how many words is a senior thesis

University of Notre Dame

Program of Liberal Studies

College of Arts and Letters

• Home ›
• The Major ›
• Requirements ›

Senior Thesis

PLS ecourages all of its students to write a senior thesis. This 35-60 page thesis (~9,000-15,000 words) is your chance to explore a topic or a text of your choosing in greater detail from across the disciplines, and to work one-on-one with an advisor who will support you in bringing this capstone project to completion. Many PLS students produce extraordinarily creative and intellectually rigorous pieces of scholarship that allow them to integrate their wide-ranging interests.

There are three ways to complete the thesis in your senior year:

• Register for the two PLS Thesis Tutorials with a PLS professor as your advisor.
• Register for the two PLS Thesis Tutorials with a non-PLS professor as your advisor.
• Complete the thesis process in another major (many majors offer the senior thesis as an "honors" option).

While students follow many paths to completing the thesis, below is a rough timeline to help you begin to think about yours.

"Writing the thesis was really an experience of synthetic creation. Though we write a number of papers in the Program, spending a full year (or more) on the singular project was a rewarding process of leading myself to make a contribution to a greater academic conversation, building it in a structure-free environment that is unmatched in most courses. I'm confident that the experience will prove profoundly effective for more substantially cultivating skills of synthesis and independent creation." — Sam Cannova, PLS '21, Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company.

Senior Thesis Timeline

Sophomore fall.

If you are planning to study abroad in the summer or in the spring of your junior year (which is the best time for most PLS students), applications are typically due in November of your sophomore year. As you begin to think about whether and where you would like to go, you might consider your experience abroad as an opportunity to get a jump start on the research for your senior thesis.

Many PLS students have used their study abroad experience to visit archives, libraries, and sites relevant to their topics, to conduct interviews, to gain further mastery of requisite research languages, or to take classes on the topic that may not be available at Notre Dame. Some study abroad programs offer special research fellowships, like the London Kennedy Scholars  and Rome International Scholars , that will help you develop research skills and hone your research questions. Notre Dame also offers a number of other research funding opportunities  to get you started.

Sophomore Spring

Regardless of whether you plan to study abroad, which is certainly not a necessary step in the thesis process, you might consider using one of your elective spaces in the spring of your sophomore year to take a class that will help you explore a possible area of research interest, especially if you are interested in something that is not covered in depth by the PLS curriculum or is not studied until the senior year. This may be true of topics engaging more contemporary issues or authors.

You might also talk with your PLS professors to see if you can write a research paper for one of your PLS classes. Many excellent theses begin as shorter papers completed for one of the PLS Seminars or Tutorials. This is a great way to try out a topic to see if it holds your interest and to begin a conversation with a potential faculty advisor.

Junior Summer

It is probably no surprise that members of the PLS community have fairly extensive summer reading lists. This summer you might take note of what kinds of books are populating your list and think about how one or more of them might be the germ of a thesis topic. This could be especially helpful if you are having trouble narrowing down a topic (or, really, have no idea where to begin!).

Often the best projects grow out of personal interests that may not seem immediately "research-worthy," but almost anything you can think of has its own body of literature and scholarly conversation around it. Once you start paying attention to the authors who cite, and are cited in, the books you love, you will probably find that your interests connect with a whole world of fellow seekers. Getting to know that world and becoming a part of it is what research is all about!

Junior Fall

This is the time to start having exploratory conversations with potential faculty advisors. To identify faculty in your general area of interest, you should begin by consulting their departmental faculty page and, if they are PLS faculty, their senior thesis profile, which is updated annually.

Don't worry if you are still casting about for a topic. Faculty have a lot of experience refining their own research questions, and they will be able to help you find your way from a general disciplinary interest, like philosophy or literature or theology, to a well-defined and manageable line of inquiry. Even if you feel like you know exactly what you want to do for your thesis, don't be surprised or discouraged if faculty suggest ways of further narrowing the scope or adjusting the aims of your research. The more work you do at this stage to clarify your thinking, the fewer headaches you will have a year from now, when you realize that what you had set out to do is not feasible.

Faculty might also suggest that you speak with their colleagues in PLS or in other departments. Again, don't be discouraged. All of the faculty want to be sure that you get the best support possible for your project, and they want you to find someone whose research interests and expertise will most closely match your own.

While there are plenty of resources at Notre Dame to help you complete your thesis, there are also many opportunities to access resources beyond the campus. If you are interested in a topic related to Italy, you should consider applying for PLS's Monteverdi Prize , the deadline for which is usually in late December. If you are looking for funding for a summer research trip, you should explore the opportunities available through the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts ,  Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement , and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies .

