1. These notes apply only to theses that I direct. While they provide some indications of kinds of things I look for as a Reader, Directors differ in their emphases, and you should always follow what your Director says.
2. Ask me anything you want, any time you want, except: don't ask me if such-and-such is available on-line. Two reasons: (A) Students in a graduate program should know how to find out whether something is available on-line; (B) People with Master's degrees or Licentiates must know what is available in a library and how to find it. I and the SHMS Library staff will gladly help you with that.
Guide to marginalia and editorial marks
?... I do not understand what you are saying.
oh?... There is a substantive, and likely obvious, objection to your assertion.
CITE...The assertion needs a citation.
DOD... Develop or Drop. The point is interesting, but it is not necessary for your thesis. In any case, you have mentioned it without adequate foundation or explanation, and as it stands it distracts the reader more than it helps.
PV...Passive voice dangers.
STET or OK ..."Let it stand", as in, whatever I marked, ignore it, I think it is okay after all.
S.O....Spell out (you likely used an unfamiliar abbreviation).
SP...check your spelling. nb: I only marked spelling problems once; you should search for other appearances of the same word or phrase.
X or NO...Your claim or citation is wrong.
A underlined word or phrase means you should look for a better word or phrase, e.g., "The bishop's official mansion..." would read better as "The bishop's official residence..."
A word or phrase circled-and-winged (you'll know it when you see it) or anything drawn-through, should be dropped (usually a sign of verbosity, occasionally error.)
Rare, but still wrong:
Referring to an author by his or her first name, e.g., "Karol" instead of "Wojtyła" or "Henri" instead of "de Lubac". Exceptions: those for whom we have only first names, such as the Apostles. "Thomas" is preferable to "Aquinas".
Making jokes in a thesis. Occasional use of irony is one thing, trying to make a joke is quite another.
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Dr. Peters' Protocols for Master's and Licentiate Theses Direction
Writing a thesis is not simply an exercise demanded by a graduate institution or accrediting agency. One writes a thesis in order to communicate efficaciously important information to persons separated from us by space and time. A thesis can be either descriptive (i.e., it narrates or explains a complex phenomenon, in which case its text needs to be comprehensive, though not exhaustive, of its subject matter) or argumentative (i.e., it seeks to move the reader toward or away from a position, in which case its text needs to be persuasive, though not compelling, to an open and intelligent mind). The line between these two approaches is not always bright, but in either case, the burden of the thesis is carried solely by what is written between its covers.
Getting started
Read the 2006-2008 SHMS Bulletin on general thesis requirements, and this page carefully. Formulate the general idea of your thesis and check it out with your academic advisor. Assuming your advisor's approval of the concept, talk with me at your convenience. At some point I will need your complete contact information and a listing of your course work and language abilities. If, after conferencing, you wish me to direct your thesis and I agree to do so, our formal relationship will be inaugurated in writing.
Basic thesis format
All theses and their drafts shall be typed in Times New Roman 12 point or in Arial 11 point, on 8.5" x 11" quality white paper, printed on one side only. Leave 1 inch margins all around, except the left margin which is 1.5 inches (to allow for binding). Body text must be double-spaced, footnote text must be space-and-a-half. Every page shall carry your last name, be numbered (lower-right), and indicate which draft it is. Inset by half an inch, at space-and-a-half, all quotations of 60 words or more. Use left-side justification throughout. Variations on these parameters not approved by me prior to submitting drafts and/or final versions will not be accepted.
While SHMS Master's theses may not exceed 60 pages, you should expect to write at least 45 pages, exclusive of front materials and bibliographies, for me. Licentiate theses must be between 75 and 100 pages, total.
Language(s)
I expect Masters students to use their research language (i.e., at least one scholarly language other than English) in their thesis. I expect Licentiate students to use Latin and a modern research language in their thesis. This is demonstrated by making competent use of sources or commentaries not also available in English.
Deadlines
I believe in generous deadlines, strictly enforced. It is your responsibility to be aware of institutional deadlines. Get started early: the time projections for thesis-completion in academic bulletins routinely assume optimal working conditions, and who has those?
