purdue owl writing lab thesis

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How to Write as a Graduate Student

The OWL Provides some helpful tips on writing as a graduate student. Here are some topics covered. The links below will take you to the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) website .

• Introduction to Graduate Writing
• Graduate Writing Topics
• Graduate Writing Genres
• Writing a Thesis/Dissertation

Creating an Annotated Bibliography

The OWL also provides guidance on creating an annotated bibliography, a common tool and assignment for graduate students.  Below are a few topics covered by the OWL.

• Annotated Bibliographies - Definitions & Format
• Annotated Bibliography Breakdown
• Annotated Bibliography Samples
• Writing a Literature Review

Just about every major research project involves a literature review, often these can be placed at the beginning of a paper or can be publishable in their own right. The OWL provides guidance for literature review writing.

Job Search Writing

Writing while on the job search takes various forms. The OWL provides useful tips for writing in this context.

• Preparing an Application
• Job Search Letters
• Resumes and CVs
• Skilled Labor Job Search Resources
• << Previous: Literature Search Strategies
• Next: APA Style Guide >>
• Last Edited: Apr 5, 2024 9:55 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/Education_GraduateStudents

• Houston Community College
• Eagle Online

• Linda Bawcom
• TEACHER SUPPLEMENTAL FILES
• THE WRITING PROCESS:ORGANIZATION & VOCABULARY
• THESIS STATEMENTS

Thesis Statements: Tips and Examples (OWL-Purdue)

The link address is: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/1/

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

APA Formatting and Style Guide (7th Edition)

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

In-Text Citations

Resources on using in-text citations in APA style

Reference List

Resources on writing an APA style reference list, including citation formats

Other APA Resources

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Handouts and hyperlinks.

Sometimes, you just need a quick reference guide. The following documents and links serve that purpose—for a variety of topics. Save them, print them, share them—we’ve put them together to help you whenever and wherever you are.

If you’d like to recommend additional handout topics, please email us at [email protected] .

The following handouts should be used only as general guidelines; please use your professor or departmental guidelines when they conflict with those used on these references.

Academic Writing

Use these guides to build up your writing:

• Analyzing Your Assignment
• Analysis vs. Synthesis
• Annotating a Text
• Audience Analysis
• Evaluating Sources: The CRAAP Test
• Guide to Writing In-Class Essay Exams
• Guidelines for an Annotated Bibliography
• How to Organize an Academic Paper
• How to Write an Analysis
• How to Write a Literature Review
• How to Write a Rhetorical Analysis
• How to Write a Summary
• How to Write a Synthesis
• How to Write a Thesis Statement
• Key Strategies for Effective Revision
• Tips for Writing College Papers

Grammar and Usage

Grammar can be confusing; use these handouts as a guide:

• Colons, Semicolons, and Dashes
• Combining Clauses
• Formatting Microsoft Word Documents
• Signal Verbs and Phrases
• Transitions

Helpful Links

These additional links can help with other writing and style questions you may have:

• The Draft, the PFW Writing Center Blog
• Ask a Librarian and Schedule an Appointment with a PFW Librarian
• Purdue's OWL (Online Writing Lab)
• Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
• APA Style.org
• International Writing Centers Association
• East Central Writing Centers Association
• Judging Sources: Is Your Journal Scholarly?
• Judging Sources: Is Your Book Scholarly?

Sources and Citations

The Writing Center recommends using the Purdue Online Writing Lab or the style organization's website for the most up-to-date information on citations and formatting. If you need assistance with Purdue OWL, please visit the Writing Center during our business hours. Please note, though we are a Purdue University campus, we have no control or impact on the content of the Purdue OWL. It’s run entirely through the Purdue West Lafayette campus, with a separate staff.

