Interested in Honors?
Honors is a good choice for eligible seniors who have time to commit to an independent project and are interested in doing research that takes them beyond the level required for the average communication class. If you are self-motivated and have a project in mind — maybe a particularly interesting or challenging term paper you would like to take further — this might be for you.
If you are considering a masters degree in communication at some point, taking honors will give you a taste of what graduate level research might be like and will certainly enhance your application.
Also, employers in many professions are also interested in candidates whom they know can work independently, can write a well drafted project report, or can conduct internal research for their company. Honors will take you to new level of independent research or creative activity and is a valuable enhancement to your Wake Forest education.
Honors Guidelines
Students are eligible to apply for honors if they have maintained a GPA of 3.1 overall and 3.5 in the Communication major and if they have completed COM100, COM220 or COM225, and at least one 300-level Communication course by the fall semester of their senior year. The application form found on this page must be completed and submitted to the Honors Director by April 15. This application will be subject to review by the Honors Director and the members of the Undergraduate Committee, and students will be notified by the end of the semester whether or not they have been accepted into the program. The Honors Director may also review spring semester grades in May or June to determine whether or not an applicant to the Honors Program has maintained academic eligibility. Honors can be taken for 1.5 hours in both the fall and spring semesters or for 3 hours in the spring semester. Most honors students take 1.5 hours in the fall and 1.5 in the spring during their senior year. Honors (COM 398 and 399) does count as one of the required 300-level classes.
The Honors Program in Communication takes two semesters to complete regardless of the number of credits elected in the spring semester. Honors entails independent research under the direction of a faculty member in the department culminating in a substantial research honors thesis (e.g. 30-75 pp.) or an equivalent creative project. Honors students meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies on a regular schedule both fall and spring semesters in addition to regular meetings with their Thesis Advisor.
A prospectus for the research paper or equivalent project is defended before an Honors Committee of three faculty members. Students should defend their prospectus by the end of the fall semester in order to devote the spring semester to writing the honors thesis. The thesis must be defended by a faculty committee of three people: the Thesis Advisor, a Second Reader (generally the Honors Director), and a Third Reader (chosen by the student in consultation with the Advisor and Second Reader) from a department other than Communication. The approved final paper must be submitted to the Honors Director by April 30th in order for the student to graduate with departmental honors on their diploma in May.
A creative project considered to be equivalent to an honors thesis should have a clear topic designed by the student and should include a written component in the form of a brief introductory essay, program notes, a script or screenplay, and other supporting material to be decided by the student and the Honors Committee. As with a conventional honors thesis, there must be a written prospectus justifying and describing the project and providing a plan for how it will be produced.
Honors Program Overview
The Fall program begins with students meeting with the Honors Director weekly. These meetings will help students understand the range and scope of research possibilities, better utilize library research sources, shape their projects into the proper format, and share their experiences with other Honors Students. The meetings become less frequent as the work with students’ Honors Advisors advances.
Honors Committees are comprised of the Thesis Advisor, the Honors Director, and a non-Communication faculty member. The role of this “outside” reader should be explicitly discussed with the Thesis Advisor. If s/he does not bring it up during your first meeting or so, please broach the topic yourself. Drafts of the Prospectus are due to the student’s Thesis Advisor and the Honors Director in mid-to-late October (see schedule). The remainder of the semester will be spent revising the draft and preparing for defenses. Students are responsible for ensuring that the Thesis Advisor signs off on all revisions before scheduling a defense. Once this endorsement has been secured, the student is to make FOUR (4) copies of the prospectus: one copy goes to the Thesis Advisor, two copies go to the Honors Director (who will put one of them on file in the main office for interested faculty to see), and one copy goes to the non-Communication Faculty member (the Third Reader). Also, it is the student’s responsibility to get the Honors Committee to agree on a date and time for the defense and to submit this date and time to the Honors Director at least one week prior to the defense. The defense dates will be announced to all Communication faculty.
Prospectus defenses should take place as early as the Thesis Advisor thinks is advisable in November; the Honors Committee (including the Third Reader) needs to receive the finished prospectus TWO (2) weeks prior to defense date; keep in mind that many faculty will be unavailable late in November because of the National Communication Association Conference and that the Thanksgiving break begins the following week. Therefore, the last two weeks of class are riddled with days that your advisor will most likely be unavailable for a thesis defense. It is important that you make the most of the days we do have before classes end. Your Thesis Advisor may also responsible for graduate advising and will also be busy with graduate student prospectus defenses during this semester. Therefore, plan ahead!!!
