Crafting the Thesis Proposal in Sustainability

This course helps students develop critical thinking, scholarly writing skills, and research abilities while developing their individual thesis proposals. Class meetings feature lectures and discussions on different scientific approaches, group discussions, and intensive, constructive discussion of proposed student thesis research projects and proposals, from definition of research goals and hypotheses through research design and expected data analysis and presentation. Students are encouraged to contact their research advisor well before the required CTP application is due to discuss possible thesis topics and should not register for this course unless they are ready to engage in the entire thesis process. They should consider if this is the right time to start independent research, as the goal of the course is to move from crafting the thesis proposal to thesis registration with no extended breaks. Students should begin the thesis project during the next semester.