• Purdue Online Writing Lab
• Last Updated: May 20, 2024 11:55 AM
• URL: https://library.pfw.edu/writing

Purdue Polytechnic Institute

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MS in Computer and Information Technology

• Plan of Study
• Graduate Courses

This page includes information and linked resources (in a gold font color) for completing your research and development for your thesis or directed project. Some of the links on this web page are to web pages not maintained by Computer and Information Technology.

• Jump to important deadlines for this semester's M.S. degree candidates
• Jump to resources for completing your research and development
• Jump to resources for writing your thesis or directed project report'
• Jump to depositing your thesis or directed project report

Important Deadlines for M.S. Degree Candidates

There are several deadlines and important dates during your final semester. Do not miss the deadlines. Otherwise, you might not graduate this semester, and you might have to pay some late fees. This page describes approximate dates.  To see the official dates for any given semester, check the Graduate School's Calendar .

Friday of the week before classes begin -- Last day to file a fully approved Plan of Study without paying a $200 late penalty. For more information about the Plan of Study, see the Plan of Study menu bar or icon at the top of this page.  Approved means "electronically signed by all committee members, the CIT program coordinator, and the CIT Graduate Program Chair.  Procrastination is not accepted as an excuse for not allowing enough time to secure signatures.

End of the first week of classes -- Declare candidacy of your degree by enrolling in CAND 99100. Up until the end of the first week of classes, you can do this through the CIT office. After this date (but before the university deadline), you must register for degree candidacy through the Graduate School office in Young (YONG) Hall.

NOTE: Students who are registered for exam (=defense) only, have a much earlier deadline -- sometime around mid-term. See above deadlines.

Within 30 days of the start of classes  -- Submit any last minute  revisions needed to your approved Plan of Study. If there are any courses on your approved Plan of Study that you later elected not to take, you must revise your Plan of Study to delete those courses, and add courses you did take (or are taking) -- with the approval of your committee chair and the Graduate Program Chair.  Otherwise, you will not pass your degree audit.

Approximately 4 weeks after classes begin  -- Last day to declare yourself as a degree candidate by registering for CAND 99100 for graduation at the end of this semester. If you did not do so before the end of the first week of classes, you will have to declare this candidacy through the Graduate School in Young (YONG) Hall.

NOTE: Students who registered for "Exam Only" or "Degree Only" must declare candidacy directly through the Graduate School's main office in Young Hall. 

Approximately 6 weeks after classes begin  -- For thesis students registered for "Exam Only" or "Degree Only" (neither is common), last practical day to defend thesis and secure electronic signatures on electronic Form 9 (thesis defense/exam). 

Approximately 8 weeks after classes begin  -- For thesis students registered for "Exam Only" or "Degree Only" (neither is common), last day to deposit thesis, and to submit their ETAF and Required Survey(s).  The ETAF should be initiated no earlier than the day of a students defense through the plan of study portal.

Approximately 8 weeks after classes begin -- Last day to submit your electronic Form 8 to propose a date and time for your thesis or directed project oral defense. Do this through the myPurdue web portal. The Graduate School requires a minimum of two weeks notice between the date of receipt of the Form 8 (inclusive of your committee members' e-signatures to be available on the specified date), and the proposed date of your defense. If you have trouble creating your Form 8, see the CIT office.

NOTE: When you propose your defense date make sure you also schedule a separate meeting for your thesis format review with your Advisor.

At least one or two working days prior to your thesis or report format formatting -- Send your electronic thesis or directed project report to your department's Thesis Format Advisor. That electronic copy will be processed by a plagiarism detection service. Also bring a paper copy of your thesis or report to the meeting (printed on one side of the page only).  Do not miss your scheduled thesis or directed project format meeting. If you do, you may not be allowed to deposit your report this semester and graduate .

At least one weekday before your oral defense -- Initiate your electronic Form 9 (via the myPurdue web portal). This form will be used later by your committee to pass or reject your written thesis or directed project report.

