School of Computing
Graduate Student Session
What You Need to Do to Graduate This Term
And Other Important Information
September 16, 2016
15/2203
12:00 PM
School of Computing
Topics
 Programs of Study
 Research
 Requirements
 Deadlines
 Thesis Write-ups
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Thesis defense
Data flow
Editorial requirements
Plagiarism
The role of your thesis advisor
Where to find help
Forms
Signature pages
School of Computing
Programs of Study
 Computer Science
 CS
 Software Engineering
 SE
 Information Systems
 IS
School of Computing
Research
 Select Thesis Advisor
 Listen during course work
 Identify common areas of interest
 Extend knowledge base slightly
 Secure Prospectus
 Select committee members
 Set up meetings
 The thesis is your responsibility
School of Computing
Deadlines and Critical Times
 Deadline to apply for graduation
 Tuesday, November 8, 2016
 Applications are available on the web or from the One Stop Student
Services Center. Students may apply online in MyWings by signing into
Student Self-Service, then selecting Student Records, then Graduation
Application.
School of Computing
Deadlines and Critical Times
 Deadline for presentation of a thesis defense
 Friday, 6 weeks before the end of the term
 The final draft of the thesis write-up is due the day presented
 Thesis or Dissertation track, s/he should visit the UNF Graduate
School Thesis and Dissertations Procedures and Timeline site
to plan accordingly: UNF - The Graduate School - Thesis and
Dissertation Procedures
 Date by which thesis must be in the Graduate School
 Friday, 2 weeks before the end of the term
 Date by which thesis must be in the library
 Friday, following final exams
School of Computing
Thesis Defense
 Thesis defenses are conducted in open forum
before the thesis committee and must be held
on or prior to the deadline set by the Graduate
School for the term
 Thesis is graded pass/fail as determined by the
thesis committee
 The final draft of the thesis write-up is due the day of
the defense in hard copy form for submission to the
Director of the School of Computing
 At least 5 School of Computing Graduate Faculty
members must be in attendance
School of Computing
Data Flow
Your idea
SoC Graduate faculty agrees
to work with you
Create/refine an
idea
With thesis
advisor/committee
Establish thesis committee
3 graduate faculty 1 of whom is thesis advisor
Committee does
not approve
Proposal form* to
Graduate Dean
School of Computing
*on grad school web site
Develop and present
prospectus
to committee
Committee
approves
Do the work keeping
advisor/committee
informed
continued
Data Flow
* If the final draft is
returned to the thesis
Advisor
by a reviewer, graduation
will likely be delayed and
in some cases the
presentation repeated
this term
Complete work for thesis keeping advisor/committee informed
With thesis advisor
& thesis committee
(8-9 weeks before
commencement)
Student, thesis
advisor/committee
Provide committee
thesis write-up draft
Final draft
Thesis advisor
At least 5-6 weeks before
commencement **
approves
Thesis defense
Committee approves
School Director
School review
Director approves
College Dean
Graduate Dean
** Graduate School deadline
School of Computing
College review
University review
Final copies
Library
GRADUATE
Plagiarism
 Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty
basically characterized by incorporation of
someone else’s work in your own without
proper acknowledgement
 Implies you are claiming original authorship for work not your own
 If plagiarism is found to be present, it can result in harsh penalties
ranging from severe reduction in grade to expulsion to criminal
prosecution
 If employed, it can result in loss of job, limiting prospects of re-employment elsewhere
School of Computing
Plagiarism (cont)
 Self-Plagiarism is re-use of your own work
already submitted for another purpose without
revealing that fact
 Submission of a project already completed for an employer
 Submission of a second Masters thesis substantially taken from a first
Masters thesis
 Submission of a paper already submitted for another class
 ACM (October, 2006) has published a Policy and
Procedures on Plagiarism, including a policy for
self-plagiarism
 (http://www.acm.org/pubs/plagiarism%20policy.html)
School of Computing
Considerations
 Wholesale copying and pasting together paragraphs from
multiple sources, so-called content scraping, even with
acknowledgement, is not an acceptable practice
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Word for word text used in-line should be enclosed in quotes, with a citation
Full paragraphs incorporated into your work should be offset and indented, with a
citation
 Work paraphrased from a source should acknowledge the
reference or references it is taken from
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Paraphrasing is more than changing a word or two, it is rewriting in your own words
 When you have read from multiple sources and written your own opinions,
you should still include these sources in your Bibliography even though
there’s no expectation that you specifically cite them
 This provides the answer to the question: “I wonder if they’ve read what X has to
say about this?”
