unc writing center thesis

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Manuals and Templates

Manuals and other essential information.

Please familiarize yourself with the Manual of  General Formatting Requirements   and make use of t hese helpful  Sample Pages  that are referenced in the Manual. 

For those composing an article-style dissertation, the  Three Article Dissertation Guidelines  should be consulted in conjunction with the traditional Manual. (Note: article-style master's theses are not permitted.)

Please read about  ETD preparation prior to submitting your work to ProQuest.

More tips and help with writing style is available from J. Murrey Atkins Library .  

Use of Previously Published Material (including your own)

• Students using reprints of previously published, copyrighted material may need to obtain permission from the publisher to use that material in the thesis or dissertation. You are responsible for securing permission  even if you are using your own previously published material .
• The necessary permission letter may be included in the thesis or dissertation appendices. Less ideally, it can be sent directly to  ProQuest via email .
• A sample reprint permission letter can be found on the  Graduate School's website  -  Refer to Guide #4.
• MIT Libraries provides a list of publisher policies regarding students' reuse of their previously published articles in their theses and dissertations, as well as policies on accepting journal submissions that first appeared in an author's previously released thesis or dissertation. 

For additional formatting information, please see our  ETD Preparation  page and our  FAQs .

LaTeX (or LyX):   Thesis and Dissertation Templates  created by Dr. Andrew Willis.   To download or copy the template visit  overleaf.com .    You can also check the calendar at the Center for Graduate Life and Learning to find LaTex workshops each semester. 

Microsoft Word users may download and use these templates for the required front matter pages:

• Ph.D. Title Page
• Ed.D. Title Page
• MA Title Page
• MS Title Page
• Acknowledgements

Accessibility and ADA Compliance

In accordance with UNC Charlotte's efforts to make educational and scholarly content available to everyone, the Graduate School asks that you do your best to make your Thesis or Dissertation (ETD) Accessible.  This means your document will be compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies which will widen the scope of who can access your ETD.

Checking Your ETD for Accessibility

Word:  In the more recent versions of Word, click the "File" tab. Then click the "Check for Issues" button, and choose "Accessibility Check."   Please do your best to address any errors or warnings that arise. If you have trouble, visit  Microsoft's Accessibility Training .

Adobe Acrobat: Choose "Tools" > "Accessibility." Then in the secondary toolbar, click "Full Check." Choose "Start Checking."  Please do your best  to fix any failed items. You can right click each item and choose "Explain" for more information, or you can visit Adobe's Accessibility Tutorial .

Making Math Formulas Accessible to Screen Readers: Try this advice from Accessible Website Services or these instructions for making math accessible using MathType .

• Senior Honors Thesis
• Golding Fund for Study of Slavery and the African American Experience

Many Honors Carolina students cap their undergraduate experience with a Senior Honors Thesis, partnering with a faculty mentor to develop original research or creative work. Students who successfully defend their thesis before a faculty review panel graduate with Honors or Highest Honors.

Each year, approximately 350 students complete a Senior Honors Thesis. For many of those students, the thesis becomes a first publication or an important part of their application to graduate or professional school.

Students may undertake a Senior Honors Thesis project only in their major field of study (with an exception for students who minor in Creative Writing). Students with double majors may graduate with Honors or Highest Honors in both fields of study. To do so, they must complete a distinct project in each field. All Senior Honors Thesis projects must be completed under the direct supervision of a faculty advisor. Tenured and tenure-track faculty, postdoctoral fellows with teaching appointments, and fixed-term faculty who have been employed by an academic unit for at least one year may serve as thesis advisors. Retired faculty and graduate students may not serve as advisors for Senior Honors Thesis projects.

Eligibility

Students who wish to undertake a Senior Honors Thesis project must have a cumulative GPA of 3.300 or higher. Academic departments may set higher thresholds for course work within students’ major field of study.

Students enrolled in the final semester of their thesis course work must complete their project (including the oral defense) by the following deadlines:

These dates are subject to change if adjustments are made to the University Registrar’s calendars.

Your department should report your name to the Honors Carolina office by the relevant deadline above to confirm that you have met the requirements to graduate with Honors or Highest Honors.

Students are required to upload the final version of their thesis to the  Carolina Digital Repository  by the final day of class in the semester in which they complete the thesis course work . Detailed instructions are included in the guidelines at the bottom of this page.

Research Awards Available

Honors Carolina offers financial awards to support Senior Honors Thesis research. These awards, up to $500, may be used to cover any legitimate cost directly connected to a thesis project: laboratory equipment and supplies, computer software and hardware, travel, artistic supplies, books and periodicals not available through normal library sources, illustrations and duplication, etc.