Day of your oral defense -- Do not miss your oral defense (also called the final exam ), or you will not graduate this semester. It must occur on the approved date, and  all faculty committee members must be in attendance, either in person or by way of teleconference.  You must also initiate your ETAF and complete the required survey's on the day of your defense through the plan of study portal.

At least two weeks before the end of classes (the earlier the better  -- For thesis students  other than "Exam Only" or "Degree Only" (neither of which is common), last  practical  day to defend thesis and secure electronic signatures on electronic Form 9 (thesis defense/exam). 

• IMPORTANT NOTE: Even NON-thesis students must schedule the above final exam, even though there may not be an oral defense . This is due to a bug in the Graduate School's processing. Non-thesis students can schedule their final exam thorough the CIT office.

Approximately the last day of classes (meaning prior to final exams week)  -- For thesis students , last day to deposit thesis, and to submit their ETAF and Required Survey(s).  The ETAF should be initiated no earlier than the day of a students defense through the plan of study portal.

          Again, for the official deadlines and dates for any of the above, in any given semester, click on this link -->   Graduate School's Calendar .

Resources for Completing Your Research and Development

• ​Institutional Review Board (IRB)  -- also called Human Research Protection Program -- provides approvals required in many CIT theses. If you are collected data via a survey instrument, you must get PRE-approval from Purdue IRB. Federal law requires such approval. You need to account for time to get IRB approval into your research project schedule.
• The Purdue Libraries PRIMO Search Engine  is a relatively new all-in-one search engine provided by the university libraries. It can be useful for your literature research and review.
• Google Scholar  is a special Google search engine designed to find scholarly publications that have been appropriately reviewed or refereed by academic faculty. This can also be useful to your literature research and review. Google Scholar search results point to publications that may be more academically credible than information discovered via Google's standard search engine. Also note that  Google Scholar  search results include a "Cite" link to properly formatted publication citations, including APA.
• Citation Machine (formerly called Son of Citation ) is a simple web app for creating properly formatted APA citations for your REFERENCES. Be aware that the titles of papers, books and other publications will be properly converted to mostly lowercase, but you will need to properly capitalize any entire acronyms and first letters of proper nouns. ​
• Qualtrics  is a web-based survey software service available for use by all Purdue faculty, students and staff to support teaching and research at Purdue. Surveys can be created and distributed by anyone with a career account. Be aware that most surveys require pre-approval from the IRB because they implement research protocols that involve humans.
• The Statistical Consulting Service (SCS)  in the Department of Statistics provides statistical software and design consulting services for the University community – free of charge. The SCS can help you with statistical software problems and data analysis issues. SCS provides assistance with the set up and running of a wide variety of statistical analysis software programs, including SAS ,  SPSS ,  Minitab  and S-Plus . Experimental design and data analysis consulting is available during the Fall, Spring and Summer semesters.  Services include assistance with all phases of research projects: proposal preparation, design of studies, survey design, data input strategies, data import/export, analysis of data, interpretation of results, presentation of results, and other statistics or probability problems.

Resources for Writing Your Thesis or Directed Project Report

• TECH 646 (a course taken by most CIT graduate students) assists the student in developing their proposal and therefore covers how to format the thesis or directed project report. Purdue has very specific standards for the written thesis (which also apply to the CIT directed project report). These standards must be followed precisely.  Additionally, CIT has a few specific standards for our discipline.
• The  Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)  is a link to Purdue's acclaimed Online Writing Lab (OWL) which can be very helpful to students with less than satisfactory writing skills. The web site also provides links into APA formatting expectations.

Thesis and Directed Project Report Templates

When writing your thesis or report, you must follow very specific Purdue and CIT standards. Theses and directed projects follow the same structure and formatting rules. Most students use either Microsoft  Word  or LaTeK to write their thesis or directed project report. To help you conform to Purdue and CIT standards, use the following Word or  LaTeX template.

