Guidelines for Writing a Thesis
Guidelines for Writing a Thesis
1. What is a thesis and what is it for
As can be read in the first pages of Umberto Eco's essay How to write a thesis, a thesis is a printed and bound writing the student is required to present and defend in front of a committee as a final examination for the degree. During the defence, the committee may intervene by asking questions and making objections, evaluating the candidate's capacity to support the ideas expressed in the thesis. Then, on the basis of the student's grade point average, the committee gives a degree score on a scale of 66 to 110, granting a particularly worthy student a score of 110 cum laude.
2. How to choose the topic
The topic of the thesis must be related to a disciplinary field which is in the student's study plan. The thesis can be either an original research or what Eco calls a "literature review", a critical work based on the reading of the major published writings on the chosen topic.
3. How to choose the supervisor
According to the topic, the student must also choose a supervisor among the teachers of the master's degree course and request for the assignment of the thesis, ideally already at the end of the first year (N.B. it takes no less than six months to write a thesis). The teacher can accept or reject the request. See the list of the EAAS academic staff at the link https://tutor-eaas0.webnode.it/academicstaff/.
Besides, the student must submit an online graduation application. See the general procedure at the link https://tutor-eaas0.webnode.it/graduation-procedure/.
4. How to collect and use the sources
As Eco recommends, the sources must be necessarily accessible and manageable, preferably direct. A direct source is an original or critical edition of the author meant to be quoted. Consequently, translations, anthologies and critical works of other authors are indirect sources, which just provides someone else's view. If the object of the thesis is a current event rather than a series of texts, a primary source is the survey conducted on the field (by giving questionnaires to fill out, for instance). Here a few links useful in searching for text sources:
OPAC SBN - Online Public Access Catalogue of National Library Service
Catalogue and Services of Sapienza Libraries, with electronic resources available within Sapienza wi-fi network
Off campus access to Sapienza network and resources
For further information go to the EAAS guide to online resources: https://tutor-eaas0.webnode.it/on-line-resources/
5. How to structure your dissertation
These are just general guidelines that you can follow to write your thesis. They can help you to organise your work, but remember to always arrange with your supervisor (relatore) the best way to structure your thesis. Every thesis is expected to have the following structure.
Index
Introduction
Development of your research (the number of chapters may change according to your project)
Conclusions
Appendices
Bibliography and references
Index
Normally your supervisor will ask you an index proposal after you define the topic of your thesis. You should write it according to the arranged structure, and it should already contain the titles of the chapters.
Introduction
It presents your topic and the reasons why you chose it. Sometimes you can also add the methodology you used, if your thesis is experimental. The introduction lays down the structure of the entire thesis too, so you should briefly explain what your focus is for each chapter.
Development of your research
Your argument should be organised in chapters. You can decide in which way to approach it, but it is essential to give it a defined structure. You should also include quotations and notes.
Conclusions
They present the final remarks on your work. Ideally, they should be linked to what you stated in your introduction.
Appendices
They include translations or original texts you worked on that you might want to show as support of your thesis. This section may also contain tables, images and materials that you used in your project, according to your topic.
Bibliography and References
You need to include all your references in the required style (see next section)
6. Presentation and layout
How you present your work matters too. A well-organized layout is very important for your dissertation.
Use headings and sub-headings to organise your argument.
The following guidelines were translated by the Guida di Anglistica of the department. Here is the link to the complete guide in Italian: https://web.uniroma1.it/seai/sites/default/files/2019-2020_guidaanglistica_final_rev.pdf
Formatting guidelines
The text should be written using the font "Times New Roman"
The dimension of the body text should be 13 (for the notes 10)
Use 2,5 cm on all margins
Use 1,5 spacing
Referencing and citations
Nowadays scholars and researchers employ a wide range of reference styles which may differ according to the discipline, country they are studying/working in, and arbitrary conventions. Amongst the most famous ones, there are APA, Chicago, MLA, Harvard, MHRA and many others, whom the last three ones are especially popular in Humanities books, essays, and journal articles. Before writing your thesis, get in touch with your supervisor and ask him/her which referencing style would be more suitable to your thesis. What follows are guidelines to the referencing style reported in the 'Guida di Anglistica' mentioned above and recommended by the English language department of Sapienza.
In quoting a book you should follow this structure: (all the elements must be divided by a comma)
Name (just the initial) and surname of the author/s. If there are several authors, their names must be divided by a comma. If the book is a companion of essays or there are more editors: Name [just the initial] and surname of the editor (edited by)
Title and subtitle of the work (in italics)
Place of publication (where available)
Publisher
Year of publication
Page numbers (after a p. or pp. for an interval of pages)
Remember to put a full stop at the end of the reference!
Example: A. Duran, The Age of Milton and the Scientific Revolution, Duquesne University Press, 2007, pp. 37-39.
In quoting an article you should follow this structure: (all the elements must be divided by a comma)
Name and surname of the author/s (according to above)
Title and subtitle of the article (in italics)
Name of the newspaper/periodical/journal (in quotation marks)
Number of the issue (after n.)
Month and year of publication
Page numbers (after p. or pp.)
If the article is from an online resource, add the website name or the complete link
Remember to put a full stop at the end of the reference!
Example: J. Gillies, Space and Place in Paradise Lost, ELH, vol. 74, no. 1, 2007, pp. 27-57, JSTOR.
Research notes
Notes are essential to show the sources of your statements. Notes (font 10) must be inserted at the end of every page (footnotes) and they must be progressively numbered throughout the entire thesis. It is best to add them step by step, so you don't forget where you took that information.
Bibliography
The entries in the bibliography must be in alphabetical order according to surname. It is suggested to divide the bibliography in sections, for primary and secondary sources. In addition to the list of consulted books, you can add, when used, a list of consulted websites. The same guidelines are applied to websites too.