Students must apply through their major department’s Honors director or their faculty thesis advisor (for units without Honors directors). A Call for Applications is sent to departments early each semester. Students may not submit applications directly to Honors Carolina.

The Fall 2024 Call for Proposals will be distributed to academic units on September 3, 2024. Applications for this round of awards will be due by Monday, September 30 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time .

Additional funding is available through the  Office for Undergraduate Research  and individual academic units.

The following research awards are made possible through gifts to Honors Carolina and are awarded annually:

• The Michael P. and Jean W. Carter Research Award
• The Gillian T. Cell Senior Thesis Research Award in the College of Arts & Sciences
• The Sarah Steele Danhoff Undergraduate Research Award
• The Dunlevie Honors Undergraduate Research Award
• The Gordon P. Golding Senior Honors Thesis Award
• The Gump Family Undergraduate Research Award
• The Honors Undergraduate Research Award
• The Rodney F. Hood Undergraduate Research Award
• The Kimball King Undergraduate Research Award
• The William F. Little Prize for Creative Research in Honors

Helpful Resources

• Senior Honors Thesis Guidelines for Academic Units, Faculty Advisors, and Students
• Senior Honors Thesis Learning Contract (forms for Computer Science majors are here )
• Sample Senior Honors Thesis title page

INVEST IN OUR STUDENTS

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• Writing in the Health Sciences For Faculty and Students
• Key Writing Resources

Writing in the Health Sciences For Faculty and Students: Key Writing Resources

Created by health science librarians.

HSL Key Writing Picks

Key unc writing center handouts (tips & tools), how to write your first research paper, top picks: duke scientific writing guide (medical center), allied health sciences liaison.

• Writing Papers: Tips
• Writing Basics: Classic Resources
• Literature Reviews & Annotated Bibliographies
• Citations & PDFs
• Resources for Faculty
• For Academic/Scholarly Careers
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Tips for Writing a Research Paper (research4life.org)

• Plagiarism & Citing Sources (Health Affairs) This guide explains what plagiarism is and provides a short quiz to help you test your knowledge. Includes link to printable .pdf handout summarizing this tutorial.
• Plagiarism Handout Summary handout for Plagiarism & Citing Sources Tutorial 2 page pdf
• Choosing a Citation Manager: Compare EndNote, Sciwheel, Zotero Compare citation managers.
• Citing & Writing Tools & Guides Includes links to guides for popular citation managers such as EndNote, Sciwheel, Zotero; copyright basics; APA & AMA Style guides; Plagiarism & Citing Sources; Citing & Writing: How to Write Scientific Papers
• Copyright Basics Tutorial Provides a basic explanation of how US Copyright law impacts reuse of published resources. Includes a brief quiz to test your knowledge.
• Identifying Plagiarism Tutorial (Multidisciplinary) Through this tutorial, you will become more familiar with the issues surrounding plagiarism and will receive instruction on how to address this academic issue.
• 'Patchworking' is more common than plagiarsm, just as dishonest (by Kelly McBride, September 18, 2012, in Poynter) What it is and how to avoid it.
• Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources in the Health Sciences From the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Libraries (Bio-Medical Library). Sources are considered primary, secondary, or tertiary depending on the originality of the information presented and their proximity or how close they are to the source of information.
• Structure of Scholarly Articles & Peer Review • Explains the standard parts of a medical research article • Compares scholarly journals, professional trade journals, and magazines • Explains peer review and how to find peer reviewed articles and journals
• Evaluating Sources (from Evaluating Information tutorial by Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries) Learn about topics such as accuracy, currency, point of view bias that are important for evaluating sources of information, including internet and social media sources.

    You can also use these resources as you do research:

• UNC video on Evaluating Your Sources
• Evaluating Print Sources: Handout from UNC Writing Center
• Duke University Libraries video on evaluating sources
• Clinical Chemistry Guide to Scientific Writing From the AACC (American Association for Clinical Chemistry). A series of educational articles on how to design and write scientific research papers for publication. These articles will help users write more clearly and effectively, improving their chances for success. Easy to read and humorous at times, yet are full of useful information and examples to illustrate important points. The articles will benefit anyone interested in scientific writing.

These HSL top pick "handouts" from the UNC Writing Center are specifically chosen for master's and professional doctoral students in the health sciences. 

