Thesis Format

WRITTEN THESIS

Check out these examples of outstanding honors theses produced by previous Mac Bio majors:

Caitlin Baker '12: Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of mite harvestmen in the Wet Tropics of Australia 

Tijana Martinov '12: A mast cell-mediated acute model of vulvar hypernociception 

Carolina Mora Solono '09: Inflammatory and thermal hypernociception in ND4 and C57BL/6 mice: A possible role for mast cells in initiating inflammatory pain

Format

The contents of the thesis should include, in this order:

• Title Page 

  • Thesis title

  • Your name

  • The words “An Honors Thesis Submitted to the Biology Department at Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA”

  • Your Macalester honors advisor's name and department

  • Date submitted

• Abstract (on its own page)

• Table of Contents

• Preface (optional)

• Acknowledgements

• Thesis Narrative

  • Introduction - including extensive contextualizing literature review based on >30 sources 

  • Methods and Materials

  • Results

  • Discussion

• Literature Cited 

• Appendices (if needed) - these may be the equivalent of Supplemental Online Materials, including additional data tables, figures, etc.

Tables and figures should be embedded in appropriate pages of the thesis and described with appropriate legends.

Macalester's formatting guidelines for binding honors theses

For binding purposes, when printing double-sided left and right margins must be different; the edge that will be bound must have a wider margin:

• Left margin - 1-1/2 inches

• Right margin - 1 inch

• Top and bottom margins - 1 inch each (page number should not print outside this margin)

Note that Macalester encourages honors students to submit their honors theses to the College's Digital Commons; however, if your findings will likely be published at a later date, you need to be sure that your thesis remains inaccessible to outside researchers. Consult with your committee about how to handle this issue.

ORAL PRESENTATION

The oral component of your thesis has two components:

PUBLIC PRESENTATION: On the day of your thesis presentation, you will have 30 minutes to communicate your work through a talk (illustrated with slides) and Q&A. The talk should be pitched such that anyone from the Macalester community who attends can get an idea of the motivation for the work and the general nature and significance of your findings. You should practice a draft version of your talk with your Mac advisor ahead of time and expect to make significant revisions prior to the public presentation. If your primary research advisor is off-campus, you must practice your talk ahead of time with them as well.

THESIS DEFENSE: At a separate time, you will meet your honors thesis committee for ~60 minutes to discuss your work. You should be prepared to field substantive questions about your approach, your understanding of the intellectual context of your work, and the significance of your findings. Questions may be based on your oral presentation and also your written thesis, which your committee received a minimum of two weeks prior to your defense day. At this time, your committee will share feedback on your written thesis; you must incorporate this feedback through revision prior to submitting the thesis to the Academic Programs and Advising Office.