Page 86 - DISSERTATION AND THESIS HANDBOOK 2017 -2020

• developing and organizing the subject matter to clearly reflect the content and
analysis of your arguments and/or hypotheses;
• assuring that the quality of data, evidence, and logic reasoning presented is
consistent with theories, principles, and methodologies of the discipline;

• assuring that the formatting, writing, editing, text, layout, and appearance of
illustrations and bibliographic pages are of the highest quality;
• certifying the accuracy of references and citations, including (in most cases) the
original sources;
• securing copyrights for the thesis and securing appropriate permission to use
copyrighted material; and
• meeting all deadlines

Your committee chairperson and committee members’
responsibilities include

• approving your topic and methodology for the
thesis;
• reading and offering constructive criticism on
drafts of the thesis related to the quality of your
research, your reasoning, your editorial and
linguistic quality, and your references and citations;
• guiding and advising your work in reference to its
organization and content;

• helping you prepare your manuscript for defense
and publication; and
• assisting you in meeting the deadlines for
submission.

The Twenty-first Century Thesis in English Studies

English Studies is primarily the study of texts. A text contains meaning which is
available to a reader’s interpretation. The following suggests the wide range of possible
approaches to texts. Texts are cultural products that can be “read.”

• Trauma in African American Women’s Literature 1980-2000
• An Ecocritical Reading of Zora Neale Hurston’s Dust Tracks on the Road
• A Postcolonial Reading of Langston Hughes’ The Ways of White Folks
• Octavia Butler’s Examination of Religious Values in the United States
• Black Female Agency and Alice Walker’s Construction of Black Womanhood in
The Color Purple
• Incited to Rhyme: GLBT Rappers and Their Influence on American Poetry
• The Hip Hop Aesthetic and the Films of John Singleton
• Child Abuse in the Iterations of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre

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