The implementation of the thesis will transpire in the Spring semester when students work almost exclusively with their Thesis Advisors. The Honors Director will, after one or two class meetings early in the Spring semester, schedule individual meetings with students to check on progress and answer questions and/or help with issues. Students should target the end of March for the completion of drafts. Keep in mind that every thesis will need major revisions after this draft is reviewed, so April is an important month to finish strong. Students should follow the previous defense guidelines; defenses should be completed before the end of classes in the Spring semester.
Once final revisions have been made to your thesis after the defense (and your Thesis Advisor has signed off on those revisions), you will need to bring one copy of the completed work with signed title page to the Communication Department Administrative Coordinator along with $10 to pay for the binding. It is required that you provide one copy for the Department and pay to have it bound, but you may choose to have as many copies made as you like. Just remember that it is up to you to provide the complete copies and to pay for the binding of all copies you request.
Grievance Procedure
Changes Initiated by a Committee Member. An Honors Committee member may elect to stand down from a undergraduate Honors Thesis Committee. It is the responsibility of the Honors Committee Member to officially notify both the student and the Honors Director of his/her decision to stand down from a committee no less than two weeks prior to the student's thesis defense so that a replacement member can identified. The committee member should fully inform both the student and the Honors Director of his/her reasons for electing to resign from a committee.
Changes Initiated by the Student. A student may initiate changes to the Honors Committee after the committee has been formed. Before a student asks any particular committee member to stand down from the committee, however, the student is required to seek the advice of the Honors Director and/or the Chair of the Department. If the student decides to ask a committee member to stand down from the committee following this consultation, the two parties are expected to meet informally in person or by e-mail so that a request can be made. The committee member may elect to stand down from the committee as a result of the informal communication. If this is the case, the Honors Director must be promptly notified by both the student and the committee member who is standing down. Students may also ask the Honors Director and/or the Chair of the Department to mediate discussions between the student and the committee member.
If a committee member refuses to stand down from a Honors Committee, then the student may ask the Honors Director and/or the Chair of the Department to convene a special hearing by the department's Undergraduate Committee to resolve the dispute. In the case that the Honors Committee member in question is also a member of the department's Undergraduate Committee, that faculty member will temporarily step down from the Undergraduate Committee for the duration of the hearing. The faculty of the Department of Communication will then elect one other faculty member, who is not a standing member of the student's Honors Committee, to temporarily serve on the Graduate Committee for the duration of the hearing.
The Undergraduate Committee will hear arguments from the student and the committee member. The Undergraduate Committee may also request evidentiary information from other members of the department (faculty or student) or the student's Honors Committee. A majority vote by the Undergraduate Committee is required to resolve the dispute. The Director of Undergraduate Studies will officially notify the student and the committee member in writing of the decision.
The Prospectus
Prospectus: def: a statement of the features of a new work, enterprise, etc. (Webster’s). Also considered to be a plan, outline, scheme, or design.
Prospectus Format [Note: your advisor and you will adapt this format to suit your specific needs]
I. Introduction [2 pages suggested]
a. Attention-Getting section that illustrates the issue or problem
b. Rationale section on importance of study
c. Thesis Statement (Rhetorical/Critical) or Research Questions (Quantitative)
II. Literature Review [8-10 pages suggested]
a. Review of the research related to your subject area
b. Review of the research related to theoretical aspects of your project; you cannot
accomplish an exhaustive search; major sources will suffice.
III. Critical Approach or Methodology [2 pages suggested]
a. the approach or methodology should relate to the literature review in the sense
that it is consistent with previous approaches to similar problems (thus, you are
replicating a method) or it promises to answer “problems” or “shortcomings” that
your review exposed.
IV. Outline of Proposed Chapters or Sections [.5 pages suggested]
V. Bibliography of sources in Prospectus; be sure to check with your advisor about the preferred citation style. Rhetorical/Critical projects frequently use MLA
(Modern Languages Association) or Chicago Style. Quantitative projects frequently useAPA (American Psychological Association).
Important: If your project will use human subjects (focus groups, experiments, etc.), you will need to receive IRB approval. It is crucial that you begin this process as soon as it is feasible to do so. Coordinate with your Thesis Advisor on this procedure and the application.
Sample Documents
Below you will find a copy of the Application for Honors and a sample title page for the Honors Thesis.
Department of Communication
Application for Honors
Part I: Basic Information
Name:________________________________________Email:____________________________________
Permanent Address:______________________________________
Campus Address:________________________________________
Current WFU GPA:_____________Current Department of Communication GPA:___________
Communication Courses/ Instructors I have taken:
Courses Instructors
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
Part II: Project Proposal
Faculty member with whom I’ve spoken about this proposal:_________________________________
Briefly describe the project you propose to undertake for Honors in Communication:
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