Page 64 - DISSERTATION AND THESIS HANDBOOK 2017 -2020

II. WHAT IS A CANDIDATE? WHAT ARE A CANDIDATE’S
OBLIGATIONS?

A graduate student achieves candidacy when he or she has passed the master’s
comprehensive examination and completed all course work prescribed for the master’s
degree. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure that the thesi is completed with
academic integrity and excellence. It is vital to attribute properly all work that is cited in
the thesis. Plagiarism, even an unintentional infraction, is a serious offense.

If students have any uncertainty about proper citation, they should consult the overview
of plagiarism offered at the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (http://
owl.english.purdue.edu). A candidate must ensure that the thesis demonstrates
adherence to grammatical and formatting conventions. Candidates should proofread,
copyedit, and format their work carefully.

If students need help with writing, they may visit the Smith Vidal Literacy and Language
Center. The master’s program in English offers ENGL 760, Advanced Composition, for
master’s or doctoral students from any discipline to work on writing skills.

Finally, it is the candidate's duty to be familiar with the dissertation process, to stay in
close contact with advisors, and to meet due dates in a timely manner. A candidate will
have a dissertation advisory committee and a dissertation examining committee. These
two committees help to keep our standards high.

III. DEFINITION OF OTHER TERMS

The following offers definitions of other terms associated with the thesis process.

A. Thesis Advisory Committee
A thesis advisory committee consists of faculty members who have agreed to
oversee the project and whose signatures appear on the proposal. The chair must
be from the Bowie State University Department that represents the candidate‘s
area of focus.

B. Responsibilities of the Chair of the Thesis Advisory
Committee and the Workings of the Committee

A candidate may approach a faculty member within his or her department and
ask the faculty member to chair the thesis advisory committee. Generally, a
student has worked with that faculty member in the past. The chair is
responsible for the following:
a. Seeing that the candidate receives regular and continuing guidance in his
or her research, including timely response from all committee members
to work on the document submitted to them by the candidate;

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