Senior Thesis

The senior thesis is the culminating work of Trinity’s Humanities program. It is a summative and integrative project that requires students to use the rhetorical skills developed at all phases of their learning at Trinity to develop a thoughtful and persuasive argument on a chosen topic. Their thesis and topic must be things of depth and significance about which Christians can reasonably disagree.

The thesis is not meant to be, primarily, a research paper. It is an argument which will, as a matter of course, rely on good research to make its argument thoroughly and comprehensively. However, unlike a thesis at the collegiate or graduate level, it is not intended to demonstrate specific knowledge of a field in which the student has particular expertise or training. Rather, it is intended to demonstrate the students’ rhetorical skills that have been trained throughout their Trinity career, and the ability to use the ideas and arguments discussed and evaluated throughout their studies.

What these young men and women produce is impressive to say the least. It is college level work and they prove every year that they are more than prepared to enter even the most academically challenging of college environments.

The Thesis Process

Research

Each student is responsible for becoming an informed authority on her topic through research and contemplation. Each student will have read and annotated a minimum of four books and ten articles (long-form reporting, essays, journal articles, etc.) as part of his required research. All research sources must be substantial and credible. Annotations will be made on a digital document for organizational and evaluative purposes. Part of the student’s research will focus on connecting their topic and argument to texts and ideas that they will have encountered previously in their education. The thesis instructor may assign particular research to individual students. All books read for research must be approved by the thesis instructor.

Composition

The thesis will be composed in parts, and arranged as a Classical Oration. Each part will undergo substantial editing and revision, on the part of the student, her thesis advisor, her peers, and her instructor. The full draft of the thesis will be a minimum of twenty typed pages, and a maximum of forty typed pages. The thesis will be formatted according to current Chicago style standards. Most of the student’s work will be submitted digitally, through Google Drive or Google Classroom.

Thesis Defense

When the students submit their final draft, they will also submit a 1-page abstract of their paper. This will: state the thesis, identify the argument’s place within the controversy and topic area; offer a Partitio which enumerates the major arguments and their evidence; offer a precis of the Refutatio; accounts for the major stakeholders and consequences of the argument. This abstract will provide a concrete place for the defense to begin.

Each student will defend their thesis in an individual 20-30 minute session with a panel of judges, consisting of the Senior Thesis faculty. Students may use their final written draft for reference during this time. Students should be prepared to: explain ideas and arguments found in their paper; interact with arguments and ideas relevant to their paper; defend the claims made in their paper; discuss consequences and implications of the arguments and ideas at hand. Defenses will be conducted over the course of 2 weeks during the Rhetoric period, and at select other times throughout the day, shortly after final drafts are submitted. The defense will be graded as the first of two major grades in the Defense and Delivery category.

Thesis Delivery

Following the submission of their final draft and completion of their thesis defense, students will craft a 1,000-word oration, which will seek to persuade and move a general audience of the Trinity community, based on their thesis work. Their oration will be memorized and delivered with the aid of a note card. A panel of judges will evaluate their oration, the second major grade in the Defense and Delivery category. Once their oration has been delivered, students will have completed their Senior Thesis project.