Record Keeping Form | Approval of Thesis Form | Approval of Internship Form

NOTE: This document is a departmental supplement to the graduate bulletin of East Carolina University and is designed to help graduate students complete degree requirements in two years. Although faculty are available for assistance, students are responsible for knowing what is required of them and for their timely progress through their academic program. The student is encouraged to read and become familiar with the ECU Graduate Catalog and the Graduate School’s Manual of Basic Requirements for Theses and Dissertations, http://www.ecu.edu/gradschool/the_dis/manual.html.

This document is organized according to what graduate students need to know once they are admitted to the program. In order to earn the masters degree within two years, students must:

Graduate Students are expected to pursue their studies energetically and to complete their advanced degree without undue delay. The department regards procrastination in any form unfavorably.

The thesis will be based on independent research as agreed to by the student’s thesis committee and will follow a format that is compatible with the requirements of the Graduate School. The thesis committee must have a minimum of 4 committee members (a chair and two other faculty members from the department and one consultant from outside of the department). Before the research is actually begun, students must present their committee with a written thesis proposal. There is to be an oral defense of the thesis proposal. The Graduate School must also approve the thesis topic. 


The Graduate Comprehensive Examination in Anthropology is required of all students pursuing the Masters Degree in Anthropology. The exam is in an essay format and administered during the fall semester of the second year. The department’s Director of Graduate Studies will notify the students as to the exact format, date, and time of the exam. The content of the examination questions will cover the material presented in the core courses and possibly other readings. The Director elicits questions from the graduate faculty and composes the exam. The Director and at least three graduate faculty members read responses to each question anonymous. Each question will receive a grade of high pass, pass, low pass, according to a consensus of the exam readers, and they shall assign an overall examination grade based upon the same scale. An examination grade of High Pass, Pass, or Fail is submitted to the student no later than three weeks following the administration of the examination. In the event of failure, the student is allowed to retake the examination the following fall. Failure the second time constitutes termination from the masters degree program.


Students admitted to the masters degree program are eligible for graduate teaching or research assistantship support. Support, awarded for up to two-years, provides contracted payment to students enrolled for 9 hours or three courses per semester for 20 hours of work per week for faculty or the department. Continued support is contingent upon funding from the University, satisfactory work performance, and demonstrated progress towards the degree. Students with full-time assistantship support must complete the required courses on schedule. The Department makes no commitment to assistantship support beyond that contracted on a semester or an annual basis. Generally, support will not be extended beyond two years. Before a student can be assigned full responsibility for an undergraduate course, 18 s.h. of anthropology courses at the 5000 and 6000 level must be completed.

If a faculty member judges work to be unsatisfactory, the student may receive a letter outlining the specific work problem(s) and suggesting corrective measures. If the faculty member continues to consider the work to be unsatisfactory, the assistantship may be terminated.

The first priority for graduate students is the timely completion of class and program requirements. Consequently, faculty members may not assign work conflicting with classes or interfering with reasonable preparation for exams or class projects. Beyond this restriction, students are expected to complete the hours of work that have been assigned.  Other time commitments (such as other work), must be communicated to the department’s Director of Graduate Studies prior to the assignment of assistantship support or any time during the contracted assistantship period. Other work commitments shall not interfere with assistantship commitments.


Plagiarism is defined as the presentation of ideas or words of another as one’s own. Because plagiarism is a highly dishonest and unethical act, it will not be tolerated. When writing term papers, the comprehensive exam, and the thesis, all ideas or words of another must be thoroughly referenced.


Students are expected to follow the ethical mandates of their subfield and the principles of ethical scientific conduct. If the student is conducting research involving human subjects, it is the responsibility of the student to follow the guidelines of the Institutional Review Board. The form entitled “Application for Approval of Research involving Human Subjects” can be obtained from the departmental administrative assistant. It is to be filled out in consultation with the student’s thesis advisor and submitted to the department chair for further action. It may also be necessary to provide for an “Informed Consent” form.  Likewise, research involving animals needs to be cleared with the Animal Care Committee.  


Students must apply to graduate at least one semester before all requirements for the degree are fulfilled. The necessary forms are available in the Registrar's Office.  Completed forms should be taken to the Cashier's Office where a diploma fee will be required. Prior to the completion of the forms, the student should make an appointment with the Director of Graduate Studies to insure that all requirements for graduation will be met by the close of the following semester. The thesis also must be submitted to the chair of the Department of Anthropology for her/his signature. Because the chair will want to read the thesis before signing it, the chair must have the thesis after the committee approves it and at least one week before it is due in the graduate school.


