BA Thesis

Below is a timeline guide to the process of writing a BA Thesis, as part of the Intensive Track in the English major. Dates are approximate and may shift slightly - look out for the most up to date deadlines and information via email and in the English newsletter, The Dirt. If you have any questions about milestones, requirements, or anything else regarding the BA Thesis, please consult the Student Affairs Administrator.

2nd or 3rd Year

Enroll in ENGL 21312 Research Methods, required for all BA Thesis writers (Course will be offered in Autumn and Spring)

Spring Quarter 3rd Year

Week 2: Info Session for prospective Thesis writers in the Intensive Track of the Major 

Week 8: BA Thesis Proposal Due to Student Affairs Administrator (SAA). 

Students should attempt to connect with possible advisors and include your choices in your Thesis Proposal. It is recommended that you reach out to professors you have taken classes with or have worked with before. Advisors do not have to be experts in your topic - it is more important to establish a good working relationship with your advisor to foster successful mentorship. If a student does not find an advisor or if their preferred faculty members are unavailable, they will be assigned an advisor. You can find examples of past Proposals here. 

Students can also begin to explore options for funding their Summer research. Students are encouraged to apply to the Dunn Research Prize awarded by the English department, and look into other options through the College Center for Research and Fellowships. 

As you begin your research, consider meeting with the English Language & Literature librarian Meredith Gozo and explore the Library's databases and subject area research guides. 

4th Year

Required: enroll in ENGL 29910 & ENGL 29911 Thesis Seminar (Literary Criticism).This two-quarter sequence is open to students from all disciplines and programs who are writing a BA thesis, paper, or final project with literary criticism as a primary methodology. The seminar will support students through each stage of the reiterative research and writing process, while emphasizing the particular intellectual discourses that thesis writers are engaging. With the permission of their home department, students may substitute this sequence for a required departmental thesis seminar, or take it as a supplement. Seminar Instructors will be Nancy Martin and Nell Pach. 

ENGL 29910 & 29911 will take the place of the "BA Paper Preparation course (ENGL 29900)" in previous iterations of the major. Further details below. 

Autumn Quarter 4th Year

In the Autumn quarter (ENGL 29910), students will read and analyze professional scholarly articles and work closely as a group on research, exploratory writing, and argument development, culminating in a revised, extended proposal and the first drafted sections of the thesis. ENGL 29910 is a 0-unit course, which students take for a Pass/Fail grade. It is expected that students will complete ENGL 29910 before enrolling in 29911.

Throughout the quarter, students should continuously meet meet with their Faculty Advisor and Seminar Instructor.

Week 10: Joint BA Thesis Approval Form due, for those writing a Thesis for two majors

Sunday before Finals Week: Thesis Portfolio due to Faculty Advisor, Seminar Instructor, SAA

Winter Quarter 4th year

In the Winter quarter (ENGL 29911), students will gradually produce a full draft, meeting regularly with both the Seminar Instructor and classmates to workshop, discuss, and revise their evolving drafts. ENGL 29911 is a 100-unit course, which students take for a quality grade. If enrolling for ENGL 29911 as a fifth course, and therefore exceeding 400 units, students must submit a Petition for a Course Overload (http://college.uchicago.edu/advising/tools-forms). 

Students will complete most of their writing during this quarter. Continue to meet with your Faculty Advisor and Seminar Instructor as you work on your first complete draft. Attend small group workshops and continue to meet deadlines for outlines and drafts set by Seminar Instructors. 

Week 8: Complete/near-complete draft due to Faculty Advisor, Seminar Instructor, SAA, Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS)

Spring Quarter 4th Year

Week 2: Second full draft of BA Thesis due to Faculty Advisors, Seminar Instructor, SAA.

Week 4: Final Draft of BA Thesis due to Faculty Advisor, Seminar Instructor, SAA, DUS

Week 6: Honors Recommendation Letters from Faculty Advisors and Seminar Instructor Due to DUS

Week 9: BA End of Year Celebration, where thesis writers will present their work in thematic panels and discuss their processes. The Janell Mueller Thesis Prize will also be awarded! 

When does the process of writing a critical BA thesis in English begin? 

Many thesis projects first emerge as papers written for English courses. Now that the department offers ENGL 21312 Research Methods as a required part of the honors pathway, we hope students may use this course to incubate potential thesis projects. 

