George Mason University

Your thesis must be a manuscript long enough to reflect the overall plan and design of a finished book, and to demonstrate your command of the ideas, techniques, and strategies of your genre. In prose, the manuscript should be at least 30,000 words. In poetry, the length should be at least 45 pages. A finished manuscript that is shorter than these lengths must be approved by the members of the individual thesis committee. Bear in mind that all theses also must be accepted by the Department of English and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Each manuscript should be mechanically correct, regardless of genre. More importantly, the manuscript, regardless of genre, should show each student’s ability to meet the intellectual and imaginative challenges of a longer work—such as identifying and defining a subject and theme that merit treatment at length; conducting necessary research; establishing a consistent point of view and voice; establishing a consistent sense of a speaker, especially in a poetry collection or in a prose narrative; maintaining a writerly presence throughout a work; establishing a consistent sense of the reader’s role; with multiple-part works, such as poetry or story collections, finding an arc of relationship among individual works in the manuscript; in a single-volume work such as a novel, finding a unified story line or arc; demonstrating a range of technique and craft; revising in a way that shows an ability to identify weaknesses and solve problems; and demonstrating an awareness of work that is relevant to your own written by other poets and writers.

The role of the thesis director varies somewhat by genre as well as by individual faculty and student preferences. Though not quite a collaborative project between you and your director, the thesis represents a chance for you to establish your own professional work habits as you complete a major work under the guidance of a mentor who is there to help you conceptualize and carry out the project. To accomplish this end, each student should work out an individual schedule with his or her director. Based on your work habits and strengths as a writer and your relationship with your director, you and your director may agree to meet three or four times as you work on the thesis, to talk in detail about writing and assembling the thesis. Or you may draft the whole thesis almost as if it were an independent project, and meet only after the full draft is available for discussion—but then you may meet several times once the work is at that stage. You and your director should be clear about your expectations of each other, and you should ask your director if you have questions. Be particularly clear about the schedule you need to meet in order to ensure that the drafts and revisions are available as your director and other committee members expect them to be. Also be particularly clear about the final deadline for submitting the final thesis, and about the amount of time your committee needs between your completing the thesis and your having to submit it for approval by the Department of English and College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Generally speaking, you should expect that your thesis readers will want to see a completed draft of your manuscript by the end of the first week of the last full month of the semester in which you’re finishing the thesis—so, April for spring graduates or November for fall graduates. At that time, you should provide each of your readers with a hard copy of your manuscript (do not send it as an email attachment unless the director and committee members have approved your doing so).  Please note that your readers do not expect to see the manuscript until the draft is complete, and their role is secondary to that of your director. The readers generally will either approve your thesis and provide brief commentary; or, if he or she disapproves, will ask for specific revisions to be carried out before his or her approval is granted. Readers also may wish to discuss a thesis draft with the director of the committee, and may ask the director to incorporate the reader’s observations into his or her own comments to the student in order to simplify the process of giving and getting feedback.

A typical year-long thesis project actually is more than a year-long project. The calendar for such a project might look like this:

• By the middle of the previous spring semester, meet with your director to discuss the project, outline your working schedule for the coming year, and clear up any questions you have about your project.
• By the end of the previous spring semester, meet with the readers if necessary but, in any case, ensure their approval of the project in its details and timing.
• By the start of the fall semester, register for thesis credits as appropriate—three in fall, with plans for the final three in the spring.
• By the end of the fall semester, submit a complete draft of your thesis to your director. If you don’t have a full draft, be in contact with the director about your status with the project. And revise schedules as may be necessary if the work is not following the previously agreed to calendar.
• By the end of spring break, submit a revised draft to your director.
• By the end of the first week of April, submit final draft—hard copy—to your readers.
• By mid-April, meet a representative of the library to go over the formatting requirements for the thesis.
• By the turn-in deadline, submit the final version for approval and acceptance.
  

   

 

Registering for a thesis requires advance planning--start the semester before you plan to enroll at the latest.  Registration comes only at the end of a number of steps...

 

STEP 1: Finding a Committee:

 

The first time-sensitive task is finding a director.  Faculty schedules generally fill up a semester in advance, so students planning a spring thesis should start working to find an appropriate director in the fall. An email will go out with a request form in which you can identify your first, second, and third choice for director. That form must be returned to jhostler@gmu.edu or wmiller@gmu.edu by the posted deadline. Once all forms have been received, directors are assigned based on ranking and availability. Assignments are then distributed by email.

You are encouraged to identify a director who has some expertise in, and sympathy for, the project you're considering--an instructor, for instance, whose class inspired the project in some way.  Finding a director goes hand-in-hand with formalizing the project, or at least with figuring out a rough version of what you'd like to work on.  Please note that your adviser is not automatically your director; note, too, that not all faculty are willing to work with students whom they haven't taught at least once. (Note that in general faculty members do not oversee thesis work during the summer, although there are some rare exceptions; still, you should not count on it.)

Of course, all thesis students need two other readers as well a director; these can be chosen in consultation with the director.  In general, all three readers are from the English department; on occasion, however, it is possible to bring in someone from outside the department within the university, if the subject demands a specific expertise that isn't represented in the department. The outside member needs to be formally vetted both by the committee and by the Creative Writing Director (Bill Miller, wmiller@gmu.edu), and can never serve as director.