If you already have plans to study abroad in the spring and hope to get some research done while you are there, you should begin identifying the archives, libraries, and other points of interest before you go. Some institutions require researchers wanting to access their materials to make arrangements ahead of time. Thus, it is advisable to do a little planning in advance so that you find all of the doors open to you when you get there. Finally, if you ever simply don't know where to begin, ask one (or more!) of the PLS faculty. We are here to help!

Junior Spring

The formal senior thesis process begins in the spring of junior year, when you submit your research proposal and are matched with a faculty advisor. If you are writing your thesis in another major, you do not need to complete the full proposal and matching process. You should speak with the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) for that major to be sure that you are clear about their expectations for completing a senior thesis. When you have confirmed your plans with them, you should send an email to the DUS for PLS, Dr. Eric Bugyis ( [email protected] ), indicating the department, advisor, and proposed topic of your thesis. You should also copy the DUS for the major in which you are writing the thesis on this communication. You will follow the deadlines and other thesis expectations for that major.

If you plan to work with a non-PLS faculty person and they have agreed to supervise the thesis, you should confirm this by sending an email to Dr. Bugyis, indicating the topic and advisor. You should copy the non-PLS faculty advisor on this communication. Dr. Bugyis will then create a section of the PLS Thesis Tutorial for that advisor, who will set the expectations for the work to be completed each semester and will submit your grade. You will register for this Thesis Tutorial section and follow the PLS deadlines and formatting protocols.

All students writing their theses in PLS with a PLS faculty advisor must submit a proposal to the department administrator, Becky Badger ( [email protected] ), by the deadline for that year, which will typically be in March. Most proposals will be about 1-2 pages (~500-1500 words), and they will give a general orientation to the body of literature or literatures you plan to engage, culminating in a clearly articulated research question or set of closely related questions and an initial bibliography. You are encouraged to work with one or more faculty to help you craft your thesis proposal, even if those faculty do not end up advising the project.

There will be a matching day shortly after the proposals are due when the faculty will meet to determine which faculty person is the best fit for each of the thesis projects proposed. Once you are matched with a PLS faculty advisor, you will register for their section of the PLS Thesis Tutorial for senior fall and begin the process of meeting with them to determine how best to proceed with the project.

Senior Summer

By the end of your junior year, you should have a rough outline of your thesis project and an initial list of sources to get you started. You should also have met at least once with your faculty advisor to come up with a research plan.

The summer is a great time to get a running start on your research by reading through the sources on your initial bibliography and finding new sources on the basis of that reading. This is also a great time to visit archives and other places of interest with funding from the sources listed above or to begin analyzing the information you collected while you were studying abroad. If your project does not involve such site-specific research (and many will not), just find a comfortable chair in a beautiful spot, crack open a book, and, with a notebook at your elbow, start collecting your thoughts.

Senior Fall

At the beginning of the fall, you and your advisor will determine a regular schedule of meetings and the work that is to be completed for those meetings. This will vary from advisor to advisor and student to student. But you should plan to keep in regular contact with your advisor about your progress.

Faculty know that the research and writing process tends to ebb and flow. So, don't be worried if you fall behind at particular points in the semester. The important thing is that you remain in contact with your advisor. It is at those points when you feel overwhelmed and just plain stuck that faculty can often be the most helpful in reframing the project, finding new paths forward, and offering much-needed perspective.

The goal is to produce a full draft of the thesis by the end of the fall. This is not the polished final draft, but a rough draft that both you and your advisor will expect to be significantly revised. The best writing is rewriting!

Senior Spring

You are in the home stretch! The work of this semester is revision. This may involve targeted research to find sources to shore up a particular part of your argument or significantly rewriting earlier sections of the thesis that can now be strengthened or clarified by work that you did later in the fall semester. Once again, your advisor will help you determine a plan for producing a polished final draft by the deadline, which is typically in March.

When you submit your final draft to the PLS office, your advisor will also send up to three names of possible second readers to the DUS for PLS, Dr. Eric Bugyis ( [email protected] ). The second reader and your advisor will each write a letter assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the thesis and, possibly, offer suggestions for future work. Thus, the thesis is only the beginning of a lifetime of learning.

At the annual PLS senior dinner to celebrate graduation, the best thesis for that year will be recognized with the Bird Award , named in honor of PLS founder Otto Bird.

