COML 680 Thesis and Project Requirements

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COML 680 Thesis and Project Requirements
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Stages of Thesis or Project

•  1. Establishing the preliminary focus of the
  study. 
• 2. Finding a mentor and discussing preliminary
  ideas. 
• 3. Agreeing on topic and signing and submitting
  Mentor Agreement. 
• 4. Selecting research methods. 
• 5. Developing research and collecting data. 
• 6. Ordering the data. 
• 7. Analyzing the data. 
• 8. Writing it up. 
• 9. Preparing and making oral presentation.

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Thesis

• The thesis option for COML 680 is designed for
  students who want to focus on a particular area
  of research in which they want to explore and
  develop a depth of understanding and scholarship.
  It is highly recommended for those students who
  are considering doctoral work, careers in
  higher-education or the communication
  industries. 
• Your thesis is the culminating experience of your
  academic work and preparation for the
  responsibilities of the professional world or
  further graduate education. Therefore, your
  thesis should represent the very best of your
  work. 
• For your thesis, you are expected to supervise
  yourself under the guidance of a professor/mentor
  in the production of high quality, creative work.
  Your thesis should demonstrate serious effort in
  terms of the amount of new information gathered
  and an advanced, in-depth understanding beyond
  the level of expertise previously gained from
  course work. In the thesis, you will bring
  together much of what you have been learning in
  your classes (both theory and practice).

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Thesis Guidelines

• Select a topic in communication and write a
  thesis (not less than 30, nor more than 75 pages,
  including your bibliography). The thesis must
  meet all the requirements regarding content as
  listed in the structure and format sections of
  this guide. In addition, your literature review
  must have a minimum of twenty-five sources. The
  sources must include at least ten from scholarly
  professional journals from the discipline of
  communication. Web sources should be carefully
  limited and must be based primarily on scholarly
  professional journals.

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Thesis Guidelines

• The thesis will be written under the guidance of
  a faculty mentor/chair. Your mentor can be any
  member of the regular faculty at Gonzaga. It is
  crucial that your mentor be familiar with the
  area you would like to research, the method you
  would like to use, and the specific requirements
  of your assignment. It is your obligation to
  share all of this with your mentor.
• Mentoring A deliberate pairing of a more skilled
  or experienced person with a lesser skilled or
  experienced one, with the agreed- upon goal of
  having the lesser skilled person grow and develop
  specific competencies.

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Thesis Requirements

• Step 1

• Remember

• Select a possible thesis topic and a faculty
  mentor/chair who will provide some guidance in
  your work. An approach to topic selection might
  grow out of your particular emphasis within your
  major.

• Your Mentor is not responsible for supervising
  you, but rather to assist you with some expertise
  about your topic. Your Mentor will help you sort
  through your ideas and suggest research
  strategies once you settle on a topic. Your
  Mentor will also be asked to review a draft of
  your work before you submit the final draft and
  sign the thesis as a reader. 

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Thesis Requirements

• Step 2

• Step 3

• You must write a five page proposal of your
  thesis, including what your proposed topic is,
  why this topic is important to you, how this
  topic will be explored, the method you intend to
  use to collect your research, and a minimum of
  ten source bibliography to support your ideas
  written in correct APA form. Of course you will
  confer with your Mentor before you write the
  proposal.

• 3. You must secure your Mentors signature on
  your proposal before you submit it to the 680
  Professor for advancement to thesis. Without the
  signature of your Mentor you will not be able to
  proceed with your work.

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Thesis Requirements

• FAQ

• Important

• You may do a thesis based on a paper you have
  written for a previous course. In fact, scholars
  often extend their ideas by stretching previous
  works. Just be sure your topic is substantial
  enough. Should you wish to build your thesis on
  a paper you completed in another course, you must
  submit a copy of that paper to your Mentor at the
  time of the proposal submission, including how
  you intend to build on that paper. The complete
  proposal, Mentors signature, and former paper
  will then be submitted to your 680 professor.

