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Spanish Honors Program

Departmental Guidelines for the Honors Undergraduate Thesis

  1. Registration Credit Hours. The Honors College requires that student complete 8 to 15 credit hours of Spanish or Portuguese H783.
  2. Length of Thesis. The thesis should be a minimum of 40-50 pages including title page, abstract, text, footnotes, tables, figures, charts, and bibliography. This is a suggested minimum length; certainly, theses of acceptable quality may be longer than 40-50 pages.
  3. Content. There are no restrictions on the content or methods other than meeting ordinary standards of the discipline as interpreted by the student’s committee. Theses may have an empirical (quantitative or qualitative) focus or may be entirely theoretical or methodological in their content.
  4. Format. The format of the thesis should approximate the format of standard journal articles in the field. References and tables should conform to the style requirements and guidelines. You may consider the Modern Language Association (MLA) handbook (Refer to: http://www.mla.org/store/CID24/PID159) or the American Psychological Association (APA).
  5. Oral Examination. The student must successfully pass an oral examination of one hour with the main purpose of evaluating the thesis and the student’s understanding of the research process. The examination committee is composed of three faculty members: 1) the student’s advisor who chairs the committee and the examination; 2) a department member selected by the student in consultation with the advisor; and 3) a member from outside the department who is selected from the Honors Office list of outside examiners. Only the examination committee members are to be present for discussion of the student’s performance and decision about the outcome.
  6. Graduating with distinction. The student must complete an acceptable undergraduate thesis and meet all other departmental requirements and deadlines to graduate with distinction in the major.