This web page is devoted to giving WISR students assistance on how to do their Senior Thesis (for the BA), their MA Thesis or their PhD Dissertation.

Students at WISR are strongly encouraged, and indeed, expected to choose a thesis topic that has strong personal interest for them. Unlike many programs, we do not want our students to choose topics just because they sound "esoteric" or scholarly. All theses at WISR involve significant research and effort, but we emphasize substance over form, encourage students to write in their own voice (i.e., take ownership for their ideas and research and write some sentences that begin with "I . . ."), and strongly urge that each student considers how her or his thesis may contribute to the thinking and/or practical efforts of others in the larger community.

Generally, a student begins his or her thesis only after having finished all, or almost all other academic requirements at WISR. We recommend that each student writes a thesis proposal in order to more clearly think about his/her thesis topic and how he/she wants to approach their thesis. The proposal is not a formal contract, but it is a way of stimulating discussion with faculty and others who might be asked by the student to serve on their Graduation Review Board. The proposal can be a basis for helping the student to think further about his or her thesis topic and approach, as well as a way of informing others about the student's tentative intentions for the thesis. Students almost always change the details of their thesis plans, sometimes very significantly, during the course of their thesis research. The proposal is only a tentative starting point. We recommend that each student writes a short, three to five-page proposal. The most important part of the proposal is the first one to two pages, where the student articulates the main questions she/he wants to learn more about during the thesis research. We ask our students to come up with questions that they genuinely feel they don't yet know the answer(s) to, but that are very important to them, and to some other people, as well. We tell our students that we want them to use the thesis to "learn more about" the questions rather than to say they are to "answer" the questions. They may or may not come up with what they feel comfortable calling "answers." They may instead come up with new questions, better questions, tentative formulations, possible practical directions, and the like. Too often in other institutions, people ask questions that are easily answered, or formulate easily tested hypotheses, but the "answers" provide little in the way of new and important insights, and little in the way of significant contributions to community improvements, professional practices or social change.

Theses can take many different forms at WISR. Some students do a combination of literature review with interviews with experts and/or informed community members to study in-depth a topic of personal interest that will also be helpful to others. Some students use their theses to research and evaluate a community project or innovative program, to find out what did and didn't work, and to make recommendations for how they and others can proceed with this project (or others like it) in the future. Some students use their theses to do the background research for planning new projects, programs, or even new organizations they are wanting to start. Very often, the thesis will draw on the student's previous knowledge and experience, in part at least. Some students initiate an action project and research the process of initiating and the resulting insights from doing the project for their theses. Other theses are even more distinctive and don't fit into any of these categories.

In writing theses, students are encourage to gather information from others and/or from their own experiences that provide rich examples and detailed stories, so that for each student, the thesis is more that merely an articulation of abstract theories or recommendations. We tell our students that theories and conclusions have more meaning and are more useful, if they are also illustrated by a variety of specific examples.

Most theses at WISR involve doing some review of the literature--not to "prove" that the student has read a lot of what others have written on a particular subject, but more substantively, so that the student can build on the strengths and limitations of research and inquiry done by others. Also, the literature review helps the reader of the thesis get a sense of landscape of the research in the area. Students are encouraged to convey a sense of the emphases in existing research, as well as a sense of what variety there is. What are the strengths in existing research, and what are the limitations and weaknesses? And, how does the student's research "fit in"--i.e., add on, contrast to, augment, and/or build on previous research efforts. And indeed, how do these research efforts connect to practical and action-oriented efforts?

It is expected that all theses at WISR will involve some original research--some original data gathering and investigation by the student. This usually means that the student will gather and use data based on some peoples' first-hand experiences. Often, students do some of their own participation-and-observation in their field of study, perhaps along with drawing on some previous observations, as well as conducting interviews others to find out what light they can shed on the student's central research questions. Usually, the research methods are not quantitative in nature, nor do they typically involve highly structured questionnaires, surveys or experiments. WISR emphasizes action-research and qualitative research, and students are given help in learning how to do "messy" research where the specific research methods evolve over time during the course of the research itself. As part of WISR's action-research requirement, students are expected to write a "Research Methodology" chapter in their theses. This chapter includes no only descriptions of the details of the student's research activities and methods (e.g., how they interviewed people, how the interviews went, what felt comfortable, what didn't go so well), but also the rationales for the methods chosen, and the student's critical reflections on the strengths and limitations of his or her own research methods. And importantly, the student should discuss how they would do the research differently if they were to do it over--if he/she had the time or resources to do further research, what would he/she do to improve on this research effort?

Some of the formal procedures pertaining to the student's Graduation Review Board are discussed on pages 17 and 18 of the current catalogue.