Project/Thesis Comparison and General Information | Style Guide and Graduation Instructions | Project/Thesis Checklist | Post Defense Instructions

Project/Thesis Comparison:

Projects/Thesis General Information:

Master’s projects/theses in the J-School must conform to the University’s Restricted Research Policy, Faculty Senate Rules and Regulations Article IX”

Section III.10 Research that cannot be published or otherwise publicly disseminated because of restrictions shall not be presented to the University in fulfillment of academic requirements. In order to implement this standard, when students propose to work on restricted research for any purpose, including financial support, the students involved, the faculty member concerned and the Office of The Vice Provost for Research shall agree in writing on the following condition: that any theses, dissertations, or other work submitted to fulfill course or university requirements shall be unrestricted or shall not be submitted to the committee for formal defense until they are unrestricted, that is, until their procedures, techniques, tools, data, and results are open to inspection by any member of the Graduate Faculty. It shall be the responsibility of the faculty member concerned to ensure that this written agreement is secured before any graduate student begins work on restricted research; no student may be paid for his or her work until this agreement has been obtained and filed with the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.

Students begin the master’s research component in JOUR 898, Master’s Research and complete the project/thesis in JOUR 899 Master’s Project/Thesis. The two courses do not have to be in sequential semesters, although most students complete the work in that manner.

Students enroll in a section of JOUR 898 under the name of their committee chair. Students are expected to complete 50 percent or more of the master’s research in this course. This course is graded A-F and will be computed in the GPA. The chair of the committee is the instructor of record.

Students may receive the grade of P (progress) in JOUR 899 Master’s Project/Thesis to indicate work is progressing but not complete. Students must enroll in 2 hours of JOUR 815 Investigation and Conference until they complete the project/thesis.

Beginning in Fall 2005, masters’ projects/theses are filed electronically through UMI. Projects/Theses that exceed the file limit and/or contain multimedia components may require mailing (separately) a CD for the multimedia component. Details can be found online and assistance is available in the J-School Graduate office.

Guidelines and forms for preparation of projects/theses are posted on the School’s web site and are available through the Graduate Records Coordinator.

Style Guide and Graduation Instructions:

(Developed by KU Graduate School, Summer 2005; modified by J-School, Spring 2006)

This revision of guidelines supersedes prior instructions for formatting of projects/theses. Do not use copies on file in departments and libraries as guides for formatting your project/thesis. Use only these J-School Instructions adapted from the Graduate School Instructions.

Contents:

1. General Guidelines: Preparing And Submitting Your Project/thesis
2. Formatting and Style Manuals
3. Instructions For Converting Your Project/thesis to PDF
4. Publication Requirement: Instructions For Submitting Your Project/thesis
5. Copyright Option
6. Filing Instructions for All Master’s Candidates (to be submitted by each candidate to The University of Kansas)
7. Page Formats required for J-School: Title Page and Acceptance Page
8. Graduation Instructions

1. General Guidelines:
The project/thesis is to be a coherent scholarly work, not a collage of separate, distinct pieces. Its unity of theme and treatment may still accommodate several subtopics by demonstrating their relationships and interactions. (Formats required by publishers for book and journal items are usually not satisfactory for projects/theses and use of them may result in your project/thesis being rejected. Before using guidelines of this kind be sure they are acceptable to your department and to the Graduate School.)

Students are required by University policy and by ProQuest/UMI policy to ascertain that use of all copyright-protected materials either falls within the “Fair use” guidelines of U. S. copyright law or are reproduced with the permission of the owner. See http://www.graduate.ku.edu/~etd/copyright (Lawrence campus) or http://www2.kumc.edu/copyright (KUMC) and K. D. Crews, Copyright Law and Graduate Research (http://www.umi.com/umi/dissertations/copyright) for further guidance.

After any changes required by the student’s committee have been made in the project/thesis, the project/thesis should be submitted electronically in PDF format to ProQuest/UMI on or before the date specified by the J-School. (Note: this date is in advance of the Graduate School deadline.) Supplementary materials may be added in other formats. (See Section 4, Publication Requirement.)

The J-School does not require bound copies. Binding for personal copies may be requested from commercial binders. These are listed on the Graduate School Web site with contact information. http://www.graduate.ku.edu/~etd/binding/.

2. Formatting and Style Manuals:
In consultation with your chair and project/thesis committee, identify the style manual that you will follow. The J-School has used APA Style primarily, but MLA Style is also acceptable to the School. Check with your chair for any preference.

Text pages, bibliography, footnotes, and appendices should follow the style manual chosen. You may also contact Library Instructional Services at training@ku.edu or use electronic templates found at http://www.graduate.ku.edu/~etd/.