• For students who are considering doctoral study
  the thesis is highly recommended.
• Read the next slide on plagiarism

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Plagiarism

• You would not want to be accused of stealing a
  car or a wallet, nor do your friends want theirs
  stolen. Similarly, you do not want to be accused
  of stealing someone's words or ideas, nor do
  writers want theirs stolen. To use someone's
  words or ideas in your writing without letting
  your readers know where they came from is a form
  of theft called plagiarism. 
• You can avoid plagiarizing if you are careful to
  do the following 
• Put the words of an author in quotation marks,
  record them accurately, and follow the quotation
  with a citation that indicates you source. Also
  use quotation marks even when you borrow a phrase
  or a single, special word from another person.
  Follow the style of citation required by either
  MLA or APA, but do not combine these styles. 
• Write a summary or paraphrase in your own words
  and sentence patterns, and follow it with a
  citation. Just changing some words does not make
  a paraphrase the ideas must be digested,
  understood, and written in your own words. 

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Plagiarism

• In addition, it is wise to lead into your
  quotation or paraphrase by using the author's
  name. For example, you can write, "According to
  Deborah Tannen," followed by a quotation from
  Tannen or your paraphrase or summary of Tannen's
  ideas. Be careful not to plagiarize your
  professor or colleagues, as well. If you borrow
  words or ideas from anyone - professors,
  students, best friends - be sure to give them
  credit by quoting and citing them, or
  paraphrasing and citing. They will thank you for
  it. 
• And a final note concerning plagiarism and the
  Internet 
• To avoid plagiarism, cite the source of anything
  that you borrow from the Internet, including
  material from Web pages, e-mail, and newsgroups.
  These materials are the words and ideas of people
  who deserve to be given credit. 
• For more information on plagiarism, go to the
  following web site where much of this material
  comes from 
• http//cal.bemidji.msus.edu/wrc/Handouts/avoidPlag
  .html

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Thesis Requirements

• Your thesis and literature review must include a
  minimum of twenty-five sources, ten of which must
  come from Communication or Leadership scholarly
  professional journals. Do not be dependent upon
  web sites. It may be necessary for you to use
  inter-library loans, so leave your self plenty of
  time. GET STARTED EARLY WITH INTER-LIBRARY LOANS.

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Demonstrate

• As 680 is the culmination of your years of study,
  your thesis should demonstrate your best of the
  following 
• Research efforts 
• Analytical efforts 
• Synthesis of ideas and
  perspectives 
• Writing ability
• Oral presentation
  ability

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Additional Responsibility

• The Program Assistant in the Department of
  Communication and Leadership Studies will assist
  you in fees, signatures and copying of your final
  thesis for submission, binding and publication.
  A copy of your thesis will remain on file in the
  Department of Communication and Leadership
  Studies.

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Developing A Thesis

• Thesis comes from an ancient Greek word that
  means stand or position. Your thesis is the
  stand or position you take on an issue. In a
  thesis you generally state your thesis at the
  beginning of the paper and then spend the
  remaining pages showing why the position is
  correct or reasonable.
• A thesis is broken into a series of chapters.
  Each chapter of a thesis leads directly to the
  following chapter. A thesis must be written with
  good transitions from chapter to chapter.
  

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Chapter Structure

• Begin with

• Chapter One

• TITLE PAGE (See sample)
• ABSTRACT (An abbreviated version or a condensed
  version of the entire project including the
  nature of the research, the methods used, the
  results of the study, the relationship of the
  results to previous research findings and
  directions for further research.) 
• TABLE OF CONTENTS (with page numbers)

• INTRODUCTION THE PROBLEM AND DEFINITIONS OF
  TERMS USED 
• THE PROBLEM
• Importance of the study
• Statement of the problem
• DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED
• ORGANIZATION OF REMAINING CHAPTERS

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Chapter Structure

• Chapter Two

• Chapter Three

• REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
• (This may be broken into several sections) 
• PHILOSOPHICAL ASSUMPTIONS AND/OR THEORETICAL
  BASIS
• THE LITERATURE (Framework for the Study)
• RESEARCH QUESTION AND/OR HYPOTHESIS (that have
  emerged from the Lit. Review)

• SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
• THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY
  
• METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY Subjects, Procedures,
  Data Treatment, Justification

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Chapter Structure

• Chapter Four

• Chapter Five

• THE STUDY (This is where you canalize your data)
•  DATA ANALYSIS
•  RESULTS OF THE STUDY (What was discovered?)
•  DISCUSSION (What does it mean?)

• SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 
• Conclusion requires a connection back to both
  the theoretical and philosophical foundations and
  the literature review.
• LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
• FURTHER STUDY OR RECOMMENDATIONS

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Chapter Structure

• Last Sections

• Note on Drafts

• References
• Appendix

• Dont let your first draft be your last. Nobody
  is that good a writer. Authors of college papers
  (and many others) may delay the writing stage --
  which we said you should start right away --
  because they fear they are not that good a
  writer. This can often lead to writers block.
  Give yourself permission to write poorly. Just
  crank things out. It is in revision that the
  work will get cleaned-up, and inconsistencies or
  gaps can be clarified!

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Mentor Agreement Forms

• Available in the Forms Tab on our website
• www.gonzaga.edu/coml

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Proposal

• Your five page maximum proposal must answer the
  following questions. 
• 1. YOUR NAME 
• 2. THESIS 
• This section must contain the following 
• a. A clearly stated research question or
  testable hypothesis that grows out of
  communication and leadership theory. 
• b. A clearly delineated research method that
  allows the researcher(s) to address the research
  question effectively by gathering primary source
  data. 

• c. A bibliography of no less than ten
  substantive sources (journal articles, books,)
  that would help the researcher(s) to situate the
  research question in the context of previous work
  in the field. APA style is required. 
• d. A description of how data will be analyzed
  appropriate to the research method, the research
  question and the data gathered. 
• Note All Theses and Projects will include a
  public presentation that elaborates on the work
  and provides an oral defense of the thesis. See
  slide.

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Literature Review

• A literature review asks you to find specific
  information in the communication and leadership
  literature, to review the research and to write a
  review about it. A literature review has two
  main purposes to summarize research and to
  evaluate it. Unlike a term paper, literature
  reviews require as much as possible the review of
  primary sources -- a document or manuscript of an
  original published report or research. Secondary
  sources often write about primary sources but may
  leave out important details in the process of
  condensing.

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Literature Review

•  A literature review is a crucial part of the
  research process. First, it enables us to
  understand the current status of knowledge on the
  topic and second, before you can conduct original
  research, you must know what scholarship already
  exists on the topic and evaluate the findings so
  that you can formulate new research questions to
  guide your study. 
• There are two basic types of literature reviews
  exemplary and exhaustive. An exemplary, or
  representative literature review presents only
  key references to the reader to acquaint him or
  her with the representative works that relate to
  the research study. Key references are those
  directly influencing the study or project being
  proposed or conducted.

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Literature Review

• An exhaustive literature review is comprehensive.
  The writer attempts to find all the information
  pertinent to a topic.  
• For your thesis you will be writing an exemplary
  review with a minimum of twenty-five sources. The
  sources must include at least ten from
  professional scholarly journals. You may use a
  balance of primary and secondary sources.

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Lit. Review Format

• Introduction - Orient the reader to the subject. 
• Summary of Literature - Summarize the literature
  you have discovered. Make sure this flows well
  and is not choppy. Perhaps the best way is to
  select one of the following organizational
  patterns 
• A. Topical order. 
• B. Chronological order. 
• C. Problem-cause-solution order. 
• D. General to specific or specific to
  general order. 
• E. Comparison-and-contrast order.

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Lit. Review Format

• Critical Evaluation -- Here you critique the
  validity or propose unanswered research questions
  from your review. From this critique your review
  becomes a piece of scholarship. 
• Thesis - Your literature review should lead
  directly to your thesis statement. It is not a
  personal opinion or belief but a proposition you
  must demonstrate with evidence from the research
  literature.

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Masters Project

• From time to time, mid-career professionals
  choose to do a Communication Project. As a COML
  student, you have that option if the
  circumstances warrant. This decision will be
  made through discussion with your advisor. If
  this is the choice, you will be asked to complete
  a Project Proposal 5-6 pages with minimum of ten
  item bibliography, an integrative Communication
  Leadership Philosophy statement and a completed
  Project (i.e., that applies the Communication
  Leadership Philosophy to a specific context.) The
  Project is expected to reflect on your entire
  Master's Program and contain documents and
  analysis of your experience.