• Utility Menu

• Writing Center
• Writing Program
• Senior Thesis Writing Guides

The senior thesis is typically the most challenging writing project undertaken by undergraduate students. The writing guides below aim to introduce students both to the specific methods and conventions of writing original research in their area of concentration and to effective writing process.

• Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines
• Course-Specific Writing Guides
• Disciplinary Writing Guides
• Gen Ed Writing Guides

Senior Thesis in Comparative Literature and Society

Senior Thesis in Medical Humanities

A vademecum

General Information

The Senior Thesis in Comparative Literature and Society and the Senior Thesis in Medical Humanities give students the opportunity to deepen and refine their interest in a particular subject, establish a sustained intellectual relationship with a Columbia or Barnard Faculty member, and be considered for ICLS Departmental Honors.

Students are advised to start thinking about their thesis, including possible topics and faculty members who might serve as Thesis Supervisors, in the Spring Semester of their junior year.

CLS and Medical Humanities majors are encouraged to consult with the DUS early in the process. The DUS can offer early advice on topic and Supervisor selection.

Note: Medical Humanities majors are also encouraged to consult with Professor Rishi Goyal ( [email protected] ), Director of Medical Humanities, for advice on the early steps of thesis construction. If you plan to use the Health Sciences Library, please see the slide show from this Fall 2022 orientation.

Students who decide to write a thesis will enroll in a year-long course (CPLS3995) starting in the Fall of their Senior Year. This year-long, 3-credit course (1.5 credits in Fall, 1.5 credits in Spring) will allow students to receive academic credits for their thesis, and to count the thesis towards completion of their major requirement when necessary (Requirement #10 of the CLS Course Chart).

The Thesis: What Is It?

The Senior Thesis is a piece of scholarly research, the model for which is an academic journal article. A translation or a piece of creative work, such as a piece of creative writing, can be submitted with the prior approval of the DUS, and must be accompanied by an explanatory introduction or foreword of no less than 5000 words in length.

The Senior Thesis must be between 11,000 and 15,000 words, in 12-point font, and double-spaced. The total page count includes the preface or introduction, the main body of the thesis, references and/or a bibliography, and appendices (when applicable). The following items (all of which are optional and are not required) do not count toward the total page number: Title page; Table of contents; List of charts, graphs, and illustrations.

The Thesis must be written in English unless the student has received permission to write in another language. The citational and bibliographical style will be decided in consultation with the Thesis Supervisor.

Who Can Be Your Thesis Supervisor?

Any Columbia and Barnard faculty member can serve as Thesis Supervisor.  This is usually a person you have worked with previously or taken a class with, or who is an expert in your subject matter. You are encouraged to discuss with your DUS before finalizing your choice.

Why Write A Senior Thesis?

The Senior Thesis is the culmination of a student’s journey through the major. It presents a unique opportunity to utilize one’s skills in research, critical analysis, and sustained written argumentation while developing a topic of choice and, in the process, gain valuable scholarly expertise. Being completed in close collaboration with a Faculty member, the Senior Thesis provides an occasion to develop a close academic relationship with someone who is an expert in their field, and to experience the rewards and demands of academic research during this year-long process.

The Senior Thesis is the capstone of a student’s undergraduate studies, and represents valuable experience – and precious training – for those considering a graduate career in academia, as well as any other endeavor involving research and writing.

Thesis Proposal in Junior Year

Students interested in writing a senior thesis (or, in the case of Barnard students, students who have to write one) will submit a thesis proposal in the Spring semester of their junior year. The proposal should be short,  no longer than 1 page single-spaced , and should include the name of your advisor. This early preliminary work on your thesis will help you prepare better for the challenge of writing it. The thesis proposal should ideally indicate your topic, justification, methodology, aims, questions that concern you, and a sketch of the overall argument. Your proposal should also include a tentative title. Of course, it is to be expected that all these might change over the course of your research and writing. For Spring 2024, thesis proposals for juniors are due on May 3.  Contact Profs. Bugnevicius and Goyal to discuss your thesis idea or if you need help with finding an advisor.

On the Construction and Completion of the Thesis

1  How to Find and Shape a topic?

If you are still reading, you may indeed end up writing a Senior Thesis in ICLS! Let me now address you directly, (future) thesis writer.

First, how do you find a topic? Topics arise from curiosity, interest, love at first sight with a text or work of art, and the desire to explore and learn more about a particular issue or a complicated question.  In the early steps of the process of identifying a topic, you should cast a wide net: What is it that you like to study? What are the areas, events, authors, exchanges, issues, or archives that have nourished your curiosity? How are they connected? In answering the last of these questions, you are beginning to shape your thesis comparatively . The way you decide to explore and organize the comparison will shape the structure of your work.