TITLE PAGE:
Follow the Title Page Format (Page 5, below).

ACCEPTANCE PAGE:
Follow the Acceptance Page Format (Page 6, below. Use the J-School version shown).

FONT SIZE AND FONT:
The body of the project/thesis should be 12-point type, Times or Times New Roman. The same font style and size should be used throughout the project/thesis, for text, captions, labels and references. Tables, captions and footnotes should use the same font style but may be smaller in size; however, font sizes smaller than 10-point type tend to be difficult to read in print and PDF format.

Chapter and section headings may be bolded and no more than 2 points larger than the text size. Non-standard typefaces, such as script, are generally not acceptable except for commonly accepted symbols. Some other fonts may also be used. It is recommended that approval of the font be obtained in advance from your project/thesis committee chair.

All fonts used in a project/thesis must be embedded in the PDF files submitted to ProQuest/UMI. This ensures that the document will be readable on all computers. See instructions on converting your project/thesis to PDF (section 3).

LINE SPACING:
Normally projects/projects/theses are formatted double-spaced. (Single or space-and-a-half spacing for the body of your project/thesis is accepted only with the prior approval of your project/thesis committee AND graduate division.)

Single spacing is to be used in the table of contents, footnotes and endnotes, charts, graphs, tables, quotations, captions, glossary, appendices and bibliography.

MARGINS:
Each page must have a least a 1.5 inch left-handed margin and as least 1.25 inch top, bottom and right margins. Margins may be wider but not narrower than these standards and must be consistent throughout the document. With the exception of copyrighted materials found within appendices, all pages must meet project/thesis requirements.

PAGE NUMBERING:
Number the pages 3/4 inch down from the top OR 3/4 inch up from the bottom.

Page numbers should be consecutive and must appear on every page, including appendices, tables, figures, photographs, maps, charts, etc.

The title page is the ONLY page not numbered.

Blank numbered pages that will be included within the project/thesis must have the following statement on each page: “Page left intentionally blank.” Landscape formatted pages will have the page numbers placed on the page in the location consistent with the rest of the project/thesis.

ILLUSTRATIONS:
Charts, graphs, diagrams, maps, figures, musical scores, photographs and other pictorial components must be clear and pertinent to the subject matter of the project/thesis. Symbols or labels may be used in graphs/charts for identification rather than color. Lettering and symbols, after reduction, should generally be no smaller than 10-point type.

Illustrations are placed within the text where they belong rather than appearing in the text with the following type of notation: “Table 1 here” etc.

Table titles are generally found above the table and titles of figures are placed below but in any case the placement used should be followed consistently.

If landscape formatted illustrations are used, the title of the table or title of the illustration should be positioned on the landscape edge. Page numbering should be placed on the page in the location consistent with the rest of the project/thesis. Legends or keys for illustrative material may be placed on the facing page if the page with the illustration has space limitations.

IMAGES:
Images must be clear and of high quality.

3. Instructions for Converting Your Project/Thesis to PDF:
PDF preserves the layout and formatting of your original document (including fonts, and special characters, like formulas) while allowing anyone with the free Adobe Reader software to access your content. PDF also makes it easier to maintain archived documents, helping ensure that those documents can continue to be read years from now, despite changes in software used to create them.

Acrobat software is available in several public computing labs on the KU campus (For a listing, visit http://www2.ku.edu/cgiwrap/workshops/train/index.php?SCREEN=labs and filter the lab list by software, “Acrobat”). On the KUMC campus the software is available in Dykes Library Room 1040. Please call 8.7166 to reserve the room. Acrobat is also available for sale through retail outlets.

To create a PDF using Acrobat 7:

1. Open your project/thesis file in the application in which you created it (Word, WordPerfect, etc.)
2. Click the File menu, choose Print, and select ADOBE PDF as the printer. (If Adobe PDF is not on the list of available printers reinstall Acrobat 7.)
3. In the Print dialog box, click Properties, click the Adobe PDF Settings tab, and choose Standard as the Default Settings, then click OK.
4. Click OK in the Print dialog box. When prompted, type in the file name and choose where the PDF will be saved, and click Save.

For a quick visual tutorial of Acrobat 7, see http://www.techdocs.ku.edu/docs/pdf/.

For more detailed instructions on using Acrobat 7 to create PDFs (including instructions on combining multiple files in a single PDF) see http://dissertations.umi.com/tutorial.html.

For assistance in creating PDFs, contact Instructional Services (864-0410 or training@ku.edu).