• UNC Writing Center Video Demo: Understanding Assignments Video demo version of Understanding Assignments Handout. The first step in any successful academic writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.
• UNC Writing Center Online Handout: Understanding Assignments The first step in any successful academic writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.
• UNC Writing Center video: How We Cite (2:06 min) In much of your academic writing, you will use outside sources of information. How can you integrate sources into your papers? And how should you cite them?
• UNC Writing Center video: Why We Cite (2:20 minutes) You know that instructors want you to cite your sources, but do you know why citations are so important?
• UNC Writing Center Online Handout: Writing for the Sciences The major difference between science writing and writing in other academic fields is the relative importance placed on certain stylistic elements. This handout details the most critical aspects of scientific writing and provides some strategies for evaluating and improving your scientific prose.
• UNC Writing Center Online Handout: Argument This handout will define what an argument is and explain why you need one in most of your academic writing.
• UNC Writing Center Online Handout: Audience This handout will help you understand and write for the appropriate audience when you write an academic paper.
• UNC Writing Center Online Handout: Evidence This handout will provide a broad overview of gathering and using evidence. It will help you decide what counts as evidence, put evidence to work in your writing, and determine whether you have enough evidence.
• UNC Writing Center Handout: Plagiarism This handout explains what plagiarism is and outlines steps students can follow to avoid plagiarizing. It also references UNC Honor System information and resources.
• ALL UNC Writing Center Tips & Tools (Online Handouts & Videos) Collection of handouts and multimedia demos for all aspects of academic writing, including Writing for the Sciences, Annotated Bibliographies, Literature Reviews, and much more.
• Kallestinova ED. How to write your first research paper. Yale J Biol Med. 2011 Sep;84(3):181-90. PMID: 21966034; PMCID: PMC3178846. Writing a research manuscript is an intimidating process for many novice writers in the sciences. One of the stumbling blocks is the beginning of the process and creating the first draft. This paper presents guidelines on how to initiate the writing process and draft each section of a research manuscript. In addition, the author lists different strategies for successful revision. Each of those strategies represents a step in the revision process and should help the writer improve the quality of the manuscript. The paper could be considered a brief manual for publication.
• Duke Scientific Writing Interactive Resource The Scientific Writing Resource is course material that teaches how to write effectively. The material is not about correctness (grammar, punctuation, etc), but about communicating what you intend to the reader. It is intended for science students at the graduate level.

Additional suggestions selected from the Scientific Writing guide from Duke University Medical Center

• Scientific Writing Resources From the Duke Graduate School
• The Science of Scientific Writing George Gopen, Judith Swan American Scientist, Vol. 78 (Nov-Dec 1990), pp. 550-558.
• Marc E. Tischler's Scientific Writing Booklet .pdf booklet compiled by Marc E. Tischler, PhD, University of Arizona. Includes good material on developing an outline; word usage; grammar; writing the introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections; and more.
• Writing Commons A free, comprehensive, peer-reviewed, award-winning Open Text for students and faculty in college-level courses that require writing and research.

Here are some books on writing in the health sciences that you may find useful in writing class papers or theses. UNC owns ebook versions of these titles.

Barbara Rochen Renner, PhD

• Barbara's Profile
• [email protected]
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• Writing in the Health Sciences

Health Sciences Library 335 S. Columbia Street Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7585 ( Google Maps for directions )

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Thesis and Dissertation Guide

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Find theses, dissertations & honors papers, search for theses & dissertations.

UNCW Theses, Dissertations, Honors Papers and Special Projects are searchable through the Library Catalog.

Theses and dissertations from the past two years may not be available in the Library Catalog. For additional help, please visit https://library.uncw.edu/ask .

Enter an author name, title or subject keyword:

Browse for Theses & Dissertations

By Department Biology and Marine Biology Biology and Marine Biology (PhD) Business Chemistry and Biochemistry Creative Writing Computer Science and Information Systems Earth and Ocean Sciences Earth Sciences Education Education (Ed.D.) English Film Studies Filmmaking Geography and Geology Gerontology History Honors Papers Liberal Studies Marine Science Mathematics and Statistics Nursing Psychology Psychology (Ph.D.) Public and International Affairs Sociology and Criminology Spanish Specialty Studies   By Year 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 Online theses (ETDs) by Department Biology and Marine Biology Biology and Marine Biology (PhD) Business Chemistry and Biochemistry Creative Writing Computer Science and Information Systems Earth and Ocean Sciences Earth Sciences Education Education (Ed.D.) English Film Studies Filmmaking Geography and Geology Gerontology History Liberal Studies Marine Science Mathematics and Statistics Nursing Psychology Psychology (Ph.D.) Public and International Affairs Sociology and Criminology Spanish Specialty Studies   By Degrees Granted Master of Arts (M.A.) Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (M.A.L.S.) Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) Master of Education (M.Ed.) Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) Master of Public Affairs (M.P.A.) Master of School Administration (M.S.A.) Master of Science (M.S.) Master of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.) Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

UNCW Honors Project Papers

Looking for Honors Project papers produced by UNCW Students through the Honors College?

