Note that the terms "Major Professor," "committee chair," and "thesis director" are synonymous.

Note that the deadlines and dates in the descriptions below are given in relative terms. Precise dates for the current semester may be seen by viewing the Graduate School calendar, or viewing the important dates link at the top of this page.

The Thesis Committee

The graduating student is required to form a committee of three members of the graduate faculty, one of whom will be the Chair or Major Professor and who will direct the thesis. Committee members should be familiar with the student's work and abilities and, more importantly, have expertise in the student's genre or specific project. The Major Professor (director) must be a member of the permanent faculty at University of New Orleans; the other two members may be permanent faculty, adjuncts or other faculty admitted to the graduate faculty by administrative appointment and approved by the Graduate Coordinator, the Department Chair and the dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

The student should form the committee by first requesting a faculty member to be the director. The other committee members should then be chosen in consultation with the director.

The committee is responsible for (1) administering and evaluating the Comprehensive Examination, (2) reviewing, suggesting revisions, and evaluating the Thesis, and (3) administering and evaluating the Thesis Defense. It is the student's responsibility to form the committee by requesting of faculty members that they serve. When the student has formed a committee, she should notify the Graduate Coordinator, who will confirm the appointments with the department and the dean of the college.

The Graduate Coordinator of the Low Residency MFA program is William Lavender (wlavende@uno.edu).

1. The Comprehensive Examination:

The Comprehensive Examination normally consists of two parts, a "take-home" section and a timed section. The first part is normally a syllabus for a sophomore level class in the literature of the student's genre. Note that this is a literature class, not a writing class. The second part is usually two or three essay questions on literature in the student's genre. The exam should be scheduled by the committee near the beginning of the last semester, and should be concluded no later than four weeks prior to the last day of class. Normally, the Committee will elect to give the student a list of authors up to a month in advance upon which the exam will concentrate. At the agreed upon date, the director will email the exam to the student and the student will then have one week to produce the responses, which should be emailed back to the Major Professor. The Major Professor will then distribute the responses to the other members of the committee. After conferring with the committee, the Major Professor will announce the grade (pass or fail) to the student and to the Graduate Coordinator, who will send the appropriate paperwork to the committee members for signature and then file with the college.

 

2. The Thesis:

The final Thesis should be a full length work (book of poems, novel, short stories, memoir, screenplay, play, etc.). The Committee may, at its discretion, have the student include a critical introduction to the Thesis.

The student should submit a draft of the Thesis to the director early in the semester. The draft should be ready for the initial submission by the first day of class of the semester. The director will then determine a schedule for the Thesis to be reviewed by the Committee members and, if necessary, revised by the student. After the Thesis has been revised to the director's satisfaction, the Thesis Defense should be scheduled by the director in consultation with the student and Committee members. It should be scheduled no later than three weeks prior to the last day of class, or as per the Graduate calendar for that particular semester.

Generally, the Committee should review the Thesis for content only. That is, it is the student's responsibility to obtain and adhere to the formatting requirements of the Graduate School.

 

3. The Thesis Defense

No later than one week prior to the date set for the Thesis Defense, the student should distribute to all Committee members a final draft of the Thesis. Then the Committee members, as directed by the Major Professor, formulate their questions to be raised in the defense and submit them to the Major Professor. The Major Professor compiles the questions and transmits them to the student. The student must then respond to the questions within three days, or other time frame as directed by the Committee. The student transmits the responses to the Major Professor, who distributes them to the Committee members.

After reviewing the student's responses, the Committee recommends a pass or fail of the Thesis.

Submission to the Graduate School:

After passing the Comprehensive Examination and the Thesis Defense, the student is responsible for submitting the final copy of the Thesis to the College of Liberal Arts, according to its calendar and guidelines. Students are reminded to be in contact with the college throughout the semester, as format checks and document reviews must be done prior to submission of final copy.

All students have the option of submitting the Thesis on paper or electronically, in .pdf format, and this option is especially useful for remote students, as copy may be emailed via attachments. This option also has the advantage of making manuscripts available for electronic "check-out" worldwide. The contact for logistical information, format checks, etc., for electronic thesis submission is Amanda Athey, <aathey@uno.edu>.

Remote students electing to submit the Thesis on paper will need to check the graduate calendar carefully and allow time for documents to be mailed. Theses submitted on paper are bound and placed in the UNO library.

Please see grad.uno.edu, for more information about formats and deadlines.