A Guide to Writing a Senior Thesis in History & Literature

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A Guide to Writing a Senior Thesis

in History & Literature

Committee on Degrees in History & Literature Faculty of Arts and Sciences Harvard University

A Guide to Writing a Senior Thesis

in History & Literature

Cover photo credit: Harvard Public Affairs and Communications Written by Andrew J. Romig, Copyright 2017, President and Fellows of Harvard College

Table of Contents

Introduction: The History & Literature Senior Thesis..............1

Rules of the Game..............................................................................2 What's Inside.......................................................................................3 Acknowledgments...............................................................................3

Insert: Your Relationship with Your Advisor.............................4

Chapter One: Developing the Project........................................6

Organizing Your Time..........................................................................6 From "Topics" to the Basic Building Blocks of Research......................7 Storming the Brain..............................................................................8 Brainstorming Exercises.......................................................................8 Supplementing Your Brainstorms:"Pre-research"..................................9 Chapter One Recap..........................................................................10

Chapter Four: Revising, the Final Frontier..............................25

Developing a Productive Critical Eye:Thinking in Relative Terms about Precision, Clarity, and Persuasiveness.................25 Working the Thesis Statement............................................................26 Finding the Best Structure for Your Ideas:Tell a Good Story...............27 Critiquing Evidence..........................................................................27 More about Content..........................................................................28 20,000+ Words? Should You Do It?....................................................29 Chapter Four Recap..........................................................................29

Chapter Five: Finishing the Job.................................................30

Proofreading......................................................................................30 Submitting the Final Copies..............................................................30 Celebrating the Process and Achieving Closure..................................31

Chapter Two: Writing the Proposal..........................................11

The Thesis Proposal Assignment.........................................................11 Finding Your Research Question........................................................12 Resigning Yourself to Hard (but Ultimately Best) Choices..................13 Framing Your Question and Writing the Proposal Document.............14 Try Not to Argue: Let Your Sources Speak for Themselves..................14 Is There Any "Give" in the System?....................................................15 Rewriting Your Proposal....................................................................15 Chapter Two Recap...........................................................................16

Appendix A: Funding Your Research........................................32

Appendix B: Sample Documents..............................................33

Sample title page................................................................................34 Sample word count page....................................................................35 Sample grant proposal A.....................................................................36 Sample grant proposal B....................................................................38 Sample thesis proposal A....................................................................40 Sample thesis proposal B....................................................................41

Chapter Three: Researching and Writing the Rough Draft............................................................................17

Being an Active Researcher................................................................17 Making a Plan:Thinking about Draft "Chapters"................................18 Taking Notes and Writing Daily........................................................18 Assembling the Rough Draft.............................................................20 Thinking about Audience..................................................................21 Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism.............................................22 Submitting a Draft Chapter for Concentration Review......................22 Augmenting Your Research Plan........................................................23 Chapter Three Recap........................................................................24

Appendix C: Staying Healthy.....................................................42

Bureau of Study Counsel Writing Groups..........................................42 UHS Resources.................................................................................42

Insert: Good Habits to Develop Early/Bad Habits to Break Right Away....................................................................44

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