Master's Thesis Plan A Guidelines

After consulting with your graduate advisor, organize a thesis/project committee meeting. Your committee is composed of your graduate advisor and a minimum of two faculty/outside professional(s) for a M.S. Thesis. Submit a preliminary written proposal of your thesis topic and preliminary bibliography to your committee for discussion at least one week prior to that meeting. The student is responsible for scheduling the room, etc. Human subjects/animal care approval must be obtained before research can start. Guidelines can be obtained from Graduate Studies.

The number of NuFS 299 units for the first semester will be determined by the graduate advisor. You will enroll in NuFS 299 units over a 2 to 3 semester period. For example, you might enroll in NuFS 299 (MS Thesis) for 2 units the first semester, 2 units the second semester, and 2 units the third semester, or as appropriate. The student shall be continuously enrolled in NuFS 299 throughout the duration of the project, even though it goes beyond the 6 unit minimum. See the Plan A: Thesis Curriculum Path to plan your coursework.

Follow guidelines from the Graduate Studies Office for writing a thesis (General Instructions for Master's Thesis). Note deadline for submission of thesis. In addition, you should follow these departmental guidelines:

Your thesis should consist of three chapters.

Chapter One will provide a review of the pertinent literature (written following the guidelines of the most recent edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) and Graduate Studies).

Chapter Two is to be written as an independent manuscript ready for submission to a journal. Therefore, you should consult your advisor as to the particular journal in which you wish to publish and write Chapter 2, following the guidelines for authors for that journal.

Chapter Three should consist of a discussion of your findings. In particular, you should address how your results apply to the knowledge or practice of dietetics, food science, packaging, or foodservice management and make appropriate recommendation (written following the guidelines of the most recent edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) and Graduate Studies).

Appendices will be written to follow Graduate Studies/APA Guidelines.

See the General Format for Publication-Style Master Thesis in the NuFS Department. See your advisor for other variations in the document.

A reasonably complete rough draft of your Master's Thesis must be submitted to your advisor no later than September 15 or February 15 of the semester of anticipated graduate. It must includes the review of literature, methods, results discussion, and references. Frequent meetings thereafter are necessary in order to complete the writing of the project in time to graduate that semester. As many as 7 to 10 reviews or more may be required.

Discuss authorship (for your manuscript) with your graduate advisor. Usually the student is first author, the advisor is second author, and committee members are listed as other co-authors.

Graduate faculty are available during the Spring and Fall semesters only. No final comprehensive exams will be scheduled at a time other than the regular academic semesters. To enroll for NuFS 299 for credit during vacation periods, you must have approval of your graduate advisor who must agree to be available.

NOTE: A minimum of three semesters is required to plan, conduct, and conclude the NuFS thesis.