BA thesis regulations

1 Definitions, prelimiary procedures & deadlines

1.1 The following information is for students majoring in English who intend to write their B.A. thesis in one of the topic areas DELP offers to provide supervision in. For general guidelines concerning theses in the BA in English programme, please consult http://seas.elte.hu/w/studies/graduation/thesis.

1.2 The BA thesis is a coherent and informed English language discussion of a professional issue pertaining to English language studies. It addresses one or more research questions, is clearly structured and written, and reaches a logical conclusion. It must also demonstrate the author's familiarity with academic English and the literature of the given topic area. DELP offers supervision in topic areas related to English language use, language learning and teaching, civilisation of English speaking cultures, intercultural communication and Australian studies. For more details see the  section  on BA thesis topics below. Theses in these areas may  be based on empirical research or library research.

1.3 Academic support of the work of the thesis writer is provided by a supervisor from the Department. Students should try and pick their own supervisors by approaching individual tutors, preferably as early as possible, as a single tutor is not allowed to take more than a certain number of supervisees (usually three per year); in other words, supervisor allocation operates on a 'first come, first served' basis. If a preferred supervisor is not available or a student cannot find anyone who is willing to accept him or her as a supervisee, a supervisor will be assigned by the head of the department. The deadline for letting the head know that someone is left without a supervisor is two weeks before the deadline for submitting the thesis title to the registrar. In addition, please note that DELP - like all other SEAS departments - can only provide thesis supervision for a limited number of students.

1.4 To submit a thesis title for a BA thesis

1 You have to give a completed Statement of Intent to your supervisor. Discuss the topic, the title and the approach with your supervisor and finalise the title.

2 The title has to be submitted electronically on Neptun, where they will have to be approved of by the supervisor and also by Dr. Rita Divéki, who is in charge of BA theses. If the title is not clear enough or is too broad or is problematic in any way, it may be rejected and improvements may be required.

General deadlines

For specific deadlines of the current term, please check the news.

DELP DEADLINE Proposal to be submitted to the supervisor	Who to turn to	Proposal (címbejelentő) submission deadline at the Registrar (TH)	Thesis submission deadline at the Registrar (TH)
Two weeks before the registrar's (TH) deadline	Rita Divéki	mid-March mid-October (semester before thesis submission)	mid-November mid-April

2 The supervision

2.1 With the consent of the supervisor, students have to sign up for a so-called Tutorial Seminar in Neptun, which is not a time-tabled course, only a means of formalising the supervision.

2.2 The supervisor will provide guidance in writing the BA thesis. Students are entitled and also required to take part in three compulsory consultations during the writing process. Consultants can offer the following support:

• clarification of the topic and title of the thesis
• discussion of the appropriate research questions
• suggestions for a reading list
• advice on possible approaches to the analysis. 

2.3 The supervisor cannot be expected to edit language, punctuation and spelling. The thesis is supposed to demonstrate the student's academic abilities and language skills, so the quality of the paper is entirely the student's responsibility.

3 The formal requirements of a BA thesis

3.1 The BA thesis must be submitted having been computer printed. The length of the thesis must be at least 40,000 characters (a minimum of 20 pages and a maximum of 22 pages, not including the Table of Contents, the preliminary pages (title pages, the Abstract), the Appendices, and the References section (Bibliography). The References section of a research project type thesis must contain at least five items from the relevant academic literature, whereas the references section of a library research based thesis must contain at least eight references in addition to primary sources.

3.2 Font: Times New Roman, size 12, spacing: 2, margins: 2,5 cm.

3.3 Academic papers at DELP have to follow the APA Manual (7th Edition)* regarding formatting, citation and referencing. As APA relates to using American English, and spelling and punctuation rules vary in different national varieties of English, authors should be consistent in applying the spelling and punctuation rules of the variety they use and thus may deviate from the standards described by APA. Papers should be organised using headings relevant to the type of paper. Chapters and sections are also to be numbered or go without numbering depending on the type of paper. In seminar papers numbering is not necessary, while in theses numbering should be used. The APA citation and referencing style must be adhered to meticulously in every type of paper.

*Except papers on literary, historical, social or cultural topics in the Australian Studies Programme, which should be written according to the MLA guidelines.