The topic for your thesis is often – but not necessarily – the result of your engagement with a particular question, theme, or set of works in a class you have taken. You have the option, in accordance with your Supervisor, to develop the Senior Thesis from a research paper you have already written.

After identifying the broader contours of your topic, your focus should shift to progressively scaling down and refining your topic so that a limited, manageable, yet clear and fruitful set of questions will guide your thesis. The nature of your revised frame of inquiry should remain comparative: How do texts, contexts, events, images, or social practices inform each other and amplify information when they are brought into shared frames of analysis? What might comparing, contrasting, or otherwise juxtaposing material allow us to see that we might not otherwise see when we read or interpret materials separately, or solely within their tradition, context, or medium?

Identifying your sources is crucial to defining your topic and to constructing an appropriate set of methodology(ies) for your thesis. Like other aspects of writing a senior thesis, deciding what kind of sources to use or what text/material to include or exclude is a process of refinement that will require time and that will invariably involve making a set of difficult choices. It is not possible, nor should one try, to write about everything at once!

Some helpful tips:

* Start locating and assembling the corpus of your thesis early, in terms of both primary sources (novels, art pieces, archival sources, etc.) and relevant secondary sources (scholarship).

* Continue to refine that corpus in conversation with your Supervisor while remaining attentive to your evolving interests and preoccupations, until the final core texts or authors become clear.

* Do not be afraid to change your mind, but at the same time bear in mind that this is just one serious piece of writing. There will be others.

* Because the thesis is limited in scope – and one of your first research experiences – it cannot encompass all of your interests. If you are dealing with a large quantity of material, in the very early stages of the process your attention should be directed to breaking down your interests (and the materials that will allow you to develop them) into smaller, more manageable chunks. Your thesis will grow out of this process of selection, execution, and imagination.

3) Research and early Writing: the Outline and a Preliminary Bibliography:

The goal of the Fall semester of your Senior year should be completing a good amount of research and reading. Do not wait for research to finish to start writing: research never finishes. To start and grow your work, take advantage of the structure of the Senior Seminar, which is aimed to encourage you to start writing early, even if that only means a few sentences, a paragraph, or a page. Make an outline and keep it up-to-date and useful. As you keep reading and narrowing the scope of your intervention, keep revising the outline and, in light of it, readjust the direction of your writing. Submit your abstract and writing to your Supervisor throughout the Fall semester, and by the time Spring comes, you will have a clear roadmap, as well as sufficient progress, to finish the thesis as thoroughly and carefully as it deserves, while preventing the April 15 th deadline from becoming a source of anxiety.

4) Funding your research You may apply through research funding through your college. Students in Columbia College see this page . Note the deadline is usually in the Fall term. Students in the College of General Studies may apply in either term, information can be found here . Consult these websites for application details and updated deadlines. Barnard College students can find funding resources here . *Note that this page also has additional funding resources for which CC and GS students may be eligible.

5) Coversheet details We do not have strict guidelines regarding the format of the coversheet but we ask that you include: the thesis title, the date, your name, the phrase “Senior Thesis in (your major) at the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University,” and your thesis advisor and their department.

Submission Deadline and Grading

The deadline for submitting the Senior Thesis is April 15 th .The Thesis will be submitted electronically to the DUS of ICLS and to the Thesis Supervisor. Medical Humanities majors will also submit, at the same time, to Professor Rishi Goyal, Director of Medical Humanities. The Thesis Supervisor is solely responsible for the final grade.

Submission Extension Policy

Short extensions of the submission deadline can be requested with prior approval of your Thesis Supervisor. Any request for extension should be submitted to your DUS by email as early as possible, and your Supervisor should be copied. Please be advised that being granted an extension makes you ineligible for Departmental Honors and Prizes .

Click here to watch the 2020 Senior Thesis presentations .

DOWNLOAD MATERIALS

Students who decide to write a thesis will enroll in a year-long course (CPLS3995) starting in the Fall of their Senior Year. This year-long, 3-credit course (1 credit in Fall, 2 credits in Spring) will allow students to receive academic credits for their thesis, and to count the thesis towards completion of their major requirement when necessary (Requirement #10 of the CLS Course Chart).

The deadline for submitting the Senior Thesis is April 15 th .The Thesis will be submitted both electronically and in hard copy to the DUS of ICLS and to the Thesis Supervisor. Medical Humanities majors will also submit, at the same time, to Professor Rishi Goyal, Director of Medical Humanities. The Thesis Supervisor is solely responsible for the final grade.