All theses supervised by me are graded based on Prof. Tonhauser’s thesis guidelines (a detailed and useful resource to guide you while structuring your papers and theses), and should follow the style and formatting guidelines for term papers in our institute found here.

Based on Judith Tonhauser’s thesis guidelines, there are two kinds of theses that students can write:

1. State-of-the-art paper/thesis:
   The paper/thesis presents the state-of-the-art on a research question. As such, it first states and motivates the research question (‘introduction’, section 1), it then summarizes prior research on the research question (‘prior research’, section 2), it then synthesizes and critiques that prior research with respect to the research question (‘Critical discussion’, section 3), and then it concludes with a summary of the paper (‘conclusions’, section 4).
   
2. Research paper/thesis:
   The paper/thesis presents an investigation of a research question. As such, it first states and motivates the research question (‘introduction’, section 1), it then contextualizes the research question (‘prior research’, section 2), it then presents your empirical investigation of the research question, including the results of that investigation (‘empirical investigation’, section 3), it then discusses implications of the results (‘discussion’, section 4), and it then concludes with a summary of the research conducted on the research question (‘conclusions’, section 5).

(for further details see Prof. Tonhauser’s thesis guidelines)

Proposal

Before registering your thesis with the Prüfungsamt, we need to agree to a clear research question, plan and a title. To do this, you should write a concrete thesis proposal. Your proposal is a 1.5–4 page document that states your research question (as concretely and specifically as possible), relates your research question to a broader topic area, and presents your plans and goals, an initial literature list of 5 relevant sources (ideally a combination from my classes/reading lists and your own research).

The work that goes into this proposal will be a good foundation for your thesis writing. To already start with good formatting, follow the instructions for “Layout” on the formatting guidelines in our institute. There is no need to add a title page yet, but pay attention to font size, line spacing, page margins, page numbers.

Logistics

• If you would like to write your BA thesis with me, send me an email providing the following information:
  • Your name, program, semester, and which linguistics classes you have taken
  • The title and instructor of any linguistics papers you have written
  • If you already have a suggestion for a topic, a draft for your research proposal (see “Proposal” above)
• During the teaching term, I have weekly office hours. Students can sign up for my office hours and see current dates on ILIAS (requires login). Throughout the semester, you can always sign up for one or two slots (15–30 minutes) to talk about your project, ask any questions, or simply check in about your progress. If the times given on ILIAS do not work for you, you can email me to request a meeting.
• Generally, I am willing to grant deadline extensions, but only if you communicate with me proactively: Email me with a request to extend a deadline, by suggesting a new deadline, before the old deadline has passed (no need to give a reason).
• Any documents that you send to me should be sent in pdf-format.