Sustainable Communities students at NAU

Thesis process for graduate students

To obtain your Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities degree, you must author and present a thesis to the public and to your committee. A Sustainable Communities thesis can be very flexible and can take the form of documentation of a traditional research study, or of a creative production, curriculum, business plan, grant proposal, or other deeply envisioned and researched work.

Your prospectus

A prospectus is a document outlining your plans for your thesis or project that may include:

• resources you will use
• literature review
• proposed committee members
• research questions
• purpose and outcomes of your research
• theoretical assumptions
• methods
• timeline of progression

You will have to defend your prospectus to your committee members. All will have to sign off on the prospectus before you begin your thesis or project in earnest. Your prospectus should be completed near the beginning of your third semester.

• Guidelines for SUS committees
• Prospectus guidelines
• Prospectus approval meeting guidelines
• How to Select Your Committee and Chair

Your thesis

To assist in your research and writing, six credit hours of Thesis is required to graduate. Usually, your last semester is dedicated largely to researching and/or writing.

After you have written your thesis, you must defend your work to the department chair and committee members and give a public presentation. The public presentation is more of a celebration of your work and anyone is invited.

The oral defense, however, determines the approval of your thesis or project.

• Guidelines for SUS committees
• Guidelines for oral defense
• Report on final oral exam
• Thesis formatting checklist