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Masters Project

• The student's advisor is considered the Projects
  Director/Mentor, and at least one other faculty
  member is invited to be a second (or third)
  reader. From time to time, students may choose
  another Mentor from among the faculty that they
  have studied with in their MA Program. It is
  expected that all COML students will select a
  topic that reflects their preparation in
  communication or communication and leadership.
  Topics that are exclusively leadership, will not
  be acceptable in the COML Program. Please read
  the full description below. 

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Masters Project

• For your Thesis or Project you are expected to
  supervise yourself under the guidance of a
  professor/mentor in the production of high
  quality and creative work. Your Thesis or
  Project should demonstrate serious effort in
  terms of the amount of new information gathered
  and an advanced, in-depth understanding beyond
  the level of expertise previously gained from
  course work
• The difference between a thesis or project will
  be in how the research is expressed, not in the
  rigor of the project.

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Masters Project

• The Thesis or Project requires that you will
  bring together much of what you have gleaned from
  your communication and leadership classes (both
  theory and practice. This should be no problem.
  Think about it, during your MA Program here you
  have read perhaps 625,000 words or more about
  communication and nearly as much about
  leadership. Your Thesis or Project therefore
  should reflect knowledge, insight and subtlety
  beyond the layman, beyond the common sense.

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Masters Project

• While a thesis requires scholarly research (or
  creative scholarship), a project involves the
  application of communication theory or other
  communication knowledge. The faculty view the
  thesis or project as essentially a thesis with an
  additional production element and it is essential
  for students to understand this. The production
  element might include a video, new technology, an
  extensive web site or a CD-ROM. The student may
  design and create materials for a persuasive
  campaign, a semester long course in
  communication, a broadcast documentary, a
  connected series of multimedia or web materials,
  or other practical communication products. The
  project must include an essay explaining how
  communication theory or other knowledge was
  applied in the products design and production.

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Project Possibilities

• Interest in Teaching?

• Interested in Media Literacy?

•  Project Demonstrate a thorough understanding of
  issues in communication pedagogy followed by an
  individually tailored portfolio of syllabi,
  readings, learning activities, ethical questions,
  for teaching communication courses at the college
  level. This project would be accomplished by
  completing an internship in teaching or Directed
  Study on Communication Education.

• Project Upon completion of COML 516, one might
  create and execute a media literacy promotional
  campaign to raise awareness of media and culture.
  Students would also take a directed readings
  course on media literacy or perhaps an internship
  with a media literacy organization like the
  Northwest Alliance for Responsible Media or one
  in your community.

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Project Possibilities

• Social Change?

• Training and Consulting?

• Project After reading the foundational
  literature, students could develop and implement
  a campaign to mobilize a community action
  program. Again, it would be advised that this be
  combined with an internship with an appropriate
  organization.

• Project A developed portfolio of training
  materials and consulting strategies for working
  in organizational and adult learner settings.
  COML 511 would be required and an Internship
  recommended.

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Resource

• Guidelines for the writing and preparing thesis
  and projects are explained in Chapter Eleven of
  Rubin, et. al. (2005). Communication research
  Strategies and sources (6th ed.).

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Thesis and Project Orals

• The orals are a chance to discuss your findings
  with an audience of faculty and peers.
• While they are limited in scope, there may be a
  suggestion for some revision after the oral
  presentation and before final submission of your
  thesis or project.
• Powerpoint presentations are not required.
• You may invite guests. Other students and faculty
  in the program will be invited to attend.
• If you are a distance student we will coordinate
  a teleconference forum to accommodate you.
• If you are regional student plan to present on
  campus.

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Follow Thesis Chapter guidelines (slide 15-18) to
write the project. The MAJOR difference is in how
you write Chapter 4

• Chapter 4 guideline is the next slide

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Chapter 4 for Project

• THE PROJECT/PRODUCT (In this chapter you build
  upon your research and theory to create a
  product/project that demonstrates the practical
  aspect of your work) 
• PROJECT/ PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
• EXAMPLES OF THE WORK, (This may be displayed and
  discussed here and/or in the Appendix) 
• DISCUSSION