4. Publication Requirement: Instructions for Submitting your Project/Thesis:
Before qualifying for a master’s degree, you must arrange for publication of your project/thesis through UMI Dissertation Publishing on or before the date specified by the Graduate School or the Office of Graduate Studies on the KUMC campus. All projects/projects/theses must be submitted electronically through the ProQuest/UMI web site at http://dissertations.umi.com/ku/. Before logging in, you should know or have available:

1. The finished project/thesis in PDF form including the title and acceptance pages without signatures
2. Abstract of no more than 150 words. The abstract should explain the problem with which the project/thesis deals, the methods used in the investigations and the results obtained and conclusions reached.
3. Title of project/thesis
4. Year degree awarded
5. Year manuscript completed
6. Type of degree
7. Department
8. Name of adviser

Your school’s graduate division representative will review submitted projects/projects/theses for format and completeness. You will be notified by email when your project/thesis has been accepted for submission to ProQuest/UMI.

5. Copyright Option:
If you intend to register copyright through ProQuest/UMI, you should place a copyright notice on the title page with the year date and the author’s full legal name below. For a project/thesis completed in 1987 by John Richard Doe, the notice would appear as:

C1987
John Richard Doe

Or
Copyright 1987
John Richard Doe

6. Filing Instructions for all Master’s Candidates (to be submitted by each candidate to The University of Kansas)

Acceptance Page/Title Page (Use Format Pages below)
Prior to e-filing, a paper copy of the Title Page and Acceptance Page with original signatures must be submitted to the J-School graduate office along with the e-filing fee. Copies of the original Title Page and Acceptance Page will be forwarded to the Graduate School.

The committee chair (and co-chair if applicable) must sign both the Title Page and the Acceptance Page, verifying approval of the final version of the project/thesis.

Committee members sign the Title Page. You do not need committee member signatures on the Acceptance Page.

The acceptance page should be the second page of the document, and should be the first numbered page.

7. Page Formats Required for J-School

TITLE PAGE FORMAT (PDF file) Also available in a Word Form from J-School Graduate Records Coordinator

ACCEPTANCE PAGE FORMAT (PDF file) Also available in a Word Form from J-School Graduate Records Coordinator. Only use the J-School format for the acceptance page.

8. Graduation Instructions

Final General Exam and Presentation/Defense
In your final semester, schedule and complete the final general examination and your presentation/defense with your committee chair. Notify the graduate records office of these dates. Deadlines for scheduling the exam and the defense can be found on the Web site under Academic Deadlines.

“Application for Degree” Form
Submit an “Application for Degree” form on-line by the deadline date set by the University Registrar’s Office. To file your “Application for Degree” form on-line, access Enroll & Pay>Learner Services>Academics>Apply for Graduation and follow instructions.

If you have questions or experience problems, contact the University Registrar’s Office at 785- 864-5128 or 913-588-6589 on the KUMC campus.

If you filed an application in an earlier semester but did not graduate, you must file a new form with correct, up-to-date information.

J-School Recognition Events
The School hosts two graduation recognition events each year: one in May and one in December.

The recognition ceremony in May requires academic regalia. Tickets to this event are limited and students will need to request tickets. Information will be posted on the School’s web site in late April.

The recognition ceremony in December does not require academic regalia. Tickets to this event may be limited depending on the size of the graduating class. Information is posted in late November.

Project/Thesis Checklist

Beginnings:
First Semester (for full-time students)

• Study areas of current faculty scholarship.
• Review faculty CVs and résumés. (Available in Graduate Records Coordinator’s office.)
• Identify an area to explore—one rich enough to sustain you over two or three semesters and one for which you have access to ample resources. FYI: The best access is local access.
• Once you have determined a topic, identify one or two J-School faculty who share that interest. Better yet, find faculty already working on projects in the area. Make an appointment to discuss your interest and ask one faculty member to chair your committee. The graduate director and marketing communications program coordinator will assist you in this process.
• In consultation with your chair, discuss two possible committee members. Be sure to consider an outside member (only one from outside the J-School Graduate Faculty) because she or he may contribute needed expertise.
• Working with your chair, develop a timetable for Project/Thesis development. Keep in mind that roughly 40 to 50 percent should be accomplished while enrolled in the first Project/Thesis course.
• Begin a review of what’s been done in your area (even as part of other classes such as your research classes). Find out who the players are in your topic area. Scholars refer to this as the literature review. Don’t let the terminology intimidate you. You just need to find out about prior work—what’s been done, how good was it, who’s done the work, who knows the most, etc.

Next Steps:

• Complete the make-up of your committee if you have not already done so. Work with your chair on this. Notify (by email) the Graduate Records Coordinator that you are ready to complete your committee form.
• Based on the timetable discussed with your chair, begin to plan the stages of your project and how you will execute this research. This part is what scholars call the description of methods—how you will get data, who must be interviewed, etc. Keep in mind that you may change and adapt your methods as you move along, so keep notes on what you do and why you did it to write up later. (By the way, it is perfectly acceptable to acknowledge that you chose x, y or z source because it was conveniently located, or because KU had a complete collection.)
• Execute portions of the plan (reporting, surveying, conducting experiments, gathering data, shooting visuals, recording footage) and continue discussions with your chair and committee members about your progress and findings. This is especially important if you run into trouble. Your chair should help you sort out dead ends or detours.

