printed formerly, and won’t consider such material for publication.

Except as particularly superceded by directions inside the candidate’s major department along with the ProQuest/UMI guide, the overall rules regarding form shall follow individuals provided below. A few in the guidance arises from K. L. Turabian, Helpful Information for Authors of Term Papers, Thesis and Dissertations, sixth Edition, College of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1996.

4. SIGNATURE PAGE AND TITLE PAGE

Page one of each thesis or dissertation needs to be a signature page and may continue with the format specified for normal levels and joint levels. Note, two samples are supplied, one for joint levels the other for people others. For M.S. theses, &#8220Master of Science&#8221 must be substituted with &#8220Doctor of Philosophy.&#8221 The very first signature page needs to be signed using the thesis or dissertation consultant(s), the department mind along with the Dean or Affiliate Dean within the College of Engineering. Only three original signature pages should accompany the thesis or dissertation printed for that department mind and Dean for review and approval.

The signature page must be adopted getting a title page. The title page within the dissertation should continue with the format per site .

5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PAGE

All theses and dissertations must have an Acknowledgments section which, no less than, describes the building blocks(s) of support for the research, even if it’s self support. Acknowledgment within the source(s) of support is essential ethically in lots of research publications and presentations, including theses, to own sponsors excellent they deserve, and also to disclose freely the organization or persons funding the study.

For doctorate dissertations, the doctorate committee needs to be indexed by the Acknowledgments, along with the chair within the committee must be identified.&#160 The doctorate committee should not carry out the title page.

6. PREPARATION Within The MANUSCRIPT: FORM

6.1 Title &#8211 Your thesis or dissertation can be a valuable source for other scholars only when it may be located easily. Modern retrieval systems make use of the words within the title&#8212and a couple of other descriptive words&#8212to locate your document. It is important the title certainly be a significant description within the content in the dissertation. Avoid highly specialized terms for that extent possible, and make use of word substitutes for formulas, symbols, superscripts, Greek letters, etc.

A) Signature Page &#8211 see Section 4

B) Title Page &#8211 see Section 4

C) Notice &#8211 should continue with the title page, round the separate page, if statutory within the dissertation remains or will probably be claimed

D) Acknowledgments &#8211 must include financial support acknowledgment as discussed in Section 5

E) Abstract &#8211 shouldn’t exceed 350 words see Section 2

F) Table of Contents &#8211 with page references

G) Set of Tables &#8211 with titles and page references

H) Set of Figures and Illustrations &#8211 with titles and page references.

6.3 Body of thesis or dissertation

B) Primary Body &#8211 with bigger divisions and even more important minor divisions proven by appropriate, consistent headings

C) Summary and Conclusions &#8211 highlighting the important thing factor findings and conclusions within the work presented. For engineering and science theses and dissertations, this frequently includes approaches for follow-up research.

D) References &#8211 see discussion in Section 6.9

E) Appendices &#8211 each appendix must have a title and become indexed by the Table of Contents

6.4 Page Numbering

Each page within the thesis or dissertation must be assigned several. The next plan of page numbering usually recognized:

A) For Preliminaries &#8211 use small Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, etc.). The numbering starts with ii the title page counts as page i, nonetheless the amount doesn’t appear.

B) For Individuals Thesis or Dissertation &#8211 such as the text, illustrations, appendices, and bibliography, use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). Each page needs to be numbered. Avoid use of letter suffixes for example 10a, 10b. The numbering starts with 1 and runs consecutively for that finish within the dissertation.

C) Several Volume &#8211 each volume should have a title page duplicating the title page within the first volume. When the volumes are separate entities, identify them further as Volume I, II, etc. In almost any situation, the numbering may follow consecutively in one volume to a different, or start with Arabic 1 each and every new title page.

If footnotes are very important, they should be put into the conclusion within the page below single.5 ” underscore (beginning within the left border). The first type of each footnote must be indented .5 inches and recognized by a elevated numeral much like that present in test. Footnotes must be numbered consecutively throughout each chapter.

6.6 Reproduction of understanding

The information the thesis or dissertation relies must be distributed around your potential customers in substantially complete form. Generally, meaning raw data must be reproduced within the convenient manner in lots of appendices for that primary document. Within the situation of thorough data collected from easily available printed sources, specific detailed citations will suffice, as lengthy as one or more quantity of the raw data based in the dissertation, complete people, is provided the very first copy printed for that Library. Deviations from the whole process of full disclosure needs to be particularly approved with the M.S. thesis consultant(s) or Ph.D. Dissertation Committee and described fully within the thesis or dissertation.

6.7 Permissions

As author, students must approve (by finishing the ProQuest/UMI agreement form) that any ed materials inside their dissertation, beyond brief excerpts, is to use the written permission within the owner, and the man / she could save you and hold harmless ProQuest/UMI within the damages that may arise from violations. Copies of permission letters must be connected to the agreement form.

6.8 Reproduction of Procedures

All instruments, analytic procedures, apparatus, or any other critical elements within the execution within the study must be described in greater detail. Apparatus normally must be described in a engineering drawing by photograph. Instruments normally must be reproduced entirely in pictures or sketches, unless of course obviously clearly they’re readily available business sources. Procedures of research must be specified fully either by citation or by detailed discussion in lots of appendices. Computer calculations that are needed towards the central arguments within the research needs to be fully and clearly described. When the software that provide the inspiration of individuals calculations are originated using the student, students is needed to provide you with a course listing and minimal documentation across the enter in the thesis or dissertation.

This program listing and documentation might be incorporated within the separate appendix for that thesis or dissertation. However, within the situation of thorough computer work considered using the student in addition to their consultant not to become extended concerning the thesis or dissertation, presentation by means of tables elucidating crucial elements is suitable. During this situation, students is suggested to submit another internal report giving further details. Standard subroutines or packaged programs that are routinely incorporated as software support having a computer installation and which may be readily acquired are exempted by using this requirement, however, these must be clearly reported along with the method of getting these programs made apparent within the thesis.

Citations within the professional literature must be standardized using the thesis or dissertation. The type of citation must be like the form present in a typical professional journal within the candidates’ field. The Harvard Citation Style can be utilized generally in engineering and science. The next journals are suggested as samples in every single field of engineering:

• Biomedical Engineering – Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Journal of Biomechanical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering – Langmuir, Optimization and Engineering
• Civil and Ecological Engineering – ASCE journals, e.g. Journal of Ecological Engineering, Journal of Transportation Engineering.
• Electrical and Computer Engineering – Proceedings within the IEEE.
• Engineering and Public Policy – Science. Proceedings within the IEEE.
• Mechanical Engineering – Transactions within the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
• Materials Science and Engineering – Metallurgical Transactions.

7. ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE

Reference the ProQuest/UMI document “Guide 1: Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission to ProQuest/UMI ” for margins, paper type, line spacing and extra formatting guidelines that were not noted above.

(policy revised 10/19/2010)

College of Engineering
Carnegie Mellon College
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Pittsburgh, PA 15213