The Theses Office focuses on the requirements and layout of a dissertation, thesis, project or extended essays for submission to the library and, therefore, for publication.  We offer templates and skills assistance (especially for MSWord) to help make writing and publishing easier throughout the term paper or thesis process.

Students are asked to take a Workshop on Using the Thesis Template and, after the workshop, an MSWord Template file will be sent to them.  There is more help available via the Help and Documentation column on the Thesis Assistance Homepage  and other MSWord Skills help pages are available as well.

The Theses Office does not offer direct help with the scholarly aspects of research, writing, and editing.  However, other staff in the Library do offer this help.

Research

Consult your department or program's specialized Liaison Librarian for help with the research process.

Writing Assistance

The Student Learning Commons (SLC) offers assistance to graduate students.  Consult the SLCs about a variety of writing concerns (genre familiarity, planning, organizing, improving coherence, forming peer-writing groups, style, self-help editing) and/or learning strategies (reading, exam preparation, time management). 

References and Citation Styles

Reference lists and in-text citation styles are among the most important knowledge/skills needed for scholarly writing.  They are a requirement for avoiding plagiarism.  Professors expect you to have learned these skills in undergraduate studies.  If you are “rusty” or have never encountered these as part of English language standards of scholarship, it is particularly important that you learn them early in your graduate program rather than leave referencing issues to last.

Referencing styles

Here are the links to pages prepared by the reference librarians to assist you.

• Avoiding plagiarism
• Research Guides: Writing & Style Guides
• Style manuals that apply to your discipline. Included is a section on sources for how to format electronic citations.
• Workshop: APA (6th ed.): Essentials for Academic Writing
• Referencing First Aid

Reference management software

Early adoption of a reference database (such as RefWorks, EndNote, Citation Manager, etc.) permits you to build a cumulative and re-usable record of your research sources, thus making the writing of papers for course-work easier.

• Reference Management software - Free RefWorks software for current students.
• Compare EndNote, Citation Manager and RefWorks.
• EndNote Guided Tour for windows and Macintosh. A comprehensive guide for students using EndNote software.

Using Copyrighted Material

(i.e., other Author's Figures, Images, Photos, etc.)

Understand Copyright so you don't violate the rights of others

Like books and journal articles, your extended essays/project/thesis/dissertation is also a publication.  So, if you wish to use images, photos, maps and other graphics created by another author, you will need proof of permission to re-publish their work. Locating the correct person to contact may prove difficult, so don't leave the task until the end.

Review the Thesis Requirements Copyright webpage and the links within it before selecting images created by others for re-publishing in your thesis/project/essays.

Selecting Images (or finding alternate ones), that require the least work to obtain permission

If you are considering an image, always record the pertinent information: the reference from which it came, the copyright holder, date of copyright, and contact information and, when used, submit with your thesis.

On websites where you find images (including "Wikipedia" and "Google Maps"), visit the "user info" or "copyright information" link, usually at the bottom of the page, and print this for your records.

Seek out images in the "public domain" or having other forms of general "advance permission" to publish. You may be able to find alternate images or maps to the ones you initially selected.  Print these permissions for your records.

Check out ARTstor, an image database.  You can access these images and publish them, with only the usual citation.