School of Computing
Checking…
 The School of Computing will be utilizing
 iThenticate (http://www.ithenticate.com) plagiarism prevention
software for thesis submissions
School of Computing
The Role of Your Thesis Advisor
 Your work is to be your own
 The faculty resource is for review and advice
 You should have regular, on-going meetings with your thesis advisor
(and thesis committee) while your work is in progress
 Your thesis advisor is a published authority, and as such is
expected to be able to assist you with content
 Faculty time for editorial assistance is limited
 Write-ups returned during the review process reflect negatively on
those who have approved the write-up to that point
School of Computing
Requirements
to be cleared to graduate this term
 Must have applied to graduate
 Program of study must have been completed
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Courses must have grades of B or better (1 C)
Graduate GPA must be 3.0 or higher
All incomplete grades must have been resolved
Thesis write-up must have been accepted for UNF Library
archive
 Any outstanding financial obligations to UNF (e.g.,
library fines, parking tickets) must have been paid
School of Computing
Graduate School Thesis Requirements
 After the prospectus has been accepted by the thesis
committee, a Proposal Filing Form is to be submitted to
the Graduate Dean, Dr. John Kantner
 The form is on the Graduate School’s website
 Download, complete, and submit electronically to the
Graduate School as a PDF file
 Due at the time of prospectus presentation
 The Graduate School will not process thesis submissions
for which this form is not on file
School of Computing
Editorial Requirements
 The final draft
 Formatted according to School of Computing Thesis Guidelines
 Observes commonly accepted standards for technical writing
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ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian – Bookstore)
Handbook of Technical Writing (St. Martin’s Press)
Science and Technical Writing (Routledge)
 Submissions after deadline
 Graduation usually delayed to subsequent term
School of Computing
Editorial Requirements (cont)
 Submissions with significant deficiencies, either editorial or content
 Submission returned to thesis advisor to resume work with student to
make corrections
 On resubmission of the work, the review process is started over from the beginning,
behind all other work already in review – in some instances the presentation may need
to be repeated
 Reviewers may suspend their review at any point they determine a
write-up needs to be returned
 If only the errors noted by such a reviewer are corrected, the paper will probably be
returned again, and with admonishment
 If a write-up is returned to the thesis advisor, graduation in the current
term cannot be assured
School of Computing
Where to Find Help
 UNF Graduate School
 Professional editors
 Library
 Contain Study rooms
 School of Computing thesis guidelines
thesis
School of Computing
Where to Find Help (cont)
 School of Computing Web Page: Items of Interest
Tab
 Common Errors in English Website
(http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/)
 Reference texts
 Handbook of Technical Writing by Alred, Brusaw, and Oliu (St.
Martin’s Press)
 Science and Technical Writing by Rubens (Routledge)
 For general questions
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Chicago Manual of Style (University of Chicago Press)
A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian)
 ACM examples
School of Computing
Forms
 Thesis
 CIS 6970 Enrollment
Form
(http://www.unf.edu/ccec/cis/SoCpdf/
CIS6970-form.pdf)
 every term enrolled
School of Computing
Forms
 Thesis
 Graduate School Proposal Filing Form
(http://www.unf.edu/graduatestudies/
pdf/proposal_filing_form.pdf)
 With acceptance of prospectus
School of Computing
Signature Pages
 For both thesis submissions
 Turn in 2 signature pages with final draft
 Final draft on regular paper
 Signature pages on thesis paper
 Thesis signature page is included within
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http://www.unf.edu/ccec/computing/Policies___Guidelines.aspx
School of Computing
Acknowledgement
These slides were initially created by Professor Emeritus
Dr. Charles Winton, retired, and edited by Dr. Roger
Eggen who is entirely responsible for the content.
Thank you for your attention.
Any questions?
Dr. Roger Eggen
School of Computing