Further Development:
Project/Thesis style guide coming soon.
During the semester of enrollment in Master's Research:

• Continue the execution of all elements of your plan.
• Write chapter drafts, develop elements of the plan, shoot photos, write articles, etc. Your chair and/or committee members may want to see chapters as written. Sometimes the chair will want to see drafts before circulating them to the committee. You and your chair need to work out what is best for your project and for the committee members.
• You may be able to begin writing the introductory materials by this time: the topic, why this topic, the scope of your topic, the literature review and description of methods. The order that these various parts are taken up depend on your subject, on your chair’s advice and on how you want to tackle it.

Completion:
During the semester of enrollment in Project/Thesis:

• Early in the semester, schedule the defense or presentation of your Masters Project/Thesis. See deadlines below. To allow for possible changes and slight revisions, all defenses must be completed by these dates. Note: These dates do not change each year. (If the date falls on a weekend, the defense must be completed by the Friday before the weekend.

Fall graduates November 15
Spring graduates April 15
August graduates July 15

• Schedule and complete the general examination in the major subject area (This exam is prepared by your Project/Thesis committee) by mid-term of last semester. This examination may be written, oral or some combination of the two. This exam is graded as Honors, Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. An unsatisfactory evaluation requires the deficiency to be satisfactorily addressed during the Project/Thesis defense or presentation.
• The chair reports exam results to Graduate Records Coordinator to file on the “Do-All” Form.
• Complete research/investigation/production/writing. Revise work as needed and directed by chair and/or committee members.
• Submit a final complete copy of the Project/Thesis to all committee members at least two weeks before defense. This should represent your best work and the result of the advice of your chair and committee members.
• Project/Thesis presentation or defense. The presentations and defenses are open to other clients, graduate students and faculty members. Results of the defense/presentation: Project/Thesis defended, Project/Thesis provisionally defended (pending requested changes) or Project/Thesis found unsatisfactory. If found unsatisfactory, the student enrolls in J 815 to complete the work.
• Make required and requested changes. Print out Title Page and Acceptance Page (forms available on the School’s web site and in the Graduate Records office). Secure the signature of your chair on both pages, along with the date of final approval. You do not need to have signatures of the committee members on the Acceptance Page, but do list the names and unit affiliations of all committee members on both pages and secure their signatures on the Title Page.
• Submit the abstract, signed title page and the signed acceptance page, along with Project/Thesis filing fee to Graduate Records Coordinator. You must complete this step before e-filing your Project/Thesis.
• E-file approved Project/Thesis (PDFs) and, if applicable, mail CD component if applicable. Deadlines are the same every year:

Fall graduates December 1
Spring graduates May 1
August graduates The last day of summer school classes

Once filed, UMI will notify the KU Grad School, who in turn will notify Cindy Nesvarba to verify that the document submitted is complete and meets the School’s requirements.

Now that you have met with your committee for the defense/presentation of your project/thesis, you will need to prepare to electronically file your document. The first step will be to complete any required changes to your project/thesis.

Once the required changes are completed and your have the approval of your committee chair, you will need to print out the first two pages of the document: the Title Page and the Acceptance Page. Samples of the pages to be used by Journalism can be found directly above.

If you would like to use the Word form version, e-mail Cindy Nesvarba and ask her to attach the Title Page Form and the Acceptance Page Form. All you will have to do is tab through these documents to fill in the pre-formed blanks.

You will need to print out the Title Page and the Acceptance Page. On the Title Page form you should secure the signatures of your committee chair, who should also enter the date of approval, and then the signatures of the committee members.

Your chair must also sign the Acceptance Page form. You do not need the signatures of all committee members on the Acceptance Page.

The deadline for submitting the signed forms and paying your filing fee is Dec 1 (for fall graduates) May 1 (for Spring graduates) or the last day of summer school (for August graduates).

Once you have submitted these signed pages and the filing fee, you may submit your work to UMI and complete the electronic filing process. Your e-filed document will have the Title and Acceptance pages with the printed names listed. The signed pages submitted to the Graduate Records Office go into your academic folder.

Submit your signed Title Page, Acceptance Page and Filing Fee to:

Cindy Nesvarba, Graduate Records Coordinator
Room 203A, Stauffer Flint
The University of Kansas
William Allen White School of Journalism
1435 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045

Final General Examination Information