At the Defense
I tend to ask students defending their thesis the same kinds of questions they would encounter as teachers. Thus some of my questions will have painfully obvious answers. Others are not so simple and are designed to plumb the depth of one's reading. A few have no obvious answers and call for reasonable speculation on your part. And it never hurt anyone to answer, from time to time anyway, a fair question with "I don't know, but I'll look into it."
I assume all defenses are open to the entire seminary community and guests. If you are going to ask for a "closed defense", let me know so that I can consider, but likely decline, serving as director. By the way, even a so-called "closed defense" is open to other SHMS faculty members.
Avoiding writing mistakes from the beginning
Student writing mistakes are of two types, gratuitous assertions and everything else.
1. Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur!
The single greatest flaw I see in student writing is the gratuitous assertion. Mere assertions warrant no assent. Virtually every claim in a thesis (besides those whose truth is easily recognizable by the average adult practicing the Roman Catholic faith in the United States today) must be either defensible internally (as in, the sentence itself, considered in context, satisfies the demands of formal logic), or it should be exteriorly supported by authority (usually by a footnote or in-text citation). Much more on footnotes, below.
2. Other common mistakes in student writing
Bibliographic omissions and intrusions. List in your bibliography every work that is actually quoted in your thesis, and list no works that are not directly quoted in your thesis.
Citing class notes. Class notes are not a "peer-reviewed" source and I am disinclined to e-mail professors and ask them if they really said XYZ. Don't even cite me to myself (I might disagree with what I said). If you gained a special insight though a lecture by or conversation with a professor, acknowledge it, but develop the point from standard academic sources.
Colloquialisms. A thesis is not a chat room. Avoid slangy or trite expressions. Write in a clear, professional manner. But avoid verbosity (see below).
Contractions. Don't use'm.
Creeping clericalism. Distinguish between the respect which is due for the clerical (or religious) status of an author and the relevance of the status to the issues in your thesis. For example, if you want to cite John Myers' 1991 health-care directives to Catholic hospitals, it would be relevant to mention that Myers was a bishop because the directives were issued in his capacity as ordinary; but, if you want to cite Myers as an authority on the history of property law, his possession of the fullness of holy orders is not relevant to his high reliability as a canonist. Similarly, in comparing Felix Cappello's writings on sacraments to those of Heriberto Jone, it is of little moment that the former is Jesuit and the latter a Capuchin. Omit consecrated life honorifics unless they are relevant to the issue at hand.
Italics-mania. The more italics are used, the less they mean.
Language-mixing. All body text must be in one language (English). Terms of art (e.g., ad nutum episcopi, de rigueur) need not be translated.
Misspelled words. If I can spell it correctly, you can spell it correctly.
Passive voice. While one need not ban passive voice verbs from a thesis, be aware that passive voice tires the reader and, worse, tends to mask the agency described in a sentence. For example, imagine a paragraph discussing the role of the diocesan bishop, vicar for finance, finance officer, and diocesan finance council in developing a budget. A closing phrase such as "After the diocesan annual budget is approved..." has slipped into the passive voice and does not tell the reader who had to approve the budget.
Person-informality. Use of the third person fosters objectivity in a thesis; occasionally I countenance use the first person; but if you ever write in the second person, you will regret your decision.
Personal feelings. I don't care about personal feelings. Leave them out of your thesis.
Pietism, a common sub-species of personal feelings, equally to be avoided. If you want to cite, say, John Paul's address to the American bishops during their 1998 ad limina visit, by all means do so, but don't tell me that "our most Holy Father delivered a moving speech that surely inflamed the hearts of the happy men who heard it." I mean, unless it really was like that, in which case you'd better have some evidence for your claim.
Sentence fragments. If it doesn't have a subject and a predicate, it's not a complete thought, and if it's not a complete thought, it doesn't belong in a scholarly paper.