 

 

STEP 2: Submitting a Proposal

 

• Proposal Checklist:
  • Draft proposal with your director and committee
    • Work with your director on drafting and refining a proposal, which should combine a sense of the aims of the thesis with a scholarly/related bibliography that in some way supports the project.  The length and style of your proposal are negotiated with your director. There is no template for the proposal.
  • Draft or select a writing sample
    • This writing sample should reflect the work you intend to produce for your thesis.
  • Attach proposal and writing sample to thesis signature page
    • Signature page template
    • Collect signatures by either...
      • taking your proposal around to your committee members -OR-
      • leaving your proposal and signature sheet with the graduate programs manager and sending an email to your committee members asking them to sign
        • Committee members may see the graduate programs manager to sign or they may send their permission to sign via email

STEP 3: Turn in Your Signed Proposal:

 

• If you chose to collect signatures on your own, please turn in the signed proposal to the graduate programs manager
• The graduate program manager will collect two more signatures from the creative writing director and from the department chair. Once the proposal has been signed by the department chair, the graduate programs manager will send you an email with registration information.

 

STEP 4: Registering for ENGL 799:

You must complete the proposal checklist above and receive registration info via email before you can register for thesis hours. 

Once you receive the registration information (CRN and section number), you may register for ENGL 799.

• ENGL 799 is a variable credit course, but you must start by registering for three credit hours in your first semester of thesis. After that you may choose to take fewer hours per semester, depending on your schedule.
• Once your thesis is under way, you must stay enrolled for at least one additional credit a semester (not counting summers) until it is completed.  If you do not maintain continuous enrollment in thesis hours, you will owe those hours retroactively in order to complete your thesis and graduate.
• You will require six units of thesis that should stretch over at least two semesters.
• If ENGL 799 is the only class you are taking, all the above steps should be taken prior to the start of the semester to avoid a late registration fee.
• A note to TAs: late registration fees are not covered by waiver.  You are responsible for paying any fees posted to your student account.

 

 

Completing and Submitting Your Thesis

 

Once you have completed the required number of thesis hours and are in the final stages of writing your thesis, you need to meet with Sarah Patton, the GMU Dissertation and Thesis Coordinator, in Fenwick library. She must approve your formatting prior to printing a final copy. She can be reached at 703.993.2222 or spatton@gmu.edu.  Please note that the sooner you contact Sarah Patton, the easier this process will be for you.

• There are thesis formatting workshops held each semester that can help answer formatting questions. The workshops are purely informational. Should you not be able to attend a workshop, the information presented in workshop is available online at thesis.gmu.edu. Emails go out to the listserv with workshop annoucements.

After your thesis formatting is approved, once again you need to acquire all of your committee members signatures (who, we assume have read the thesis and approve of it).  Once again, the Gradaute programs manager can help collect signatures from your committee members.  Please note one important difference: even though the graduate programs manager could sign by proxy for your committee members on your thesis proposal, THE GRADUATE PROGRAMS MANAGER CAN NOT SIGN FOR YOUR COMMITTEE MEMBERS ON THE FINAL SIGNATURE SHEET. 

Signature checklist:

• Print the correct number of copies of your signature sheet (two if your are turning in two hard copies of your thesis and one if you are turning in one hard copy and one electronic copy. You may also print extras for yourself or as backup if you like.)  

• Collect signatures by either...
  • taking your signature sheets around to your committee members -OR-
  • leaving your signature pages with the graduate programs manager and sending an email to your committee members asking them to sign.
    • In this case, the faculty members must sign the signature sheets. Approvals can not be accepted via email.
    • Signatures may be difficult to collect in summer months as many faculty are not on campus or live elsewhere during the summer months. It is best to plan to complete your thesis in the fall or spring.
    • If you have a faculty member on your committee who does not live in the immediate area, it is your responsibility to collect his/her signature. This may require mailing signature sheets out to a faculty member. Please plan accordingly and allow enough time to collect signatures.
    • All signatures must be in black ink. There are no exceptions.
• Collect the department chair's signature
  • It is best to send an email to the department chair to arrange a time to meet. Robert Matz, the English Department Chair, can be reached at rmatz@gmu.edu.
    • Where to go:
      • Robinson A, Room 487
    • What to bring:
      • Your thesis (at least one copy) and your signature sheet(s)
• Collect the dean's signature
  • It is best to send an email to the graduate academic affairs office to a arrange a time to get the dean's signature. Susan Turriziani in the graduate academic affairs office can be reached at sturrizi@gmu.edu.
    • Where to go:
      • College Hall, Room 109
    • What to bring:
      • Your thesis (all copies), your signature sheet(s), and all supporting documents:
        • Either:
      1. Two copies of your entire properly formatted thesis on fancy (100% cotton, resume) paper
      2. A completed Thesis/Dissertation/Project Transmittal Sheet with Sarah Patton’s signature
      3. Two signature sheets, also on 100% cotton paper, with signatures of all of your committee member
         • Or:
    1. One copy of your entire properly formatted thesis on fancy (100% cotton, resume) paper
    2. One PDF version on CD (1 file entire document, 1 file abstract only)
    3. A completed Thesis/Dissertation/Project Transmittal Sheet with Sara Patton’s signature
    4. A signature sheet, also on 100% cotton paper, with signatures of all your committee members
    5. One completed MARS Agreement Form
    6. One completed Electronic Submission Form
• Turn in your thesis to Fenwick Library for credit and binding:
  • Bring your approved thesis back to Sarah Patton to be officially processed and bound. 
    • Where to go:
      • Fenwick Library, Room C201
        • If you are not able to turn in your thesis by the deadline at 5pm, it will not be counted as complete during that semester of study so plan accordingly.  Give yourself enough time to collect the necessary signatures and get to Fenwick Library by 5pm.

For more information about the thesis process go to thesis.gmu.edu.  You’ll find formatting templates and all the necessary forms available for download. 

• Please note that you will want to download forms that are specific to the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS).