http://grad.mnsu.edu/programrequirements.html
http://grad.mnsu.edu/importantdates.html
Two semesters before graduation
- Complete English 673: Research and Theory of Technical Communication. (This required research course may be taken as early as the student’s first semester enrolled.)
- Determine a topic for your research project.
- Decide whether you plan to write a thesis or an alternate plan paper (APP).
- Select your committee. Ask technical communication faculty whose areas of specialty within technical communication match your research topic. One professor serves as thesis/APP director, and the other is termed second reader. (The student submits the thesis/APP proposal and various drafts to the second reader only after these documents have been approved by the director.)
- Write a research proposal for your thesis or APP.
- Receive approval of research proposal from your committee.
- Continue research of secondary sources to develop and/or revise your literature review.
- Begin collecting data.
- Working with your thesis or APP director, begin writing the first draft of the paper.
If you will be gathering data from people, such as interviews or questionnaires, you will also need permission from the Institutional Research Board before you collect any data. Write a proposal to conduct research with human participants. Once your adviser has approved the application, you will then submit it using the online proposal form.
- Complete your program requirements.
- Submit completed application for graduation to the College of Graduate Studies & Research (GSR) by the appropriate deadline.
- Continue writing and revising the thesis or APP. Allow two weeks for each committee member to read and comment on each draft, plus one week for you to revise the draft. (See more information below.)
- Get final approval of your thesis/APP from your committee no later than one week before the deadline to submit to the College of Graduate Studies and Research.
- Format your thesis/APP according to the GSR standards.
- Prepare the thesis or APP signature pages as specified by the Graduate College for committee members to sign. If you are an online student, print the pages and mail them to your adviser for signatures. (View sample thesis/APP title & signature pages.)
- Work with your committee to schedule the oral defense of the thesis or oral presentation of the APP no later than one week before the deadline to submit to the GSR.
- After the oral defense or presentation has been made, submit at least four copies of the completed thesis or APP with abstract and signed signature pages to the GSR for binding. (Refer to Graduate College website for cost of binding fees, which are paid by the student.)
- Submit to the Graduate College the Recommendation for Awarding Master’s Degree form signed by your committee and the Director of Graduate Studies in English by the appropriate deadline.
Important Information about Revisions
Expect to submit at least three drafts of your thesis/APP before your committee gives its final approval. Consult the appropriate deadlines from the College of Graduate Studies and Research, then work backwards to determine the best schedule for submitting drafts for review.
For example, suppose Jennifer wants to graduate in the Fall 2010 semester.