Hello Honors students! If you are reading this blog post WE (Lady Elizabeth and Natalia) can only assume you’re a junior or senior working on your senior thesis project. Good luck! No, it's all jokes, we bet you’ll do just fine. 😁👍 Trust us, the process is hard but totally doable. We are Senior Honors students currently going through the process and figured why not create a helpful “how to” post for all the arts and science peeps. But who knows, these tips might also help engineering and business students! Before getting into the tips, here are some things Natalia and I wish we had known before starting our project:
That’s right, this project is a handful requiring not only discipline but great guidance. Without further ado let’s learn from our experience. Tip 1: Start figuring out your thesis focus and mentor/reader sooner than later The order of which comes first doesn’t matter. You just need to pick a thesis focus and reader/mentor by the end of Spring Junior year. For readers, you can choose any professor you would feel comfortable meeting with for writing advice. When it comes to picking a mentor, it’s a little trickier. It’s best to pick a mentor in the field most related to your area of interest. Your mentor doesn’t have to be an explicit professor of your narrowed down topic but they should have enough background knowledge on the general focus to help you get started. For example, I (Lady Elizabeth) knew I wanted to focus my honors senior thesis on the American prison system, so I intentionally picked a mentor whose curriculum focused on mass incarceration. That way, my mentor would be able to suggest credible sources, books, and documentaries for me to look into as I narrowed down my topic. Meanwhile, I (Natalia) have been working on a research project with mentors from the English department I had chosen previously. Because of my busy senior-year schedule, I decided to use this project for my Honors Thesis. If you also have another project you are completing throughout the year in your respective program, I suggest checking to see if it could count as your Honors Thesis. This way you might already have your mentor picked out and just need to figure out a reader! Tip 2: Pick a topic that you’re interested in Your topic does not have to be related to your major – this could be the chance for you to explore an interest in a different discipline or something that has been of interest to you. But please pick a focus that interests you, whether it’s major-related or not because this is a 9-month journey. That is why, despite being a psychology major, I (Lady Elizabeth) chose a topic aligned with sociology and ethnic studies, it was more interesting to me. While, I (Natalia) chose a topic related to my English major, and was an area of interest I did not get to fully explore during my undergraduate classes. Tip 3: Schedule multiple meetings with your mentor & reader Please keep in contact with your mentor, as they are a resource to help guide you through your project. Having multiple sessions with your mentor and reader can ensure you stay on track. You can also get more guidance on how you wish to structure your paper (if that’s something you want). Plus this builds a good rapport between your mentor/reader and yourself. I (Natalia) met with my mentor almost weekly to help keep myself accountable and on track. This is a great way to ensure that your project does not feel like too much work at the end of your senior year! Tip 4: Create a timeline – this will be your lifeline This is crucial as the project is more than likely independent, so creating a timeline can be another way of holding yourself accountable. You can use the Google Sheets template (here) to help you set deadlines. Google Calendar is also a great way to help set deadlines. The Assignment Tracker image is a snapshot of my (Lady Elizabeth) mode of tracking my progress. It was helpful for me to write out when everything needed to be done and mark it off as I went. Whereas for me (Natalia) it was helpful to use Google Calendar and set aside time to work on my project. Tip 5: Visit the HUB! Coming to the HUB can be helpful at any point in your thesis. During the brainstorming stage, speaking with a writing partner can help you talk your ideas out loud, create a plan for the road ahead, gain inspiration, make ideas more specific, etc. Once you have a draft (partial or full) a writing partner can provide feedback regarding editing, analysis, grammar, structure/organization, etc. The HUB is a resource that can provide you with any kind of writing help you may need! As of Spring 2024, the HUB Writing Center has 10 writing partners in the Honors program: Faith Fitzpatrick, Jordan Scott, Katy Wolff, Lady Elizabeth Roy, Lindsey Kendall, Lucia Heese, Maddie Vitanza, Natalia Cantu, Rhiannon Briggs, and Thomas Matthew. Even I (Lady Elizabeth), a HUB writing partner, still find myself coming to the HUB occasionally, because it is a great resource. For the Honors Senior Thesis project, I met with Natalia (the other author of this blog post) to help me further work out the mental blocks I experienced while working on this paper. We hope that this was helpful as you progress on your SCU Honors journey. Happy writing! About the AuthorsLady Elizabeth and Natalia are seniors at Santa Clara University. Lady Elizabeth is a psychology major who has been working at the HUB since Fall 2021. Natalia, an English major with a minor in biology, has been working at the HUB since Fall 2022.
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