1. Guidelines
2. General Specifications
3. Sample Formats and Application Forms

Guidelines

Students in the Master of Arts in English program may apply for permission to offer a thesis. Students who are permitted to submit a thesis will be responsible for one (as opposed to the normally required two) subject areas on the comprehensive examination.

Application to submit a thesis should be made to the Graduate Director program before the student has completed eight courses. The student must have obtained the prior approval of a faculty member who will direct the project. One term of independent study, directed by that faculty member, may be used to research and write the thesis. Thesis applications will be reviewed by the English Graduate Program Director in consultation with the graduate faculty. If no faculty member is willing or available to direct a project, the application will not be accepted. The student is expected to work closely with the project director. The thesis or portfolio will be approved by both the project director and a second reader upon completion of any revisions or corrections they may request. The thesis should be at least forty and no more than sixty pages in length. The content will consist of new work written by the student for this project.

The finished thesis must conform to the Style Guide for Thesis and Dissertation Preparation published by the Graduate School of Rutgers University. Copies of the Style Guide are available from the Office of the Dean; some relevant portions are excerpted below.

If upon completion of the thesis the director and second reader agree that the thesis is of a superior quality, the student may graduate with "Thesis with Distinction."

General Specifications

I. Preliminary pages (numbered in lower-case Roman numerals, centered 1/2" from the bottom of the page):

• A. A "Copyright Page," if copyright is to be claimed (optional). The copyright notice, as it appears below, should be placed in the center of the page. The copyright page is not numbered.

  © 2007

  Your Name

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

• B. Title page (counts as first page, but is unnumbered). Sample Title Page (PDF)
• C. Table of Contents (with page references)
• D. List of Illustrations or Appendices (if any)

• A. Introduction (if any).
• B. Main body, double-spaced throughout. Do not use script or italic typefaces for the main text. No corrections or erasures should be visible in the finished copy. Left margins should be 1 1/2" to allow for binding; top, right, and bottom margins should be 1".
• C. Endnotes, bibliography, and appendices (if any).

III. Paper: Use 8 1/2" x 11" one-hundred percent rag or cotton-content paper, such as Crane's thesis bond.

IV. Copies: Present two original copies, or one original typescript and one high-quality photocopy. Use only a binder clip to keep pages together (make no holes in the copies). Have each title page signed in black ink by your project director and second reader.

V. Style manual: For the answers to questions of style, refer to the current edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.

Application Form and Sample Format: