Description and Objectives

Named after the School’s first longstanding headmaster, this thesis option is available to selected students in the senior class.  Each invited student who elects to join the thesis program chooses to work with a faculty advisor throughout the academic year on a shared topic of interest, producing a substantial written work (30-40 pages) that the student defends before a three-person faculty panel (20-30 minute presentation followed by 20-30 minutes of Q&A).

Textbooks

Outline of Topics Covered

The course will cover a variety of topics including in-depth research, composition, style, and oratory.  Students will learn to organize a complex and extended body of research and argument under a careful and concise thesis in thirty to forty pages.  They will practice some aspects of the dual arts of dialectic and rhetoric, and they will be given practical lessons in public speaking and personalized critiques of their own three formal (and several other informal) speeches.

Course Requirements

Advisor Meetings: Each senior thesis writer must meet at least weekly with his advisor.

Grading:  Senior thesis writers will receive quarter grades from the director; these grades will be determined in consultation with the mentor.  The semester exam grade will be the average of the 1^stand 2^nd quarter grades; the third quarter grade will be for the second Colloquy; the fourth quarter grade will be the grade assigned to the final paper; the final exam grade will be the grade assigned to the oral presentation and defense of the thesis.

The Day-to-Day Schedule: Senior thesis writers will meet as a class during C Block period in Rm. 16 (or in the library as announced) each day throughout the year.  The class is often a proctored time set aside for work on the thesis.  Students must have a plan to use that 40-minute period well each day and to do additional homework each night and at least one day of the weekend throughout the year.

Successful Students

The successful senior thesis writer will dedicate regular time to research, writing, and preparation.  He will be prompt and regular for his meetings with his mentor, and he will be quick to follow up on the suggestions made by both the mentor and the director.  He will seek help and advice from both his mentor and director in order to craft an excellent thesis and presentation.  If the senior thesis writer does all of these things, he will be a Jackson Scholar by May, and—what is more—he will have matured his diligence, his thinking, his writing, and his public speaking, all of which will serve him well as a citizen and leader wherever his professional and personal life may take him.

Additional Resources

Calendar

September: Preparation classes and individual research; preliminary note card checks; From topic to thesis; Primary and secondary sources: research, bibliography; Note-taking: note cards, outlining; Plagiarism: citations; Writing: invention, organization, style

September 24: Thesis Proposal: 1 page statement of project: that with which the project is concerned and what the project is to achieve; Bibliography Proposal (1-2 page list of sources for the project); both due to mentor and director.

October 1: Note Card Set #1; Bibliography Cards: due to mentor and director.

October 8: Revised Bibliography and Added Bibliography Cards; Note Card Set #2: due to mentor and director.

October 15: Note Card Set #3: due to mentor and director.

October 22: Note Card Set #4: due to mentor and director.

October 28: Outline of Paper; Note Card Set #5: due to mentor and director.

November 8: Draft of First 15 Pages (Full Comments from Mentor Due by Dec 8): due to mentor and director.

December: Colloquy #1 (Scheduled from Nov 30th through Dec 10th): practice oral exam in class with colloquy team, i.e. fellow students (mentor welcome but not required); select and schedule final panel; schedule Colloquy #2 with mentor, panelists and director.

January 7: Full Draft Due of Thesis (30-40 pages): due to mentor and director (Full comments from Mentor due Jan. 24).

January 13: Note Card Set #6 (and Any Additional Bibliography Cards): due to mentor and director.

February 7: Revised Paper: due to mentor and director. (Full comments from Mentor due Feb. 23).

February: Colloquy #2 (Scheduled from Feb 1 through Feb 23): Mentor and Director should consider the revised paper and the second colloquy in outlining final changes to thesis in preparation for March 9 due date of final draft.

March 18: Final Paper: due to mentor and director.

March: Preparation for Oral Exam; Public Speaking; The Art of Conversation; Aristotle’s Topics; Learning How to Score a Talk.

March 28: Scored Talk Draft Due (Corrected As Needed): due to mentor and director.

April: Oral Thesis Defense After School from 3:30-5pm (Scheduled from April 11 through May 13)

May 20: Word Doc of Final Paper emailed to Mr. Hatch formatted for printing.

Summer Assignment

The senior thesis writer must complete the reading list suggested by his advisor and approved by the Jackson Scholars Director.