Meet your adviser
It is important to create a schedule of face-to-face meetings (usually every other week or so) to confer with your adviser. You and your adviser should agree on specific research, writing, and/or production tasks to be completed prior to each meeting. This will help you to pace yourself and obtain regular feedback on your work in progress. It is your responsibility to initiate and maintain close consultation with your adviser.
Write a Prospectus
In contrast to the project proposal, the prospectus is a more conceptually coherent, narrative presentation of your proposed research or creative work. If you are completing a research project, the prospectus should include your main research questions, a working hypothesis, and a provisional outline of how you plan to organize your finished work. The prospectus should also place your project in conversation with other scholarly and/or creative works. For more on how to draft a prospectus, see Prospectus Guidelines.
Conduct Research
- The Library maintains an online research guide for students completing academic research.
- Research guides for subjects such as American Studies, Disability Studies, Ethnic Studies, and U.S. History are also available at the Library website.
- Consult a reference librarian (This can be extremely helpful!):
- Arrange an appointment with Amy Frazier, Library liaison for American Studies.
- Or, use one of the Library’s many other options for seeking research assistance.
- We strongly recommend that you consider utilizing Zotero, a free, open-source research tool that can help you to collect, organize, and analyze your senior research.
- We also encourage you to sign up for a thesis carrel in the early weeks of the semester.
- Students whose research involves travel or other significant expenses may apply for the Senior Research Project Supplement to defray the costs of research.
Cite carefully
Undertaking an extensive research and writing project requires rigorous attention to citation and academic integrity issues, as outline in Middlebury’s Honor Code and Academic Definitions and Disciplinary Policies.
As a best practice, you should cite while you write. This can be done easily using a citation management tool such as Zotero. (See this tutorial, which explains one method for using Zotero to cite while you write.) . See also the Library’s Citation Guide.
Continue to Project Deadlines.