• Students who prefer Microsoft  Word  should use the latest CIT Thesis Template (Word). This template conforms to the new Graduate School format standards that were announced in Fall 2016. A link is also provided in the sidebar (or menu) to this page.
• Students who prefer  LaTeK  should use the CIT Thesis Template (LaTeX). This template also conforms to the new Graduate School format standards that were announced in Fall 2016. A link is also provided in the sidebar (or menu) to this page.

Required Formatting Review for Theses and Directed Project Reports

All CIT students are required to meet with the  CIT Thesis and Directed Project Format Advisor  at least two days before they defend their thesis or direct project. This formatting appointment is mandatory. If you do not meet with the CIT Thesis and Directed Project Format Advisor and get the appropriate approval signature on the electronic Form 9, you will not graduate on time. The Thesis Formatting Review requires the following steps:

Schedule the formatting meeting to occur before the thesis defense.

• At least two working days before your meeting, submit an electronic copy of your thesis or directed project final report via email to the  CIT Thesis and Direct Project Format Advisor . This copy will be submitted to iThenticate software service for the required plagiarism review.
• Attend your formatting meeting. Failure to attend the meeting may delay your graduation. Bring one printed copy of your thesis (unbound and printed on one side of the page only) to the meeting.
• After the meeting, make any required formatting changes. Otherwise, you will not be allowed to deposit your thesis and graduate.

For your convenience, see the  CIT Thesis and Directed Project Report Checklist , in printable PDF format. This checklist contains all of the Purdue and CIT formatting rules against which your document will be evaluated.

Depositing Your Written Thesis or Directed Project Report

Written thesis.

After you have successfully defended your thesis, and made any required changes to your written thesis, and received all required approvals, you must still officially deposit your thesis. You should familiarize yourself with the Purdue Thesis Deposit Process .

Directed Project Report

There is no university-wide deposit for directed projects. Therefore, deposit appointments are not required for directed project students. Final directed project reports are deposited directly in the CIT Main Office to Kari Ludwig.

Directed project proposals and final reports do require CIT-specific cover forms (CIT DP-1 or CIT DP-3) that are listed in the sidebar menu.

Fall 2018 CIT Thesis and Directed Project Word Template   (last updated June 26, 2017)

Fall 2018  CIT Thesis and Directed Project Format Checklist

Current University Thesis Manual

Fall 2018 CIT LaTeX Thesis Template in Overleaf Editor Format (last updated April 4, 2017) (Contact: Prof. Justin Yang )

Overleaf LaTeX Editor   (highly recommended)

===============

APA Style Refresher / Tips

Google Scholar search engine

Purdue Libraries PRIMO search engine

Citation Machine for APA citation formatting

On-Line Writing Lab Services

Directed Project Forms (below)

Form CIT DP-1 Directed Project Proposal Approval

Form CIT DP-2 Directed Project Final Defense

Form CIT DP-3 Directed Project Final Report

Search our catalog, articles, website and more.

Today's hours, collection spotlight: purdue online writing lab (owl).

by S. Ann Skiold, Art, and Language Librarian

When conducting research, one must always cite the sources used. On the library home page under Citing Sources , you can find various style guides. One citation guide, OWL (Perdue Online Writing Lab) , contains a plethora of information with access to all the style guides listed in citing sources. OWL (Online Writing Lab) was launched in 1994 by two ingenious folks at Purdue University. Their mission was to provide sources for the students at Purdue University who sought writing help. The site has grown into a free worldwide resource. It provides one stop shopping to help formulate a thesis, draft a paper, cite sources, and much more.

It has a site for how to write a resumé or prepare for a job application when you have completed your university degree.

In 2010 OWL also launched the Purdue OWL YouTube channel .

Additionally, OWL has added a site for non-English speakers and writers, since many of us are not native English speakers.

To provide feedback or suggest a title to add to the collection, please complete the Resource Feedback Form .

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A Resource Guide for Consulting with Graduate Students , Mitch Hobza and Vicki R. Kennell

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