Visit our newly available online, full-text, searchable digital collection of Honors Papers*!

*Full-text available only to on-campus users.

About Theses & Dissertations at UNCW

• Does the library have copies of UNCW theses and dissertations?
• Why isn't a recent thesis or dissertation in the catalog?
• Graduate Thesis Library Policy
• Graduate School Thesis & Dissertation Information  (SharePoint)

Search Databases

• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
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Find more databases by subject, type, or name .

Seahawk Docks

Did you know that copies of UNCW theses & dissertations are in Seahawk DOCKs , UNCW's Institutional Repository?

Writing Wrongs

This story, written by unc hussman student caroline bittenbender, was originally published in unc’s endeavors research publication. read the original version on the endeavors website..

Story and photo by Caroline Bittenbender ’24

In December 2007, Erin Siegal McIntyre had just finished a vacation in Guatemala with her younger sister. While standing in the airport waiting to return home to the U.S., she glanced around the terminal and realized they were surrounded by dozens of American citizens leaving the country with newly adopted Guatemalan children.

At the time, Siegal McIntyre was working as a freelance photojournalist and started thinking about how to come back and photograph the scene.

Siegal McIntyre returned to New York envisioning a potentially heartwarming, feel-good story about international adoption. But English and Spanish newspaper clips from the previous two decades revealed a pattern of kidnappings, baby laundering, and corruption in international adoption between the U.S. and Guatemala.

“I didn’t pitch the story as a superficial, heart-warming one because there was clearly more to it,” she says. “It wasn’t just about happy families adopting kids. It was, in many cases, about coercion, profit and power.”

It helped launch the photojournalist into a new direction: investigative journalism.

Today, Siegal McIntyre continues to uncover stories that have not yet been told, and she teaches her students at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media how to do the same.

Searching for a challenge

While Siegal McIntyre always had a knack for writing, she wanted a challenge. In 2001, she enrolled in the photography program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

But 18 months later, she dropped out.

“Art school was fantastic, but it felt like I wasn’t getting enough intellectually,” Siegal McIntyre says. “I’ve always thrived on challenge.”

After a year of taking night classes at Harvard and waitressing during the day, she returned to Manhattan to attend the Parsons School of Design as a dual-degree major in writing and photography.

Siegal McIntyre’s freelance career evolved quickly. She began pitching and photographing stories for news organizations like Reuters and The New York Times and was hired as a staff photographer at the United Nations to photograph world leaders during the General Assembly. During this time, she continued to work nights in bars and clubs.

After finishing college, she taught herself audio and video production, and began filing multimedia stories for radio, print, and web in addition to working as a photojournalist. “I felt like I could do all kinds of news stories,” Siegal McIntyre says. “But I still didn’t know how to dig deeply.”

Her yearning to further challenge her storytelling capabilities led her to apply to the master’s program at the Columbia Journalism School, where she would follow her passion for investigative reporting.

After being accepted to the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia, Siegal McIntyre pursued research into the legislative history of international adoption between Guatemala and the United States. She worked on defining a long and complicated chain of operations that linked American parents, adoption agencies, lawyers, nannies, medical professionals, lab tech workers, facilitators, and others in both countries.

“There was a large financial motivation and a variety of people involved: judicial clerks, judges, a whole host of characters,” Siegal McIntyre says. “But none of those links in the chain necessarily knew what the other links were doing.”

Research led Siegal McIntyre to a cold-call with an adoptive mother from Tennessee named Betsy Emmanuel — and she could hardly believe the story she was told. Emmanuel had tried to adopt multiple children from Guatemala, including a young girl named Fernanda, and two had forcibly disappeared during the adoption process.

Against all odds, Emmanuel managed to join forces with Mildred Alvarado, Fernanda’s birth mother, who was also trying to find out what had happened to the child. Together, they unraveled the truth behind the kidnapping. Their story unfolds in Siegal McIntyre’s first book, “ Finding Fernanda ,” which was published in 2012 and exposes criminal networks and fraudulent practices in international adoption.

The book went on to win multiple awards, including an Overseas Press Club Citation for Best Reporting on Latin America.

“The main focus of my work is accountability,” Siegal McIntyre says. “Most of the time that means connecting the dots to reveal information that might have been previously kept hidden. It usually comes down to tracking power and following the money.”

