International Graduate Program in Politics

Department of Politics

East China Normal University

MA Thesis Guidelines

Revised May 20, 2016

Introduction

The IGPP MA is a research-oriented program designed to prepare students to produce a high-quality academic thesis reflecting a significant graduate-level research project. This document provides guidelines for IGPP master’s-degree students beginning on their thesis projects in how to select a topic and an advisor, what basic requirements to meet, what procedures to follow, which key dates to lock up in memory and in what style and format to compose the thesis.

Basic Guidelines

  1. Length: 50 to 85 double-spaced, A4 pages. The bibliography and appendices are not included in the page count.
  2. Font: Times New Roman, 12 point.Black.
  3. Language: neat, idiomatic English. Ungroomed grammar and a swarm of typos are grounds for dismissal of the thesis from review The MA thesis may be written in Chinese; but the length requirement is different.
  4. Elements: Title page, academic integrity statement, table of contents, executive summary (1-3 pages), introduction, chapters, bibliography, appendices (when appropriate). Every thesis must discuss comprehensively either in the introduction or else in the first chapter the methods followed along with an appropriate delimitation of these methods from other plausible ways of having reached the same results.
  5. Style: APA. Students will be provided with electronic copies of relevant APA style guides.
  6. Originality: East China Normal University’s charter posits the requirement that all written works submitted for review by faculty must be at least 85% original. No plagiarism. In addition to that there must be no plagiarism, no more than 15% of your text may be quoted directly without paraphrase.If direct quotations make up more than this much of your text, your thesis will not be accepted for review. ECNU uses an electronic process to test this requirement. Students are required to sign and submit with their thesis an Academic Integrity Statement form in order to bind them legally to these requirements. The form is given in the Appendix to this document.

Key Steps

  1. Semester I: Discuss possible research topics in class and with your fellow students, starting no later than the middle of the first semester.
  2. Semester I, Early Semester II: Choose and meet with a thesis advisor. Formalize a relationship.
  3. June, Semester II: Submit a completed Thesis Topic Proposal form.
  4. October, Semester III: Proposal defense.
  5. March, Semester IV: Initial Credit, Language and Thesis Defense Assessment.
  6. April, Semester IV: Pre-Defense Review.
  7. May, Semester IV: Final Thesis Defense.
  8. June, Semester IV: Final Graduation Assessment Audit. Confirm that all the graduation requirements are fulfilled. And then you graduate, supposing all has been done by you as it should be and has been found acceptable in the eyes of the faculy and the administration.

Each step must be completed formally before the next step may be taken.

Step 1: Discuss Possible Topics

The IGPP Office will ask each student what their possible research interests are and begin the process of narrowing topics based on appropriateness, which is determined by weighing three factors: 1) is the topic suitable for an MA in politics? 2) Is the student well-prepared to complete the topic as a thesis? 3) Can we find a member of the faculty as an official thesis advisor to match the nature of this project? These discussions in the Level I Praxes course, required for all students in the first semester, in meetings with theProgram Director during office hours.

Step 2: Choose and Work with an Advisor

In their first two semesters students will choose a thesis and form a working relationship with this important person. The IGPP Office will assist students in making the connection. Students will provide brief biographies that will be sent to available thesis advisors who then choose from the students the best possible matches for their own interests and ways of doing things. This process might be repeated more than once as students meet with potential advisors to determine who fits best. Once a mutual decision between both the student and the advisor has been made to work together, the relationship will then be formalized in the MA Thesis Proposal Form. In some rare cases of mutual dissatisfaction, students may, at the discretion of the Program Director, change advisors.An appeal mayalso be made to the Program’s Academic Review Council (ARC).

Students must stay in regular contact with their thesis advisors. It is the student’s responsibility to invite a member of the faculty to join the thesis project, just as it is the student’s duty to solicit the advisor’s direction by sending drafts at regular intervals and revising, expanding and in all ways editing those drafts according to the advisor’s suggestions for each step of the process. It is the responsibility of the advisor to provide timely, useful responses that meet student needs, reflecting a highlevel of academic engagement in the project. Should disputes arise, either the advisor or the student can appeal to the Program Director or IGPP’s Academic Review Committee.

Step 3: Complete and Submit Proposal

The proposal start you on the process of determining a suitable topic and approach. You are not expected at this stage to present a polished work: we recognize that what is approved as your proposal might differ significantly from the thesis youdefend.

To make this proposal, complete the IGPP MA Thesis Topic Proposal Form in consultation with your thesis advisor. Your advisor will either approve what you propose as is or ask for changes as would seem appropriate to one of higher academic standing and of more experience than you have.

Step 4: Defend the Proposal

Between submitting the proposal and making its defense students have a whole lapse of time in which to develop and revise the original proposal as submitted into something bearing a discrete resemblance in content and in form to the thesis they intend to make their final product in this program. Students are required to complete an IGPP MA Proposal Defense Form that reflects these developments and, accordingly, extends discussion beyond that expected in the original proposal. The Proposal Defense Form must provide a more mature exposition of theoretical and methodological approaches, brief summaries of anticipated chapters, and so on, to help prepare the student to defend an appropriate thesis project and to help the Review Committee understand the work and comment meaningfully upon it.

The Review Committee will include at least three members of faculty: the student’s advisor; the IGPP Director; and a third member selected from faculty associated with the Program. In cases where the IGPP Director is also the student’s advisor, an additional member will be added. The purpose of the defense is formally defend the proposal. First, each student will provide the committee members with copies of the proposal at least a week in advance of the meeting. Second, each student will offer the committee a 5-to-10 minute introduction and overview of the proposal ahead of questions. Each member of the committee in turn is allowed to raise any reasonable concerns related to the proposal, and to solicit responses from the student. The Review Committee collectively assigns one of three possible outcomes: 1) pass; 2) pass contingent on revisions; and 3) fail. For those scoring “pass contingent on revisions,” the revised proposal must be submitted to the IGPP Office within five business days. For those scoring “fail,” the student, the student’s advisor, and the IGPP director will meet within five business days to discuss possible ways forward. However, it is incumbent upon the thesis advisor to only sign an MA Proposal Defense Form that can be reasonably expected to pass the review.

A week prior to the defense, student are expected to submit an electronic copy of the form to the IGPP Office. At the defense, students must bring at least four printed and stapled copies of the form—one for each review member and one for the student to consult during the review.

Step 5: Initial Graduation Assessment

The initial graduate assessment is a process designed to audit student progress towards completing degree requirements and to signal, if necessary, any adjustments or appropriate exceptions that need be made to help students reach graduation. This assessment is therefore scheduled wellahead of the final assessment. When instructed to do so early in the fourthor in the anticipated final semester, students will complete the IGPP MA Initial Graduation Assessment Form and submit it to the IGPP Office.

Step 6: Pre-Defense Review

The pre-defense review is designed to give students and their advisors an opportunity to review the thesis ahead of the final defense. In its format the review process is little different from the proposal review.The Review Committee also is the same or almost so: the student’s advisor, the IGPP Director and a third member selected from faculty associated with the Program. Where the IGPP Director happens also to be the student’s advisor an additional committee member will be summoned to attend. Students are required to submit an IGPP MA Pre-Defense Review Form along with an advanced draft of the thesis. Students will be assessed on whether they have met the basic requirements of style, formatting, elements of research, and so on. Likewise also on the content and the academic quality of the thesis: what is analyzed, how and how well. As before, the Committee’s consensus goes three ways: 1) pass; 2) pass with revisions; and 3) fail. Students who pass may continue working on their thesis in preparation for the final defense on the same lines as before. Students whopass with revisions are forewarned of specific causes for concern that, nevertheless, the Committee believes can be addressed before the final defense without involving the student in an unreasonable hurry. Students who fail this preliminary defense will not be allowed to attend the final defense that term, but will need instead to schedule another pre-defense session next semester.

A week before the pre-defense session, students submit an electronic copy of the form and the thesis draft to the IGPP Office. Students must bring at least four printed and stapled copies of the form and thesis draft to the pre-defense session: one for each review member and one for the student to consult during the review.

Step 7: Final Thesis Defense

After completing all the steps above, students submit a Final Thesis Defense Form along with the final draft of the thesis and request a final defense date. The Final Defense Form includes a detailed reportof the student’sanswers to concerns raised during the Pre-Defense Review.

While the format of the Final Thesis Defense is similar to preceding review steps, the composition of the Review Committee is different. The Committee consists of 3-5 members of faculty picked at the discretion of the graduate program’s board of supervisors. This number excludes the student’s thesis advisor. The Review Committee’s consensus goes one of three ways: 1) pass; 2) pass with revisions; and 3) fail. Students who earn a “pass” have passed; those who “pass with revisions” are required to make those revisions and submit the final thesis to the IGPP Office within five business days. Those who fail begin the process all over again from the pre-defense step upwards the next academic term.

A week prior to the defense, students are expected to submit an electronic copy of the form and the thesis draft to the IGPP Office. At the defense, students must bring at no fewer than four, preferably six, printed and stapled copies of the form and thesis draft: one for each review member and one for the student to consult during the review.

Step 8: Final Graduation Assessment

The Final Graduate Assessment is not limited to the thesis.The auditing process requires that students provide the IGPP Office with a bound copy of their thesis in keeping with ECNU Library requirements. These requirements will be provided to students once a grade of “pass” has been earned.

Appendix

A.1. Statement of Academic Integrity

A.2. MA Thesis Proposal Form

A.3. MA Proposal Defense Form (forthcoming)

A.4. MA Initial Graduate Assessment Form (forthcoming)

A.5. MA Pre-Defense Review Form (forthcoming)

A.6. MA Final Thesis Defense Form (forthcoming)

A.7. MA Final Graduate Assessment Form (forthcoming)

A.1. Statement of Academic Integrity

The International Graduate Program in Politics at East China Normal University is committed to the highest standards of academic honesty. Acts of academic dishonesty includebut are not limited toplagiarism (in drafts, outlines and examinations, as well as final papers), cheating, bribery, academic fraud, sabotage of research materials, the sale of academic papers, and the falsification of records. An individual who engages in these or related activities or who knowingly aids another who engages in them is acting in an academically dishonest manner and will be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with the relevant procedures of ECNU.

With my signature I attest that I understand and will abide by these rulesand that the work presented here in my name conforms fully to them.

______

SignatureDate

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