Senior Honors Thesis
The Senior Honors Thesis is the capstone project taken during an Honors student’s last semester. All Honors students must complete a Senior Honors Thesis to graduate from the Honors Program. LU’s Scholars Crossings publishes Honors Theses electronically so that our Honors students’ scholarly research and creative projects are available to the global academic community. Honors theses completed since 2007 are available through Scholars Crossings (if submitted by the author). All Honors Theses completed from the 1980s to present are also available in print at the Honors Program archives.
Understanding the Thesis Process
Students must enroll in and pass HONR 495, which is a required 3-credit class that receives a letter grade. The expectations and goals of the Honors thesis are to produce a product that is a serious piece of scholarly writing in that student’s major field of study:
- the paper length is 25 pages
- students may choose to write
- A Traditional Thesis is research-based and chosen by most majors. The traditional thesis options are an extended research paper requiring scholarly sources, or an empirical study (needing IRB approval).
- A Creative Thesis, such as writing a play or novel, or producing a short film, is usually chosen by students majoring in a Theatre Arts, English, Cinematic Arts, Studio Arts, and Communications.
Thesis Proposal
During an Honors student’s junior year, he or she is required to submit a thesis proposal which involves the following:
- Proposal Form (typed form and print for signatures by committee and department chair)
- 3-5 pages of text (no outlining)
- 20-source bibliography (do not have to be cited in the paper)
- title page not required by Honors Program
Resources
Outstanding Senior Thesis Award
Each year a plaque is given for the Outstanding Senior Thesis. The 2021award went to Nathaniel Hatfield, Gabriel Hooper, Kayla Keister, and Feifan Xu.
2021 Outstanding Senior Thesis Award
- Nathaniel Hatfield (Computer Science, Cyber Security)
Title: Software-Based Side Channel Attacks and the Future of Hardened Microarchitecture - Gabriel Hooper (Biomedical Sciences)
Title: Effects of Pesticides on Microbes - Kayla Keister (Nursing)
Title: To Implement or Not to Implement: Safe Opioid Injection Sites as Solution to the Opioid Crisis - Feifan Xu (Biomedical Sciences)
Title: The Analysis of Folate Dependent Transcription Factor Zinc Finger Protein 410