Undergraduate Thesis Writing
Please fill out this form if you’re interested in writing a thesis under the supervision of Prof. Dias: https://forms.gle/3joGVnq7kb8ixSB76. Note that even though it says on the syllabus and in the student portal that my undergraduate thesis advising class is on Saturday, that is not true. The days and times for advising can be negotiated between the student and teacher, so there’s a lot of flexibility.
If you’re a 4th year student in the English Department and interested in the possibility of writing a graduation thesis, please come to Joseph Dias’ office (15-1015) to discuss the possibility. By signing up to write a graduation thesis, you are enrolling in an 8-credit, year-long “course.” It can be a rich, rewarding process and give you a great feeling of satisfaction when it’s completed.
To help you decide if you would really like to write a graduation thesis, Dias will show you theses that were written by his previous graduation thesis students. These are the titles of some of these dissertations:
* Exploring conflict resolution style in interpersonal relationships
Graduation Theses that Dias supervised in past years
* Sentiment analysis applied to news coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis on BBC
* Perceptions of happiness in Japan
* Exploring how bilinguals communicate differently when conversing in different languages: The secret of bilingualism
* A study of laughter and American political humor
* Content analysis of high school EFL textbooks used by Japanese and foreign teachers in Japan
* Takes on individualism and collectivism between the United States and * * Japan in terms of love
* Media portrayals of Muslims and Islam of the West and Japan
* Components of happiness in different cultures
* Differing self-concepts and attitudes toward self-disclosure in Chinese foreign students and Japanese students in Japan
* Gender differences in perceptions of role appropriacy between returnee and non-returnee students in a TV drama
* Comparison of the difficulties of medical translation between students of the humanities and medical students
* Comparative study of English education in Japan and Pakistan
* Comparing the identities of American and Japanese rappers and their listeners through music videos and interviews
* Perception and self-perceptions of returnees from the inside and outside: Negotiating returnee identity
* Cross-cultural business communication research: The circumstances of Japanese in multicultural companies
* Identifying and explaining cultural differences in post traumatic stress disorder
* How different presentation modes and speaker characteristics affect an audience’s views on social issues
Undergraduate research and thesis supervision will be conducted in the following areas:
- any aspect of Intercultural communication
- TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)
- ESP (English for Specific Purposes — particularly health care settings)
- CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning)
- Media Studies / Communications
- Discourse analysis or conversation analysis
- Curriculum and Program Development
Students will learn how to…
* read and understand the structure of academic articles.
* conduct library and Internet research to seek out and research a topic of interest.
* create a thesis statement.
* make a research plan.
* write an outline.
* gather data in a systematic way.
* use a vareity of analytic tools to interpret results
* write a coherent and comprehensible thesis.
* use academic conventions for citing sources and to properly quote, summarize and paraphrase.
By the end of April: Decide on a thesis and write a preliminary thesis statement
By the end of May: Prepare an outline after consulting the research literature in the area of research selected.
By the end of June: Complete a review of the literature and write an annotated bibliography.
By the end of July: Refine the thesis statement and outline, if necessary. A plan for the gathering of original data should be in place. [NOTE: Close consultation with your advisor is especially important at this point.]
By the beginning of September: Conduct the research investigation (i.e., collect original data) using the method(s) decided on after consulting with your advisor. Begin analyzing the data.
By the end of September: Complete the analysis of data. Submit a projected abstract (subject to later refinement).
By the end of October: Decide on section headings for the thesis and determine how your research findings fit into the literature. Submit a first draft of the thesis to your advisor.
By the end of November: Revise or add any parts of the thesis deemed necessary by your advisor.
By the second week of December: Submit your completed thesis, along with an abstract.