More information on the documentation requirements can be found at the APA & MLA guidelines section of this site.  

3.4 Please check this website for the formal requirements.

The thesis must be submitted electronically in Neptun AND on the School of English and American Studies (SEAS) web page by the same deadline.

3.5 The cover page should carry the words "alapszakos szakdolgozat", in addition to the title of the thesis both in English and Hungarian, the supervisor's name and title in the bottom left-hand corner, the student's name and major in the bottom right-hand corner, and the year of submission at the bottom. (Sample cover pages can be found on the website of the Faculty of Humanities.

In Hungarian

and in English

3.6 The thesis should contain the following sections:

Certificate of Research in English and Hungarian (A sample of such a declaration of originality in English can be found in the Forms section of the site, while a Hungarian version can be found on the website of the Faculty of Humanities)
Abstract of 200-300 words
Table of Contents
Introduction
Body of the thesis (different for different types of research)
Conclusion
References or Works cited (following the requirements of APA or MLA documentation respectively)
Appendices

4 The Assessment of the BA thesis

4.1 The thesis will be read and marked by an independent tutor of the department (the 'Bíráló') allocated by the Head of the Department or the BA thesis coordinator.

4.2 The language (and form) criteria have been worked out by DEAL for all SEAS theses (See Forms), and the scores from this source (a maximum of 25 points) will constitute one third of the full score (a maximum of 75 points) awarded for the thesis. The candidate gets a separate mark for this aspect of the thesis, which will be determined in accordance with the following chart:

Points     Grades

23-25 = 5 (jeles/excellent)
20-22 = 4 (jó/good)
17-19 = 3 (közepes/average)
15-16 = 2 (elégséges/pass)
0-14 = 1 (elégtelen/fail)

4.3 As for the content of the thesis, the reader will award scores of 0-3 or 0-4 for each of the aspects specified in one of the three DELP BA Thesis Scoring Sheets (see Forms) designed and developed for the two different types of theses supervised by DELP, and the scores from this source will constitute two thirds (a maximum of 50 points) of the full score awarded for the thesis. The candidate gets a separate mark for this aspect of the thesis, which will be determined in accordance with the following chart:

Points     Grades

45-50 = 5 (jeles/excellent)
40-44 = 4 (jó/good)
35-39 = 3 (közepes/average)
30-34 = 2 (elégséges/pass)
0-29 = 1 (elégtelen/fail)

4.4 The final grade of thesis will be determined on the basis of the aggregate score from the two sources in accordance with the following chart:

Points     Grades

68-75 = 5 (jeles/excellent)
60-67 = 4 (jó/good)
52-59 = 3 (közepes/average)
45-51 = 2 (elégséges/pass)
0-44 = 1 (elégtelen/fail)

4.5 A thesis is a potential fail if the first reader awards:

• less than 45 points (60% of the full score) for the aggregate Language/Content score
• 0 for any one of the Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation or Range & control of vocabulary criteria in the Language section, or
• if either one of the Language or Content mark is a fail.
• if plagiarism is suspected, i.e. an intentional yet uncredited reproduction of someone else's work, ideas or words occurs.

4.6 The Head of the Department (or thesis coordinator) appoints a second reader if the first reader fails the thesis.

4.6.1 If a thesis is also failed by the second reader, its final grade will be a 1 (fail).

4.6.2. If the second reader does not fail a thesis, the two readers will try and agree on the final score. If they cannot reach an agreement, the Head of Department appoints a third marker whose decision will be final.

4.7 In addition to awarding the total scores and grades to both the Language and the Content components and the aggregate final score and grade of the thesis, the reader ('Bíráló') will write up a report - a 6 to 10-line summary of his/her conclusions in English or Hungarian. 

BA Thesis topics

The following list offers seven broad areas in which DELP tutors offer supervision for BA theses, along with a few examples of possible topics within each area. For specific topics offered by DELP staff, please go to the staff directory.

1. The customs, traditions, civilisation of English-speaking cultures

2. Australia (offered by the Australian Studies Programme)

3. The relationship between language and culture

4. Intercultural communication

5. English in the media

6. The role of English in Hungary and in the world

7. Investigating aspects of learning English