Thesis Formatting

Word Count

Social Studies Senior Theses should be between 20,000 and 30,000 words of text. Theses that exceed 30,000 words may be penalized by up to half a grade for excessive length. Theses that do not reach the minimum required length may fail to receive honors. You are required to attach a word count to your thesis. To do so, type out the word count on an otherwise blank page and include it as the last page in your thesis. Theses will not be accepted without a word count.

Formatting

One copy of your thesis is to be submitted electronically to the Social Studies office, uploaded to the Social Studies 99 Canvas site. If you are a joint concentrator, you should submit one copy of your thesis to Social Studies and one to your joint concentration.

Apart from quotations of more than 50 words and from foot­notes, theses should be double-spaced.  

Pages must be numbered.

The margins should be one inch at the top and bottom of each page, with one inch at the left edge and one inch at the right.

Follow the foot- or end-noting conventions of the discipline with which the essay is most closely associated.  


Title Page

Here is an example of the text that should be appro­priately centered and spaced on the title page:

Title Page

Acknowledgements 

When the thesis is submitted, please leave out an acknowledgements page. If your thesis is accepted for archives, you will be contacted to provide an acknowledgements page and any minor updates you wish to include.