Summer Programs at the Thesis Office

This Summer at the Thesis Office we are offering several of our perennial programs to help you complete your thesis or dissertation.  Some of these were not offered in the Spring session, so here is your chance to check them out! In addition, some programs we offer are now online or hybrid online/in-person formats to make them accessible to all. If you would like to attend any of these workshops, please register here.

Create and Nurture a Productive Thesis/Dissertation Committee
Tuesday, June 4, 4PM

In this online presentation and Q&A, learn methods for creating a functional committee and making work with your committee count. Hear about best practices for common committee blunders and difficulties. Participation and sharing is encouraged!


Demystifying the Thesis/Dissertation Submission Process
Monday, June 10, 4PM

In this online presentation, Thesis Office advisor Carolyn Law will explain the ins and outs of submitting your completed thesis or dissertation. NIU has strict requirements for the "final product," and those requirements can keep you editing even after you've defended! Know what to expect and how to prepare for the final step of the process.


Tables/Figures/Pagination for Theses and Dissertations
Tuesday, June 11, 2PM

If your thesis or dissertation includes tables or figures, this is definitely the workshop for you. And if it doesn't include them, this might be the workshop for you anyway! One of our most common complaints from students is about page numbers, which can be a huge bugbear if your document is not set up properly. Come get it all straightened out in this workshop -- bring your laptop and be prepared to do some good work. This is an in-person event with ample time for workshopping, in Adams Hall room 103.


Writing Your Thesis/Dissertation Proposal
Tuesday, June 18, 4PM

This hybrid workshop will be an in-person presentation and discussion that is Facebook Live fed to our Facebook group. This interactive workshop will address typical characteristics of a successful thesis or dissertation proposal as well as offer practical strategies for organizing the key elements. Breakout sessions will allow for generous time for questions and small-group discussion. Bring your laptop and specific questions to maximize the workshop’s effectiveness!

Last year we had more attendees than ever at these events. Please keep taking advantage of them! We're here to help.

Register for any of these events at The Graduate School's workshop calendar.

Impacting Change: Congratulations to the May ‘19 Graduates

As we celebrate graduation and the end of another school year, we in the Thesis office would like to highlight some of the diverse research being conducted by this spring’s recent graduates. NIU graduate students’ research translates into real world, tangible benefits and advances in their respective fields. Congratulations to all the May ‘19 graduates! A couple of students in the Psychology department dedicated their graduate careers to fighting post traumatic stress disorder in different culturally and socially relevant  contexts - in Syrian refugees, drawing attention to the serious mental health needs of refugees, and memory reconsolidation treatment in the general population.

Another in the Education department focused on responding to the social and emotional needs of refugee students in the classroom. Similarly, a student in the sociology department questioned the use of excessive force by law enforcement in Illinois. Others have worked toward helping to solve the climate change affecting the human and animal populations through quasi linear convective systems, hazardous waste site cleanup, and aquifer nitrate contamination. Still others are attending to other important social issues such as the growing prevalence of sexual assault in the United States and changing the underlying attitudes that perpetuate it by focusing on the power dynamics of consent, drug and alcohol consumption, and victim blaming.

Others are tackling issues relevant to universities by examining food insecurity in minority student populations. Several in the Education department dedicated their study to improving the state of higher education as well as student - teacher relations and the social and emotional development of students through the development of new pedagogy such as literacy coaching and other methods. In every area, NIU graduate students are succeeding in producing relevant research that effects real change, while addressing the most important social issues facing us today and working together toward bettering the world in which we live.

It's in the Guidelines, Part 2: "Use them, or you'll do it wrong."

by Robyn Byrd

In last month's "It's in the Guidelines," Tiffany explained how to access our many resources on the Thesis Office website. Knowing where to look up formatting help will save you a lot of time. Now, I want to add to her post in order to stress the importance of actually using these guidelines. That is, the guidelines not just there for you to look at them if you feel like it. They're there because you NEED to look at them. In the words of one of our Thesis Office mottos, "If you don't use the guidelines, you'll do it wrong."

For instance, you'll start off on the wrong foot from the get-go if you don't look at the abstract and title page templates. How in the world would you figure these things out by guessing? You wouldn't!

All successfully defended and submitted theses go through a revision process with this office. Why? To fix the formatting...which is explained in the guidelines. (I apologize if this is giving you flashback to "IT'S IN THE SYLLABUS"). Many students are surprised by how much more work they need to do. When they think they are completely done because they had a great dissertation defense, and then find out they have to make scores of corrections, it's kind of a buzzkill. If you've submitted your defended document on time, you will still graduate! But, the better that document looks at the time of submission, the more headache you'll save yourself. You should be planning a graduation party or looking for a job, not tweaking margins and re-labeling tables and setting fire to your laptop.

For another example, see the figure below. Figures and tables are labeled differently. Figures have the number and title below, while tables have them above. There are also different conventions for naming each, and their placement within the document. Did you think about that before? Some published students already know about such conventions, but many others do not. 

There is a reason that some journals look great and consistent from cover to cover. An editor followed exacting guidelines to get it that way. The Thesis Office has exacting guidelines so that NIU sends documents out into the world that represent the high quality of the graduate scholarship done here. We want you to look great, because you are great!

more guidelines...

Finally, the most common problem students come to visit us about is their page numbers. Unless you have published a book, you probably haven't had to wrangle page numbers a lot. We have a very informative video on how to do it, and the simple logic of it can save you hours. Check it out!

After seeing students' worst problems over the years, we know what needs to be clarified. Use the list of guidelines and the red-marked templates on our site, and you won't need to see so much red ink on your own document. Thanks for reading -- now go read the guidelines! 

Thesis: https://www.niu.edu/grad/thesis/pdf/ETD-Guidelines-Thesis.pdf

Dissertation: https://www.niu.edu/grad/thesis/pdf/ETD-Guidelines-Dissertation.pdf

Templates and Examples: https://www.niu.edu/grad/thesis/templates-examples.shtml

Video Tutorials: https://www.niu.edu/grad/thesis/video-tutorials.shtml