Reining in undergraduate paper topics

via Wikimedia Commons

Sorry I haven't been around lately, I've been working on a conference abstract and trying not to have it come straight from my dissertation. A surprisingly hard task.

Anyway, one of my colleagues received a paper this semester entitled something like "A Guide to .... [something an undergraduate can't possibly be an expert in.]" It made me wonder, what the heck is it with undergraduate paper topics?

At one of the schools where I used to work, every senior had to do an undergraduate thesis, a serious, rigorous research project, etc., etc. And the topics were just awful. Nearly every one had to do with material culture or nebulous cultural topics. (We did not have anything like the kind of library you need to research such subjects.) Nearly every one had problems with its thesis statement. I later found out that the students spent nearly half the semester developing a thesis statement. Good heavens, by that time you've invested so much time in the subject you're going to squeeze a thesis out of it however you can.

It was around this time I developed a theory about undergraduate research papers, which is that almost all their problems can be solved by 1) encouraging them to think small and 2) making sure their thesis statement asks a single question. By following these guidelines I have been able to get entire classes to hand in thesis statements that didn't have to be rewritten.

I continue to wonder why so many undergraduate research projects are hampered by vast topics and vague, 7-part thesis statements. As someone still fairly new to the profession, I'm willing to believe there's a good reason. I'd just like to know what it is before I sit down to read another senior thesis that claims to be the definitive work on ancient women or Greek science. Pin It