Seminar für Englische Philologie

Thesis Planning

The final semester of your degree programme involves the writing of a thesis, either alongside coursework (for the BA thesis) or as the sole remaining task in combination with a completion module towards your degree (for the MA or MEd thesis). You would be well advised to start thinking about a thesis topic at least a semester before you start writing; and why not consult a prospective supervisor at an early stage, too? This page provides key information about writing a thesis in the English Department and points to more specific information provided by each of the Department’s divisions.

Bachelor of Arts Thesis

  • Credit count: 12 credits
  • Length: c. 30-40 pp. (see division pages for exact ranges)
  • Completion module: only in Anglophone Literature and Culture (B.Eng.307)

Master of Arts Thesis

  • Credit count: 30 credits
  • Length: c. 70-90 pp. (see division pages for exact ranges)
  • Completion module: offered by the appropriate division (M.EP.06a/06b/07a/07b)

Master of Education Thesis

  • Credit count: 20 credits
  • Length: c. 70 pp.
  • Completion module: combine with M.Edu.101

  1. Pick a field from among the Department’s divisions that best matches your interests. For a BA thesis in North American Studies, the division is North American Studies. For any other degree, you may choose from among Anglophone Literature and Culture, English Linguistics, Medieval English Studies, and North American Studies, with the additional option of English Didactics if your thesis counts towards the MEd degree.
  2. Within the chosen field, decide on a broad topic, corpus, theme, or problem on which to write. If you’re having difficulty finding a topic, you may find inspiration in the theses and coursework collected in some of the Göttinger Schriften zur Englischen Philologie volumes, in primary texts, and/or in scholarly journals.
  3. Contact a prospective supervisor in your chosen field and ask them whether they would be willing to supervise your thesis on your proposed topic. It is also entirely acceptable to ask for topic guidance at this stage, but do try to pursue your own interests rather than your supervisor’s.
  4. Once your plans are more clearly defined, additionally contact a prospective second reader. Unless your topic is especially interdisciplinary, this too is usually someone from the division matching your topic.
  5. The earlier you start informal research, the more time you’ll have to read up on the topic and highlight or write summaries of the scholarship you read, so it will be easier to refer back to it.
  6. The formal start of your thesis work is triggered by the submission of an application for admission to the thesis to the Examination Office of the Faculty of Arts (you can download the appropriate form from their website). There are no deadlines for registration, but keep in mind that you will normally have to remain enrolled until your degree requirements, including the submission and assessment of your thesis, are met. From the moment your application is approved, you have twelve weeks (for the BA) or four months (for the MA/MEd) to submit your thesis, so time your registration strategically. From this point onwards, you cannot change the thesis title without a modicum of bureaucracy, so choose your title carefully (i.e. keep it broad, and generally a lot snappier than you may have in mind).

The Department’s divisions and supervisors differ slightly in their expectations regarding formatting (notably page count and line-spacing), and they may have their own ideas concerning academic stylesheets, too. So check the division pages below; but as a general rule, no one objects to MLA. For further details, please consult the specifications of the respective Departmental division: