Manhattanville College

to: Computer Science Majors

from: Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

subject: Senior Thesis Guidelines

date: 03/19/01

How to Prepare a Successful Senior Thesis

The Department of Mathematics and Computer Science has prepared the following guidelines for the preparation of a successful Computer Science Senior Thesis. Note that a successful Senior Thesis is composed of the following two components:

  1. A Senior Project -- an application programmed on a computer in a particular programming language;
  2. A Senior Paper -- a paper describing in detail the development of the Senior Project.

General Directions

  1. Select a Thesis Advisor in the Mathematics and Computer Science department. We strongly suggest that you do this before the start of your final semester.
  2. Select, with the advice of your Thesis Advisor, an acceptable topic for your Senior Thesis. We also strongly suggested that you do this before the start of your final semester.
  3. During your final semester, work on and complete your Project. You should consult with your Thesis Advisor on a timely basis during your final semester with respect to the progress of your Project. Note that the Project should be completed by two weeks prior to the last day of classes of the final semester to ensure timely completion of the Thesis.
  4. Compose the Paper. The completed Paper is due on the last day of classes of the final semester. The outline of this Paper should minimally be as follows:
  1. Introduction and Statement of Purpose
  2. Background Material on the Project topic
  3. Discussion of the work done for the Project
  4. Final Remarks
  5. References (cited in the body of the Thesis)

You may add additional sections and/or subsections if appropriate.

Note that any and all Project code you wish to submit with the Paper should be in the form of appendices.

Guidelines for the Senior Project Code

When the Project is submitted for evaluation, it should be a fully working application, as described in the Paper. The program code submitted for the Project should be properly formatted and documented in the form of comments. An accepted documentation style is to place a block of comments before the beginning of each method.

Formatting Guidelines for the Senior Paper

Spacing

The standard margins should be used for each page of the Paper: 1" margins on the top and bottom, 1.25" margins on the left and right. In addition, the text of the Paper should use either 1.5 or double spacing.

Justification

The body of the Paper should be either left-justified or fully-justified. The section headings should be on separate lines, with one line above and below each section heading. The sub-section headings should be left-justified, with one line above each sub-section heading.

Font Sizes

The acceptable font sizes for the body of the Paper are 10, 11, or 12 points. Section headings should be 14-point, bold-faced, in the same font as the body of the Paper. Sub-section headings should be 12-point, bold-faced, in the same font as the body of the Paper.

References

References should be listed at the end of the Paper (see the outline of the Paper, above). A standard reference format should be used for the references. The references themselves should be single-spaced, with 1.5 or double spacing between the references (see Spacing, above).

For a reference to an Internet document, the same standard as above should be used, as long as the actual URL (http://…) appears somewhere in the reference.