To maintain a consistent quality of Honors Senior Studies, the following style guideline should be followed by every student for any Honors Senior Study:
- A Title page, which contains the title of the Senior Study, the student’s name, faculty mentor(s) name, department, course number and section number, term code (i.e., Spring, Fall), and year
- A Cover Letter, which explains the purpose and scope of the Senior Study (i.e., “This Honors Senior Study is in partial fulfillment of the total academic requirements of the UNK Honors Program…” etc.)
- An Abstract, a one-page (up to 250 words maximum) succinct description of the context and content of the Senior Study
- A Table of Contents, if necessary/appropriate
- Appropriate manuscript form: typically, one-inch margins, letter-quality type-written pages, appropriate pagination, and adherence to particular research style guidelines unique to various disciplines
- A durable folder or notebook to ensure the Senior Study remains clean and unharmed when archived
As well as the physical/cosmetic guidelines of the Senior Study, philosophical guidelines should also be followed. The Senior Study should:
- Provide a capstone or culmination to a student’s entire academic career at UNK
- Provide research or experience within the student’s discipline that will prove useful to the student post-UNK
- Provide opportunities for unique and innovative study within the student’s discipline
- Provide opportunities to study closely with faculty mentors in the student’s discipline
The Senior Studies in the Honors Senior Study Archive (MSAB room 114) are there for Honors students to peruse during regular office hours of the University. Perusal of previous examples of Senior Studies should provide students useful ideas for their own Senior Studies, and help said students to avoid plagiarism.
All Honors Options (and the Senior Study is an Honors Option—usually the last one, so the total of Honors Options reaches 9 credit hours) must be submitted via the on-line Honors Option Contract. It is strictly electronic. The deadline for submission for all Honors Options contracts including the Senior Study is always the Honors registration day, usually the first Thursday of pre-registration for seniors and graduate students. All students should confer with their faculty and gain permission to do any Honors Options before filing that electronic contract.
Some 300-400 level major courses are already listed in the schedule as both non-“H” and “H.” If any student plans to do an Honors Option in a particular class already available as “H,” he/she should enroll in that “H” section—but must still file an Honors Option Contract. These are not Honors classes, but Honors Options. That means each individual Honors student must still negotiate with a faculty mentor, agree on Honors work to be done, and file a separate contract…even if there are more than the one Honors student in that “H” section.
Since everyone has the freedom to choose what their Senior Study will be there are a variety of forms these take: portfolios (usually for internships, student teaching, practicums, clinical internships, and performing arts majors like music and art), research papers, field experiences (usually just like a portfolio), and CDs (usually for Computer Science majors who create some sort of programs—although it should not be just a compact disc—there should be accompanying writing of some sort to explain the project, its scope, description of the process, etc., adhering to the style guide).
All students who complete a Senior Study should plan to submit a copy to the Honors Program, which is then archived in the Senior Study Archive for future perusal by undergraduates.
Please confer with us if you have any further questions about the Honors Options or Senior Study.
The Honors Senior Study rubric is an established set of educational objectives we hope each Honors Senior can achieve with his or her Honors Senior Study. The purpose of the rubric is not to "grade" anyone's Honors Senior Study; rather, the purpose is to assess the quality of a randomly selected number of Honors Senior Studies from each academic year (May and December graduates of any given year), usually around 4-5 from each of the four colleges. The faculty who mentor the Senior Studies assess the assess the studies for adherence to the rubric's objectives.