Honors Requirements

Course Add Deadline
Students must register for ES 483 by the last day to add courses. Proposals are approved by the Department Chair.  Students must have a draft title, draft topic, and have identified their faculty sponsor and at least one thesis reader.

Last Friday September
Candidates must submit a formal thesis proposal to their faculty sponsor by the last Friday in September.  This proposal, approximately four pages, should identify the specific research question to be addressed, the evidence on which the analysis will be based and the complete research design explaining how this evidence will be used to address the identified question.

Second Friday in October 
If requested, students should submit a revised proposal and outline to their advisor.  The revised proposal should include a title page, draft table of contents and working references list, formatted per the Environmental Studies Department Style Guide.

October 25th (Last Wednesday in October)
Oral proposal defense (5-10 min). The proposal defense should include the candidates’ thesis title, review of literature, research question, and methods, and a proposed timeline for research and writing activities. This will be an opportunity to receive oral feedback from peers and faculty mentors. Within one week of the oral defense the candidate will receive written feedback (including feedback on content, formatting and timeline) from the Committee.

Last Day of Fall Classes
Students should submit to their faculty sponsor and reader by the last day of fall classes a summary of the work completed so far. This will typically include a preliminary literature review, a detailed formal research design with proposed deadlines that describes the specific remaining work to be accomplished during January and spring semester, and a working bibliography. The decision whether or not the student will be approved to convert their independent study or capstone project to an honors project in January and the spring semester will be made by the committee and the Department Chair before end of final exam period.

• Use standard thesis paper of at least 25% rag content (not regular printer paper). The ES Department will provide the paper.
• Mirrored margins with 1-1/2″ on the inside and 1″ on the top, bottom and outside of the page is required.
• Use Times New Roman  font at 12 point for all text, headings, and subheadings.
• Use 1.5 line  spacing your text, but table text can be single spaced. Also single space any footnotes and the literature cited section.
• The first level of headings should be in bold and caps. If you use subheadings, the second level of subheadings should be in bold but lower case (except for the first letter of each word excluding articles and prepositions), and the third level not bold but in italics, and the third level not bold but in italics (the first letter of each word excluding articles and prepositions should be capitalized).
• All headings should be left justified.
• The indent at the beginning of paragraphs should be the equivalent of five spaces.
• Use hanging indents for references (i.e., indent the second and subsequent lines of each reference listed in the literature cited section by two spaces.  Students using Endnote should select the Ecology Endnote style.  Single space each reference and add a blank line between each reference.  Students should consult with their thesis advisor about proper format for citations.  Policy students may choose to follow the guidelines in the document “Literature_Cited POLICY guidelines” and science students may choose to follow the guidelines in the document “Literature_Cited SCIENCE guidelines” available on the Google Drive in the folder labeled “ES Honors Thesis Guidelines.”
• Figures and tables should follow the format outlined in the “Figures Table style guide” document available on the Google Drive in the folder labeled “ES Honors Thesis Guidelines.”
• Complete the Title Page.  A title page template is available on the Google Drive in the folder labeled “ES Honors Thesis Guidelines.”
• On the back of the Title Page, include a centered Copyright Statement: “Copyright © YEAR by the Environmental Studies Department, Colby College. All rights reserved.”
• The order of the thesis section is: Title Page, Abstract, Acknowledgements, Table of Contents, [body of thesis], Personal Communications, Literature Cited, and Appendices.  The heading for each of these sections should be in bold, all caps, and left justified.  A blank row should be placed below each section heading.
• The Title Page should be followed by an Abstract and an Acknowledgements section, both of which should be printed on separate pages with nothing on the reverse side.
• Page numbering (except for the first page) should be centered at the bottom of the page.
• For the Abstract, Acknowledgements and Table of Contents, number using i. ii, iii, etc. For assistance with page numbering, please click here.
• The Table of Contents can be auto-generated in Microsoft Word. Table of Contents should: be single spaced, have numbers right justified, dots connecting text and numbers, indents for subheadings, and no bold headings.
• Print your thesis double sided.
• Collect the signature of each of the three committee members on the Title Page.

Submit four original copies of the honors thesis to Leslie Lima (Diamond 110) for archiving in the ES Department and for the student and faculty sponsor. The ES Department will arrange for thesis copies to be bound, and a bound copy will be sent to the student.  Also, upload your thesis in two forms, as a Word document and as a pdf, to the folder on the Google Drive labeled “ES Honors Thesis Submission,” which will be shared with you.

Honors Theses are also deposited and maintained in Digital Commons @ Colby, the libraries’ archives of select scholarly and creative works as well as the college’s special collections and archives.