Upper Division Honors

In your Senior Honors Project you will follow your passion, develop valuable skills, work closely with faculty mentors, prepare for graduate school, develop a career path, and do what you love!

To read some compelling reasons for doing a senior honors project and see some examples of projects recently completed click on Introducing the Senior Honors Project.

The Senior Honors Project is a two-semester sequence of research or creative work accomplished independently by the student under the direction of a faculty member. The sequence normally involves one semester of research or other form of preparation, such as planning and rehearsal, and one semester of writing or creative work.

Honors students often ask whether their proposed topic is appropriate for a Senior Honors Project, about the amount of work that is required, and format of its presentation. It is hard to generalize, since there is considerable variation in the nature and scope of the Senior Honors Project, depending upon whether it is a creative work or a more conventional “thesis,” and upon the particular discipline. Students should consult with their faculty advisor and will find it useful to review the library of Senior Honors Projects kept in the Director’s office to get a sense of what others have done in the past.

The project may be anything that is considered to be a professional product in the field, so it might be, for example: a research paper or thesis in the sciences or social sciences; a novel, play or collection of short stories; an installation or gallery of paintings or photographs; a music or dance recital; or an engineering or architecture project. A creative project or performance should be accompanied by an essay of at least 25 pages that explains and interprets the work, and an individual must submit documentary evidence of their part in any group project.

We are also open to students doing internships, design projects, action research or any other scholarly activity appropriate to the student's field, provided that the student complete a formal proposal for the project, that it is closely supervised by a faculty mentor, and that it is written up into a report that is bound and submitted to the Honors Program.

The Senior Honors Project culminates in a formal oral and poster presentation at the annual Undergraduate Symposium (Spring) or Honors Forum (Fall) and submission of a bound copy of the "thesis" to the Honors Program.

The project will usually be related to your major field of study, but not necessarily. Some students work on a topic in a cognate field, such as the biology major who does research in a zoology lab, with a Professor in the Department of Zoology; or a Sociology major works with a professor in Political Science. In some cases, the fields may be further apart, as a history major might want to write a novel, or an anthropology major might want to make a movie. As long as you can find a faculty advisor and your major department gives their blessing, you can do what you want. The Honors Project presents an opportunity for you to explore in more detail a subject or a problem you are knowledgeable and passionate about.

2. Student Learning Outcomes

In HON 496 students will:

1. Conduct independent scholarly work of professional or near professional quality in their field;

2. Write up the results of their independent scholarly work into a “thesis” of a standard and format appropriate for publication in their field.

3. Identifying a project

You will have taken HON 495 or an equivalent course (e.g. PSY 439) in which you will have developed a proposal for your Senior Honors Project, and you will have presented this at the Spring Symposium or Fall Forum in both oral and poster formats. Of course, your thinking may well change, and some of you may even develop a new topic. This is OK! For more information on (re)specifying your project please see the following:

Guidelines for Developing Honors Projects (HON 496)

Some generic information about developing thesis topics is available at the following websites:

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/honors.html

http://www.kent.edu/honors/Research/Honors-Thesis-Page.cfm

http://www.honors.pdx.edu/node/4

4. Enrolling in HON 496

In order to enroll in the Senior Honors Project (HON 496), you should have taken HON 495 or an equivalent preparatory course, and publicly presented your proposal at the Spring Symposium or Fall Forum. You must also have identified an advisor who has agreed to work with you. You must obtain a signed agreement from your advisor.

Advisor's agreement

If your advisor is not from the same department of your major, please make sure that you your advisor and the chair of your major department have signed a memorandum of understanding:

Draft Memorandum of Understanding

Some students are shy about approaching faculty members. Please don't be! Faculty are very busy, of course, but if you are sincere and polite, they will almost always make time for you. Many faculty like to supervise Honors students and the vast majority take the responsibility very serious. In some cases, they may say "no " to you, perhaps because they will be traveling or on leave, or may feel they are not the best qualified to advise you, but even then we are confident that they will help you. You may need to "shop around" to find the person best for you and your project.

Ultimately, having a good working relationship with your advisor is the key to an enjoyable and successful project, and sometimes to graduate school and jobs beyond. Do your research: consult other students, talk to your departmental undergraduate advisor, talk to the Secretary and/or Director of the Honors Program and choose carefully. And make sure that you work on your relationship as you do with other relationships. No, you don't have to bring them apples or mow their lawns, but do be punctual for meetings, keep up with deadlines to submit work, and communicate regularly. We have prepared some tips to guide you in managing your relationship!

Working intensively with your advisor you will do things like: analyze existing literature, identify a problem and devise new ways of solving it; maintain a formal schedule of laboratory or studio work, research or rehearsal, writing and revision; and analyze data, make interpretation and inferences. This may be an excellent preparation for graduate work or professional employment, but it could also simply provide a satisfying capstone to your undergraduate experience.

For some advice on "managing" your advisor see the following:

The Senior Honors Project (HON 496): Some Advice for Students

5. Human Subjects

Any honors candidate whose research directly involves working with human subjects must receive approval for the project from the Committee on Human Studies (CHS), which is the unit designated to function as the federally mandated Institutional Review Board (IRB) for the University of Hawaii (UH) system. This is to ensure that the rights of participants are protected, not only in medical research, but also in response to written surveys and personal interviews. Generally, undergraduate research will be exempt from full review, and if you take right precautionary steps, approval is quick and easy. Please check with your mentor and with the CHS.

http://www.hawaii.edu/irb/html/gi_faq.htm

6. Schedule for the Senior Honors Project

For a detailed generic schedule of activities over the two semesters of Senior Honors Project (HON 496) please see the following:

Schedule for Senior Honors Project (Students)

For upcoming deadlines see Current Project Deadlines.

i. Orientation meetings:

At the beginning of your first semester of work on the project, you must meet with the Honors Director. During the scheduled group meeting, you will learn of the deadlines and procedures, and you will be given an opportunity to ask questions. If you cannot attend one of the scheduled meetings you must make an appointment to see the Director personally.

At the beginning of the second semester of research work, you must make an individual half-hour appointment to meet individually with the Honors Director as soon as possible after the semester begins in order to discuss your plans for graduation.

ii. Regular meetings with your advisor:

You and your advisor are responsible for establishing a regular schedule of meetings to review progress on the project. Map out a plan for the completion of various project stages as soon as possible and update the schedule as necessary. Make sure you have something for your advisor to review or have some specific questions to ask whenever you meet. Remember faculty members, like students, are very busy!

iii. Progress Reports

At the end of the first semester both you and your advisor will be asked to submit a progress report. This report is an important part of the course requirements. Failure to provide us with your progress report by the last day of classes, may result in a lower grade for the course.

Please click on the following link for the form:

Student Progress Report (HON 496 001) (PDF)

iv. Forming a committee:

You will have two readers for your Senior Honors Project in addition to your advisor. You may consult your committee members on your project and may want to submit to them drafts of your work, as long as you keep ahead of our deadlines. In consultation with your advisor you should name the additional readers no later than the end of the fourth week of your second semester of Hon 496 (September 19 for Fall 2008; February 13 for Spring 2009). Failure to provide us with the names of your committee by this date may result in a lower grade for the course.

Please print and complete the following form:

Honors project committee

We prefer that the two committee members are full-time faculty at UH Manoa, but under certain circumstances other readers may be appropriate. If this is the case, please provide a memorandum endorsed by the advisor providing a rationale for their appointment. If you want to add a fourth reader no such restrictions apply, but please inform us of their name, affiliation and email address on the Honors Project Committee form.

7. Current project deadlines:

Following are the deadlines for submission of your Senior Honors Project for graduation in each semester of AY 2008.

Project Deadlines	Fall 2008	Spring 2009	Summer 2009
Advisor sees entire rough draft	Nov 20	April 13	Jul 17
Committee sees examination draft	Dec 1	April 27	Jul 31
Final bound copy due to Honors office	Dec 15	May 11	Aug 14

Following are the deadlines for submission of the Senior Honors Project for graduation in each semester of AY 2009.

Project Deadlines	Fall 2009	Spring 2010	Summer 2010
Advisor sees entire rough draft	Nov 16	April 12	Jul 16
Committee sees examination draft	Nov 30	April 26	Jul 30
Final bound copy due to Honors office	Dec 14	May 10	Aug 13

Note: the document that you submit to the committee by the due date is the examination copy of your project. If you wish to have committee members give you feedback on your work, you must work well in advance of these deadlines. If you wish to revise your project subsequent to this date, you may do so, but these revisions will not affect the assessment by your committee.

8. Writing your thesis or writing up your project:

Writing a thesis is a challenge and believe me there are times that you will need to dig deep to find the motivation, inspiration, and dedication to stick with it. But remember that you are not alone: you have a dedicated faculty advisor who you should consult regularly; you have peers from HON 495 and mentors among those who have gone before you; and you have advisors in the Honors Program office. Should you ever need encouragement and if you ever feel you suffer from an attack of the dreaded "writer's block," remember that this is quite normal, and please get help!

We have put together a short list of useful resources you might want to consult:

Writing an Honors Thesis

A note on page requirements

The thesis is by far the most common Senior Honors Project. It is basically a treatise advancing a new point of view resulting from original research, and is best thought of as something in between a term paper and Masters thesis. What this means in practice varies across disciplines, and a thesis is typically longer in arts and humanities than in social sciences, which in turn are longer than natural sciences. Your advisor and committee are probably best judges of what is appropriate, but in order to provide some consistency we have established the following guidelines for page length exclusive of front matter, bibliography, diagrams, appendices etc:

Arts and Humanities: 50-120

Social sciences and Business: 40-100

Natural sciences, math and engineering: 25-60

If the number of pages in your thesis falls outside of these guidelines for your field, you should provide us with an explanatory memo signed by your advisor. Only in the most exceptional circumstance should a thesis be less than 25 pages of text.

9. Submitting your thesis

When you are getting ready to submit your document please adhere to our formatting requirements which you will find in our document:

Preparing Your Thesis

Please note that the Honors Program requires that you submit a digital version on CD or DVD along with your bound thesis. This copy must follow the same formatting in as the bound hard copy. Please submit on a CD-ROM, or DVD preferably with all material in a single file, but minimally with all text in a single word-processing file.

10. Incomplete grades

Incomplete grades are discouraged, but may be recorded under exceptional circumstances. Please see the following link:

A note on Incompletes

11. Graduating with Honors

Please see the following document for complete requirements for graduating with Honors.

Graduating with Honors

More information

If you need further information about the Senior Project, call the Honors Director at 956-8391 or send an e-mail to honors@hawaii.edu.

Faculty advisors of Senior Honors Projects should refer to our page on Faculty Resources.