Investigating problems at the border

In 2010, Siegal McIntyre moved to Tijuana, Mexico, where she spent a decade living and working as an independent journalist. In the border city that sits just south of California, she experienced life between two nations and began raising her daughter Sofia.

“As a single parent, I would strap her onto my chest and bring her out on assignment,” Siegal McIntyre says. “Even reporting for radio, she’d sometimes help hold the mic.” On the border, Siegal McIntyre wrote about various topics, with a focus on immigration, deportation, policy, and culture. She also helped foreign reporters visiting the border city as a “fixer,” or local producer.

In Tijuana, interactions with border officials are a part of everyday life. Over the years, as stories continued to emerge about various alleged crimes and cross-border shootings involving the U.S. Border Patrol, Siegal McIntyre grew interested in the institutional culture of the agency.

She’s now working on a second book that focuses on the evolution of culture within the agency over the last 50 years. Unlike the single character-driven narrative in “Finding Fernanda,” the project focuses on a broad range of experiences of those within the Border Patrol.

“I think it’s overdue,” Siegal McIntyre says. “It’s one of the hardest projects I’ve taken on because of the massive amount of information to incorporate.”

One component of Siegal McIntyre’s research involves finding and talking to hundreds of former agents who served in the last 20 to 50 years. Some have survived dangerous and harrowing experiences, and some have been involved in alleged criminal activity.

“I’m always shocked by how many people want to tell their stories,” Siegal McIntyre says.

“There’s a level of candor that I find so impressive. I think it speaks to how many former Border Patrol employees just haven’t been asked about their experiences.”

One of the largest federal law enforcement agencies in the nation, the U.S. Border Patrol is also one of the least successful federal organizations when it comes to recruiting and retaining women as agents. Just 5% of its 19,000 officers are women.

Last spring, Siegal McIntyre pitched and reported an hour-long documentary for “Reveal” — a weekly national news show from The Center for Investigative Reporting — on the “fearless five percent,” as female agents are known. When conducting interviews for the documentary, one source she spoke with was Tina Lopez, the first Latina admitted to the Border Patrol as an agent in 1975. She was part of the inaugural class allowing women in the agency.

During their first conversation, Lopez recounted her memory of being raped by a classmate, being sent home, and later suing the agency and winning.

“It felt like her experience had been erased,” Siegal McIntyre says. “She kept repeating, ‘How did you find me? I thought no one would ever care.’”

Connecting the dots

Siegal McIntyre’s focus on investigative reporting changed her relationship with photography .

“I still photograph my own stories, but I also use my cameras as a practical tool to capture details that can enable more vivid written description,” Siegal McIntyre says.

Investigative journalism can be a long, tedious process involving research spanning decades, countless hours of fact-checking, and dozens of interviews.

“You have to have structure or else you’re just going to be lost under a mountain of information, which is where I currently am,” Siegal McIntyre says with a laugh. “But there is a method to the madness.”

One of the challenges Siegal McIntyre faces in her work is accessing previously unreleased public information and datasets from government agencies. To do this, she uses the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which requires the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased documents from any government agency upon public request.

With help from a First Amendment lawyer, Siegal McIntyre has filed two FOIA lawsuits within the past two years. So far, she’s received hundreds of pages of information that she needs to write her book and is looking forward to receiving more.

Siegal McIntyre often asks sources the same question multiple times in different ways to check if their answers are consistent. By combining first-hand accounts with unreleased government documents, she aims to paint a vivid picture of how the Border Patrol’s culture has changed over time.

Hunting for clues is invigorating for Siegal McIntyre, and she strives to recreate that feeling in the classroom. Students in her upper-level journalism classes investigate real issues, form journalistic hypotheses, and strategize ways to prove or disprove an investigative thesis.

In Fall 2020, one of her classes led an investigation into whether the state of North Carolina was accurately reporting deaths from COVID-19 within its jails and prisons. Students researched state prison history and filed public records requests for autopsy reports. It turned out that the state was not accurately reporting the numbers. This work was highlighted in North Carolina Health News, INDY Week, VICE, and other outlets.

“Once you take the first steps, reporting can feel exciting instead of tedious, and things tend to snowball,” Siegal McIntyre says. “I want my students to be passionate about public service. Being able to have early wins in terms of collecting information and connecting dots is the best kind of motivation. It’s amazing to see what even a small group of dedicated students can accomplish.”

Erin Siegal McIntyre is an assistant professor in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

This work is supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation, the Harnisch Foundation, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, the UNC Office of the Provost, and the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.