The writing of a thesis requires careful planning in order to effectively execute the completion of a final document in a timely and orderly fashion. Those doing an internship and writing an internship report can follow these same guidelines. There are several steps to completing a thesis/internship that include producing the proposal, carrying out the research, writing the thesis/internship proposal, and depositing the thesis with the graduate school and the department. Below is outlined a time line for completing each step.  

Spring Semester, First Year.

• Title Page (Name of student, title of thesis/internship, committee members)
• Abstract  1 paragraph
• Statement of the Problem (including relevant theories and background information)  1-2 pages
• Methods (i.e., how will the data be collected and on what population) (library theses are acceptable) 1-2 pages
• Expected Results 1-2 pages
• References (to follow the guidelines of a major journal of the student’s subfield--e.g., American Anthropologist, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, American Antiquity, etc.)
• Budget, if relevant and sources of revenue

The student’s committee chair will help the student formulate a set of research plans and assemble these plans into a coherent research strategy with attainable goals known as a thesis proposal. Each proposal must contain a thesis statement that clearly defines the goal of the thesis. The thesis proposal must also indicate that the student has performed sufficient background (i.e., library, etc.) research to conduct the thesis, the research can be carried out and the thesis written within the time frame, and the goals of the thesis are attainable. The above outline for a thesis proposal is meant as a guide. Your thesis advisor may ask for a different set of guidelines.

When the chair of your MA project says that the proposal is ready to go out to committee members, give the proposal to committee members. DO NOT GIVE THE PROPOSAL TO COMMITTEE MEMBERS UNTIL THE CHAIR OF YOUR COMMITTEE SAYS THAT THE PROPOSAL IS READY TO BE GIVEN OUT TO COMMITTEE MEMBERS. THE PROPOSAL SHOULD BE GIVEN TO COMMIITTEE MEMBERS NO LATER THAN TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE DEFENSE DATE.

You cannot use any data in your thesis that was collected before your committee approves the proposal. IF YOU ARE IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY YOU CANNOT BEGIN TO COLLECT DATA UNTIL YOU HAVE IRB APPROVAL. LIKEWISE, IF YOU ARE TO BE ENGAGED IN INVASIVE ANIMAL RESEARCH YOU MUST HAVE THE APPROVAL OF THE ANIMAL CARE COMMITTEE BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOUR RESEARCH.

Your proposal must be approved by May 1 to allow for data collection over the summer otherwise you must wait until the fall to defend your proposal and begin collecting data. The students should aim for April 1 as the deadline to get the proposal to the student’s committee.

Bring to your proposal defense (thesis or internship) the sign off sheet. This sheet must by sign by at least the anthropologists on your committee.  

Give the sign off sheet (see below) and a copy of your proposal to the director of the anthropology MA program. It does not have to be a clean perfect copy of the proposal.  A marked up proposal is fine. If the director is on your committee, his/her copy will go into your file. If he/she is not on your committee, be sure a copy of your proposal with the sign off sheet goes to the director of the anthropology MA program.

Summer of First Year: Collect your data and finish the library search.

Second Year
Fall Semester:  Finish collecting data and begin writing.

Spring Semester:  Schedule the Thesis defense.

The student, working with his/her advisor, should have a completed draft (see below) to the advisor NO LATER THAN a month prior to the proposed thesis defense date. This means that if the student wants to graduate in the Spring, the thesis should be to the advisor by the Ides of March at the latest. Those wanting to graduate in Fall should have their thesis to their advisor by Halloween
Once the advisor approves distribution of the thesis, it should be provided, in hard copy, to the thesis committee NO LATER THAN three weeks before the defense date. The student is then responsible for securing a room for the defense, posting notices of the defense in the department, and preparing five copies of the signature page on the appropriate paper and bringing those to the defense.

Students should not plan on a defense during the summer session. Those students wanting to graduate in the summer should defend before the end of Spring semester by the first week in May.

The Completed Draft: A completed draft is defined as one where the individual chapters have been approved by the advisor in advance, and these are then combined and formatted correctly along with a draft signature page, table of contents and references cited section along with copies of all maps and figures labeled correctly. Formatting guidelines are available on the ECU Graduate School web page, but students should consult copies of previous departmental theses to get the correct style and format for the signature page.