You should plan on submitting your thesis proposal by Spring quarter of your third year (in Week 8). You should also connect with possible advisors and have an advisor decided by the time the proposal is submitted. If you have any questions or trouble finding an advisor, reach out the Student Affairs Administrator. 

Who might want to write a thesis? What goes into a thesis proposal? 

Anyone who wants to dig deeper into a literary or literature-adjacent archive, to go down the rabbit hole of a theory or oeuvre, to develop a sustained piece of interpretive writing about past or contemporary cultural phenomena, to hone your critical practice in conversation with a community of peers—these are some of the reasons students choose to write a BA thesis in English. 

A thesis proposal is a speculative paragraph or so about the inquiry you want to open with your project. Most proposals frame their questioning in reference to a certain primary text, body of work, or cultural movement. Often they sketch out a sense of the project’s historical scope. Depending on your method, the proposal might play faster and looser with periodization. A thesis proposal is not a contract, but the first step toward articulating why something piques your curiosity.

Whom will I work with over the thesis year?

You will work with your Seminar Instructor, a faculty advisor, and your thesis cohort! Your Seminar Instructor will be your primary point of contact for your thesis. Throughout the thesis year, you will meet with them for regular one-on-one conversations. In the fall and winter quarter, your Seminar Instructor will also convene regular workshops through ENGL 29910 and 29911 that will allow you to share and discuss work with other thesis writers. These meetings and workshops are required and will help you develop and temper your ideas within an intellectual community, not just on your own.

What are the benchmarks for thesis writing in the fourth year?

In broad strokes, the process consists of four phases, beginning with exploratory reading in the Summer before your fourth year, followed by more intensive research in Autumn, writing in Winter, and revision in Spring. 

Autumn quarter is for formalizing and carrying out a research program culminating in the Thesis Portfolio, completed by Week 10. You will complete a series of writing exercises (to be included in the Thesis Portfolio) that will help you engage actively with your research and your primary texts. 

Winter quarter is for expanding and refining your thesis through a series of small-group writing workshops. At the end of the quarter you’ll submit a near-full draft of your essay to your Seminar Instructor, faculty advisor, and the Student Affairs Administrator. 

Last of all, in Spring quarter, you’ll revise your draft using feedback from your Seminar Instrcutor and faculty advisor. Around week 4 you’ll submit your final draft. We’ll write letters assessing and recommending the merits of your thesis. By week 6 we should receive word back from the College as to which theses have been awarded honors. 

What kinds of sources does a critical thesis engage? What are the best practices for finding and citing these sources?

A critical thesis is a sustained work of literary analysis that speaks to and complicates an ongoing scholarly conversation. As such, it should engage both primary and secondary sources. Novels, plays, songs, films, poems, or any other kind of text you might open to interpretive reading—these belong to the former category. Journal articles, critical essays, monographs, dissertations, historical studies, works of theory and philosophy

–these make up the latter. 

In the Autumn quarter you’ll work with your Seminar Instructor faculty advisor, and peers to assemble and annotate a bibliography for your thesis. Make friends with the UChicago Library Catalog and the many treasures waiting in the Regenstein stacks (3rd floor, P - Language and Literature). Also check out the Library’s English Literature Subject Guide for a basic introduction to the research process, access to online collections, and other useful resources and meet with the English subject librarian. 

All citations should be in MLA or Chicago style. Ask your advisors for help navigating more specific citation questions. 

What are the formatting requirements when submitting a finished thesis? 

Upon completion your thesis should come in at a minimum of 20 pages and a maximum of 30. It should be double spaced, 12pt font, Times New Roman or equivalent. Make sure it has numbered pages and a cover page. Some students choose to include acknowledgments. 

Who assesses thesis work? How do they determine which projects will receive honors? 

As noted above, your Seminar Instructor and faculty advisor will be the ones who write letters of recommendation on behalf of your final thesis. Most of the week-by-week feedback should come from your Seminar Instructor, while your faculty advisor generally aids in formulating bigger picture questions in once- or twice-per-quarter meetings. 

Our letters of recommendation are based on the quality of your thesis as a piece of argumentative writing, but also on the arc of your research and contributions to workshops during the year-long writing process. 

What makes a thesis project successful? Where can I find examples of past projects? 

https://english.uchicago.edu/undergraduate/honors-and-awards

You can find examples of past theses here.