The Thesis Committee
The student's thesis committee shall (at a minimum) consist of the student's primary research advisor, a second reader from the Sweet Briar campus, and an outside reader who is an expert in the research area who works outside the Sweet Briar community. An additional committee member from on or off campus may also be included with approval of the primary advisor.

The Thesis Paper
A complete draft of the thesis paper must be finished at least two weeks in advance of the scheduled thesis defense (and at least four weeks before the end of classes) in order to give committee members time to read and comment upon it. It is the student's responsibility to provide electronic or paper copies of the thesis to committee members, according to their requests. The cover page of the final copy of the thesis must be signed by all members of the committee. It may be most convenient for the signing to take place at the thesis defense.

The Thesis Defense
The date of the defense must be at least two weeks before the end of classes.
The student shall give a talk that conveys the goals, methods, and findings of her senior thesis research. This talk should be open to the public, and interested students and faculty should be encouraged to attend. All members of the thesis committee will attend the talk in person or by teleconferencing. At the end of the student's presentation, public attendees may ask questions. When this question-and-answer session is finished, the public will be asked to leave while the student and committee remain.

The committee will then ask the student questions to examine the extent of her knowledge on her research topic and discuss changes that need to be made to the thesis paper. When this process is finished, the student will be asked to step out of the room while the committee discusses the quality of her work and decides upon the level of honors that she has earned. When this decision has been made, the student will be brought back into the room and informed of the level of honors to be awarded upon completion of the thesis paper.

After the thesis defense, the student has one week to make the changes to the paper that were suggested by her committee members. She should then submit a copy of the paper to her primary advisor for final approval.

Three copies of the final, approved version of the paper must be completed and submitted along with signed cover pages to the Honors Program no later than the Friday following the last day of classes.

Thesis Grades and Criteria for Honors Designations
In order to qualify for honors, the grade earned by the student for her thesis course credits must be at least a B+. Beyond that stipulation, there is no necessary correlation between the grade on the thesis and the honors designation. The grade for the thesis credits is determined by the faculty advisor, whereas the honors designation is determined by the thesis committee.

Honors: The student has completed the minimum requirements for the thesis to the satisfaction of the committee. The quality of the writing and research is decent and acceptable. The work goes beyond what would be expected of a typical non-honors senior research project but is clearly at the undergraduate level.

High Honors: The student has gone beyond the minimum requirements for completion of the thesis. The quality of the data, analysis, and writing is high. For the undergraduate level, this work is considered excellent.

Highest Honors: The student has far exceeded the minimum requirements for completion of the thesis. The depth and/or breadth of research is noteworthy, and the quality of data, analysis, and writing is exceptional. She has produced a paper that, with some adaptation, would be suitable for publication in a professional journal or other equivalent forum. The work is outstanding and clearly goes beyond the undergraduate level.

PHILOSOPHY
Guidelines for Senior Honors Thesis Defense

Purpose
The Senior Honors thesis defense is intended to allow philosophy majors who write a Senior Honors thesis to present and defend their arguments to fellow scholars, colleagues, and students. It also provides the thesis committee members the opportunity to assess the author’s ability to defend orally and develop further the arguments presented in writing in the thesis.

Procedure
The thesis defense can take two forms: public or private. A public defense involves all faculty members of the thesis committee, and is open to all members of the Sweet Briar community. A private defense is limited to thesis committee members. Whether the defense is public or private is determined by the student in consultation with her thesis adviser.

In both forms, the defense will run for approximately one hour and will include an opening introduction from the thesis author, followed by a series of questions from thesis committee members. Should the student wish to have a public defense, the defense will be opened to questions coming from the floor after the thesis committee members have completed their questioning.

When the defense is complete, the author (and audience members, in the case of a public defense) will be asked to leave the room, whereupon the thesis committee members will discuss and decide upon the honors to be awarded.

Grades and Honors
The academic grade submitted for the thesis that will appear on the student’s transcripts is the sole responsibility of the sponsoring faculty adviser and is based on the academic quality and rigor of the thesis.

Honors granted for the thesis are separate from the grading, and will be determined by the thesis committee as a whole. Honors can be awarded at four ranks: Highest Honors, High Honors, Regular Honors, and No Honors. The criteria for Honors include: novelty of thesis, strength of supporting argumentation, clarity of presentation and organization, and quality of the thesis defense.

Matthew Calarco
Chair and Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Department of Classics, Philosophy, and Religion
10 February 2006