Master's Programmes
Research Programmes

 

General Guidelines on the Presentation and Evaluation of Work

Suggested criteria for class and seminar presentations
Good practice in referencing and presentation
What constitutes a thesis?

Binding and depositing of master's dissertations and M.Litt. and D.Phil. theses
eTheses

 

Suggested criteria for class and seminar presentations

Assessors of student presentations will generally use criteria which are adjusted to the setting in which students make their presentation: a presentation in a class for a master's programme will have a function and emphasis which differs from a presentation in a research seminar. The Faculty therefore provides distinct feedback forms for class and seminar presentations, with a descriptive list of assessment elements.

The folder Useful forms provides the appropriate proformas for consultation and downloading on which tutors can provide feedback to students, and also forms or spreadsheets on which they may record their evaluation of individual students for transmission to the board of examiners or the Director of Graduate Studies.

 

Good practice in referencing and presentation

Scholarly work should strive to excel in two areas: analysis should be clearly structured and rigorously documented, and your referencing should ensure that your scholarly integrity is beyond reproach by readily acknowledging where you refer to the ideas of fellow scholars.

To assist you in these aims, the Faculty's Graduate Office has compiled a booklet of Conventions for the presentation of essays, dissertations, and theses which is intended to complement the General Regulations of the Educational Policy and Standards Committee regarding the printing and binding of work submitted for examination, published in the Examination Regulations.

The Faculty also offers some basic guidance on how to avoid plagiarizing the work of other scholars; this short leaflet on plagiarism is supplemented by more specific guidance in various induction sessions, and has now been further enhanced by the University's training provisions in transferable skills.

The University provides a number of online transferable skills courses for graduate students to study at their own pace.  The set of courses includes a course on Good Practice in Citation and the Avoidance of Plagiarism and all graduate students should complete this course as part of their graduate skills training portfolio. These online courses can be accessed via the University's Skills Portal: If you are located outside the Oxford University computer network, you will need to set up access via the University's Virtual Private Network (VPN).  Further information about how to do this is provided on the Skills Portal website.

To access the course you wish to study, click on the link and follow the instructions provided.  The first time you take one of the online courses, you will need to create yourself a user account following the instructions provided on the right-hand side of the page in the box titled 'Is this your first time here?'.  Once you have set-up a user account you can login to all the online courses by entering the username and password you have set-up in the boxes provided in the 'Returning to this web site?' section of the website.

At the end of each course  there is a quiz to test your knowledge; if successful you can print out a certificate for your records.

 

 

What constitutes a thesis?

A D.Phil thesis requires, according to the Examination Regulations, ‘That the candidate has made a significant and substantial contribution in the particular field of learning within which the thesis falls’, taking into account ‘what may reasonably be expected of a capable and diligent student after three, or at most four, years of full-time study’. These notes are intended to give a little more information about what constitutes a D.Phil thesis. The criteria discussed below, within their narrower remit will also be of use to those writing a master's dissertation.

Research question   The thesis should be driven by a question or problem suitable for original historical enquiry. This is not the same as a ‘subject’ or ‘topic’ which simply stakes out a field of enquiry; the research question is the means by which that field is interrogated. While not having the terms ‘how’ or ‘why’ in the title, it may often imply them.

Historiography    A research question emerges from critical engagement with the literature in a particular field. The Regulations say that a thesis should show ‘a good general knowledge of the particular field of learning within which the thesis falls’, that is familiarity with the important scholarly literature in the subject area. The thesis will not just ‘fill a gap’ but often arise out of a historical debate and seek to contribute to it using a new approach or new evidence.

Sources    A candidate is expected to make considered and effective use of the appropriate sources, which should be consulted in the original so far as appropriate and practical. This may entail travel to consult sources held in scattered collections. It is ‘not essential that a thesis exploit hitherto unused primary sources’, say the Regulations, but the thesis must be based on primary sources, including archival, printed sources and/or oral testimony. The candidate should demonstrate a good understanding of the possibilities and limitations of the sources being used.

Approach or method    A thesis is not an arbitrary or intuitive processing of primary material. It must have a coherent approach or method – one that is thought out and intellectually sustainable. This may be a case study or sample, a regional, local or microhistorical study, a comparative or transnational analysis. It may adopt a qualitative or quantitative approach, draw on allied disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, sociology or literary theory, or combine elements from more than one of these. Whatever the approach or method adopted, the candidate should be able to demonstrate the relevance and effectiveness of the approach for the purpose of the thesis. Engagement with any kind of theory should be developed and critical; mere name-dropping must be avoided.

Presentation    Candidates are required to present their thesis ‘in a lucid and scholarly manner’. This means that the thesis must be clearly structured, with an introduction, conclusion and two abstracts. It must develop a sustained argument and be written in fluent, accurate and scholarly prose. It should present quotations, footnotes/references and bibliography in the form described in ‘Conventions for the presentation of essays, dissertations and theses’ All reference to other authorities must be footnoted in order to avoid the charge of plagiarism. Careful proof-reading is essential to avoid receiving a long list of ‘minor corrections’ from the examiners or criticism of an ‘incomplete’ submission.

In the oral examination for the D.Phil. or M.Litt. a candidate must be ready to defend the thesis, and also persuade the examiners that he or she has a command of the broader field in which the topic falls. It is likely that the examination will in some way explore all the criteria outlined above.

 

Binding and depositing of master's dissertations and M.Litt. and D.Phil. theses

All dissertations have to be bound. For the M.Sc. and M.St. degrees, hard bindings are not necessary, as these dissertations are not deposited in the Bodleian Library (except in the case of dissertations for the M.St. in History of Art and Visual Culture which are on the recommendation of the examiners deposited in the Sackler Library). All that is required is some sort of binding that makes the dissertation easy for examiners to handle, i.e., that keeps the pages together and allows the dissertation to be opened easily. The cheaper forms of soft binding, such as thermal binding or (with reservations) comb binding, are in most cases perfectly adequate; loose leaves held together by paper clips, however, are certainly not acceptable at all. – Master's dissertations approved by the examiners may be voluntarily deposited electronically with the Oxford Research Archive (ORA).

One copy of every M.Phil. dissertation and M.Litt. or D.Phil. thesis is deposited in the Bodleian Library after a successful examination. This copy must incorporate all the corrections the examiners may have required, and must be in a permanently fixed binding, drilled and sewn, in a stiff board case in library buckram, in a dark colour, and lettered on the spine with the candidate’s name and initials, the degree, and the year of submission. The library copy is to be handed in (for the attention of the Research Degree Examination Office) at the Examination Schools, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4BG, and must be accompanied by completed and signed consultation (either GSO.3a or GSO.3b) and cataloguing (GSO.26) forms. Doctoral students admitted since October 2008 are in addition required to submit an electronic copy of their thesis to the Oxford Research Archive (ORA). – You are warned that leave to supplicate is conditional upon delivery of the library copy of your thesis and that you may not proceed to take your degree until this has been done.

eTheses

Students registering from 1st October 2007 and following D.Phil.,M.Litt. and M.Sc. (by Research) programmes must deposit both a print copy of their thesis in the library AND an electronic copy in the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA).  This development of deposit and, where appropriate, access to a digital copy is in line with activities in other HE institutions in the UK and internationally.

• ORA policy statement (May 2008)
• The national context: Royal Historical Society newsletter (May 2008)