General Instructions for Senior Projects

• Begin to generate ideas for your senior project. You may find that a paper previously completed in a Geography course forms the basis of your senior project. You should also talk to the Undergraduate Advisor or a faculty member about your early ideas.
• Choose a faculty member to serve as your project supervisor or work with the faculty member offering GEOG 3985W/V, Senior Project Seminar, during the semester in which you plan to complete your project.
• Register for two credits of x-registration in connection with another geography course (instructor approval required before the magic number can be issued), 2-4 credits of Geog 3994 (permission of instructor required), or four credits of Geog 3985W/V: Senior Project Seminar. The department offers this four-credit seminar to help you complete your project. All majors are encouraged to enroll in this course whether the instructor will be the project supervisor or not. Take this course after you have chosen a topic for your Senior Project.
• If you choose to satisfy your senior project requirement by completing Geog 4700 and one of its companion courses (either 4121 or 3411) your requirements are specific to the course and you will receive further instruction from the professor. Upon completion, the undergraduate advisor sends a form to the CLA advising office stating that you have satisfied your senior project requirement.
• Obtain and fill out the ―Senior Project Tracking form (available online and in the advising office – SST 414). Some Geog 3985W/V instructors will handle this for you, but be sure you understand whose responsibility it will be to submit this form. You cannot graduate without it.
• Obtain the Department of Geography's Citations Style Guide
• Submit a clean draft to your project supervisor for review, along with your Senior Project Tracking form. A clean draft is a manuscript that is nearing a state of completion. At a minimum, it incorporates a title page, proper citations and bibliography, and is reasonably free from errors of fact or grammar. Obtain comments on this draft from your project supervisor and make revisions to the manuscript according to his/her instructions.
• Submit final manuscript with Senior Project Tracking form to your supervisor or to your Geog 3985 instructor as appropriate. A final manuscript is one that is complete and final, ready for submission as your Senior Project. Obtain your supervisor’s approval of the final manuscript and his/her signature on your Senior Project Tracking form.
• Bring a clean copy of the binding manuscript and the Tracking form to the advising office. Some Geog 3985 instructors will collect the binding manuscript along with the final manuscript and submit it with the Tracking form to the advising office. Your senior project will be bound and placed in the Department’s collection. The advisor will see that CLA receives a copy of the Tracking form and keep the original in your departmental file.

Formatting Requirements for Senior Projects

TITLE PAGE FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS

Your title page for the CLEAN DRAFT, FINAL MANUSCRIPT, and BINDING COPY must mimic the following example:

 
TITLE [capital letters]

A Senior Project submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the [Bachelor of Arts or the Bachelor of Science]

Your Name [first, middle initial, last]
Date [day, month, year--e.g., 1 December 2001]

 

CLEAN DRAFT FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS

• Use only 8.5 x 11 inch white paper.
• The top, right and bottom margins should be 1 inch. The left margin should be 1.5 inches.
• Number the pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner. Although numbering begins with the title page, you may omit the number ―1‖ from the title page.
• You must include a 100-word abstract of your paper on page 2.
• For the clean copy only, maps, figures, graphs, and tables may be submitted on sheets of paper larger than 8.5 x 11 inches. If you do this, each sheet should
  contain only one map etc. Properly label, cite and cross-reference each sheet. Include your name on each sheet. Collect all these sheets together, arrange them in order of appearance, and place them at the very end of the draft. Do not integrate these sheets with the other pages of text—it complicates editing.
• Bind the pages securely by stapling the upper left-hand corner. Make certain the staple is of sufficient size to keep the pages together. Never use paper clips, acetate covers, three-holed binders, etc.
• Print-out should be from a quality laser or ink-jet printer. The print must be dark and near-letter-quality. Faculty do reject unreadable drafts.

 

FINAL MANUSCRIPTFORMATTING REQUIREMENTS

• Use only 8.5 x 11 inch white paper.
• The top, right and bottom margins should be 1 inch. The left margin should be 1.5 inches.
• Number the pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner. Although numbering begins with the title page, you may omit the number ―1‖ from the title page.
• All maps, figures, graphs, and tables must be reduced to fit within the established margins on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper. Take care with your reductions, as copies of copies become fuzzy. These materials should be integrated with the text. Make sure that the text refers to the appropriate Figure or Table number, and that all maps, figures, and graphs are labeled consecutively as Figures, and all tables consecutively as Tables (e.g., Figure 1, Table 3, etc.).
• Bind the pages securely by stapling the upper left-hand corner. Make certain the staple is of sufficient size to keep the pages together. Never use paper clips, acetate covers, three holed binders, etc.
• The print must be letter-quality, and print-out must be from a laser printer. Print with letter-quality fonts, such as Times, Palatino, Schoolbook, Bookman or equivalent fonts. The design of these fonts maximizes reading comfort. Do not use Courier, Helvetica, Script or their equivalents. They are not designed for manuscript reading.

 

BINDING MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS

• Paper, margins, pagination, title page, references, and printout are the same as in the final manuscript.
• Do not bind the pages in any manner.
• The manuscript must be free of editorial or grading marks of any kind.