About That Thesis...
What. Every student in the MFA program in Creative Writing and Literature must complete a thesis that is a publishable, book-length work. The genre may be fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or a script for the visual media. Some students choose to collect a series of related short pieces. The thesis is judged solely on the quality of its intelligence and its writing.
When. After taking 24 graduate credits and while completing remaining coursework, MFA students can consider registering for thesis. Most students spend two to three semesters preparing and completing the thesis. The program will also schedule workshops on thesis preparation as necessary during the academic year. These FAQ sheets might help you decide if you are ready to begin:
This degree audit form will help you figure out whether you’ve taken all of the other courses you need to earn the degree.
Download the degree audit form
This graduation checkout form, will help you organize the process of completing the SUNY Stony Brook and program requirements for graduation. This form must be completed in order for the program to certify to the Graduate School that the degree requirements have been met.
Download the graduation checkout form
This thesis planning form, which you’ll need to get signed in order to register for thesis, will help you organize your thoughts about what you are writing, and who your advisor and readers will be. Fill it out to the best of your ability before you approach a faculty member to be your advisor.
Thesis credits are flexible and can be stretched out over as many semesters as you think you’ll need to complete your creative work. Students must allot several weeks during their final thesis semester to meet the administrative requirements of the degree. You need to be registered for at least 1 credit of thesis during the semester in which you graduate, unless you are graduating in a summer term, when you can enroll in CWL 599 for 0 credits. Thesis requires a minimum of 6 credits. If you need an extra semester but you have taken all 6 credits of thesis already, you will have to keep buying additional credits beyond the requirement to stay enrolled.
Who. Students petition a faculty member to serve as thesis advisor. The advisor is a member of the faculty of the MFA in Creative Writing and Literature program who has expertise in your thesis genre. It is generally someone with whom you have taken at least one course or workshop. Generally speaking, the thesis advisor provides guidance and criticism in the completion of the project, although the advisory role varies somewhat by genre as well as by individual faculty and student preferences. The thesis represents a chance for you to establish your own professional habits as you complete a major work under the guidance of a faculty advisor. You will no longer be receiving the line-by-line edits often enjoyed in workshops. Rather, you will be focusing on the challenge of completing a novel, memoir, essay collection, poetry collection, short story collection, script or other written work. Your advisor helps you with this aspect of the process -- conceptualizing the thesis and carrying out the project.
After a faculty member agrees to serve as a thesis advisor, he or she will guide you in the selection of a thesis committee, which will consist of your advisor, one other member of the faculty in Creative Writing and Literature, and one outside reader knowledgeable in the student’s field of interest. These second and third readers offer fresh eyes and new insights on the manuscript. Readers expect to see the final draft of the thesis, and their role is secondary to that of your thesis advisor. Readers generally will either approve or disapprove your thesis and provide brief commentary. The commentary varies by reader and can be as short as a paragraph or as long as a page. The reader review is generally succinct and may touch upon such aspects of the work as craft, language, originality, artistic relevance, intellectual depth, etc. Sometimes, readers may want to discuss a thesis draft with the advisor or MFA director, and may ask the advisor or director to incorporate the reader’s observations into his or her own comments to the student in order to simplify the process of giving and getting feedback. You should provide each of your readers with a hard copy of your manuscript.
Where. After the manuscript is written to the satisfaction of both MFA student and advisor and the thesis has been given to the second and third readers, the student must submit the thesis to the Creative Writing Program.
For the Creative Writing Program, students submit a bound copy of the manuscript with these specifications:
- black buckram cover
- hardcover binding
- gold lettering on the spine in lower case with capitalization of first letters of words only (Last Name Title of Work Year)
- 8 ½ x 11” interior page size
- Opening pages reflect the thesis template
Generate your signature page by filling out the Thesis Completion Form. Please make sure you have your thesis advisor's and readers' official titles before beginning.
There are many online binderies that can do this job. Here are two:
Thesis on Demand
Book1One
http://www.book1one.com/AcademicBooks/ThesesDissertations.aspx
One local bindery is C & H Bookbinding www.chbook.com. ProQuest is another option, but historically this company has taken longer to deliver bound copies. A third company is Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., www.bnbindery.com.
Whether you use an online or bricks-and-mortar bindery, direct it to send the pre-paid bound copy to:
MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literature
Chancellors Hall Room 238
Stony Brook Southampton
239 Montauk Highway
Southampton, NY 11968
Phone: 631-632-5030Thesis Formatting
Pages
- Your pages can be single or double-sided
Fonts
- Standard fonts such as Times New Roman and Arial are recommended. Fonts should not be smaller than 15 characters per inch. Size 12 font is recommended. o
- Exceptions for font size will be made in the case of format style, when larger type is used for chapter or division headings, or if it is necessary to change type for equations, symbols or figure captions.
- If you are unsure whether your font is acceptable, please have it checked by the Program.
- The font must be consistent throughout the text. Fonts can differ for tables/figures/graphs, etc., but all main text (in the preliminary pages, main body, and reference material) should be in the same font.
- Font color must be black for all main text. Colored font can be used for charts, graphs, maps, etc.
Margins
- All margins must measure 1 inch. 1½ inches for all margins is also acceptable. The pages are trimmed if the document is bound, so it is important to adhere to these specifications.
- The right-hand margin of the text may be justified or ragged.
- Page numbers should be contained in the above margin requirements. However, page numbers may be placed at the 1” margin, but should not be placed lower than ½”.
- Spacing and Indentations
- The text of your manuscript may be single or double-spaced, although single-spacing is preferred. One and a half inch spacing is also acceptable.
- The first line of each paragraph should be indented using a standard tab indent.
- The first line of the text of each chapter or major division should be about 1” (approximately 6 single spaces) below the last line of the chapter title or section heading, or may be begun on a new page.
Pagination
- Please use page numbers.
- Preliminary pages are numbered in lower-case Roman numerals at the bottom center. All preliminary pages are numbered except for the Title Page and Copyright Page (which is optional).
- Numbering for main body of text:
- Arabic numerals begin with 1 on the first page of the first chapter.
- Every page in the main body must be consecutively numbered in Arabic numerals centered at the top or bottom of the page.
- The placement of page numbers in the main body must remain consistent throughout the thesis.
- Page numbers should be contained in the margin requirements. However, page numbers may be placed at the 1” margin, but should not be placed lower than ½”.
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