Sources and studies extremes. A thesis must demonstrate competence in handling original sources and subsequent studies on those sources. To write without regard for the sources is to limit one's remarks to what others have said about XYZ, instead of dealing directly with XYZ. To write without reference to subsequent studies implies that one could find nothing of value in the works of others, an untenable proposition for a thesis writer (or most any other academic). Don't strive for a numerically even balance between sources and studies, but make sure both are adequately represented in your work.
Syntax. I can't quite describe it, but I cringe when it's been violated. Example: "I know a man with a wooden leg named Smith." All together now, "What's the name of his other leg?"
Translations offered on faith. When providing your own translations, reproduce the original text in a footnote.
Verbosity. Don't take 30 words to say what could be said in 20. Generally, if the elimination of a given word would not change the meaning the sentence, eliminate the word. Example: Reduce "Francis of Assisi was a validly ordained deacon." to "Francis of Assisi was a deacon."
Wiki, or almost anything else on-line. There is a place for on-line research, of course. I use it all the time, and occasionally, very occasionally, I cite an on-line source in a scholarly paper. But the vast majority of what's available on-line is not "peer reviewed" and therefore is about as unpersuasive as one can get and not be totally irrelevant. Use the Library, and Inter-Library Loan, and experience the pleasure of sitting down in a big overstuffed chair under good diffused lighting with a thick tome and a cup of tea and just reading, instead of word-searching an electronic file and cutting and pasting blocks of text.
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Pay special attention to footnotes
Given the nature of a thesis and the vital importance of avoiding gratuitous assertions, this section on footnotes, the primary way that gratuitous assertions are avoided in academic writing, is going to take awhile.
A footnote should be a beautiful thing, beautiful either in its simplicity or in its complexity, but either way, beautiful. Footnotes are a service to the reader, so justice and charity demand high quality. I suggest that there are three basic kinds of footnotes: Citation, Referral, and Commentary. A single footnote might contain two or even all three sorts of information, but they should be kept distinct and presented in the above order. All footnotes go at the bottom of the page.
1. A citation footnote identifies succinctly, accurately, and unambiguously where its referent text came from. If you are making but a single use of a given source, cite it completely in the appropriate footnote. If you are making two or more uses of a source, use only an abbreviated citation each time, and reserve the full citation for your Bibliography.
Note: When citing universal ecclesiastical documents (the majority of which are in Latin), Master's students must provide a complete citation to an approved translation. Licentiate students must provide the official citation to the Latin original (typically this will be in something like the Acta Apostolicae Sedis) and then a cite for the translation they might use.
2. A referral footnote tells the reader where else he may look for related information. If the related information is consistent with your own assertion, it should start with "See also ..." or "See likewise...", but if the related information is inconsistent with your assertion, it should begin with "But see ..." and should generally include a brief explanation of the difference. Do not shy away from "But see" footnotes. Few things sap a reader's confidence more quickly than a writer's ignorance of, or unwillingness to address, contrary views. If you are confident of your position, you should be able to deal with a "But see" reference in a few words. If you need more than a few words to defend your position against the other author, that might be a sign that the objection warrants a fuller direct discussion in the main text. Do not multiply referral references for the sake of showing erudition or research.
3. A commentary footnote makes an observation that, while genuinely interesting, is not necessary to carry your in-text assertion. Typically, a commentary footnote presents an idea that, if included in the main text, would have been distracting (but recall, most readers glance at footnotes immediately, so there is an element of distraction inherent in a footnote.) Beware of excessive comments in footnotes. If the comment must be extensive, it likely warrants inclusion in the main text.
Some footnote and citation models
Assuming the basic accuracy and clarity of references, the consistency of one's citation style is more important than the conformity of that style with some "authority" such as Turabian or the Chicago Manual. Follow Turabian in case of doubt, and check out any doubts with me first.
For the sake of illustration, assume the specific quotation was taken from the third page of the work in question.
An article cited but once.
Footnote:
Franciscus Roberti, “De recessu ab accusatione matrimonii per promotorem iustitiae”, Apollinaris 12 (1939) 527-530, 529.
Joseph Wolter, “The promoter of justice and the common good in matrimonial causes”, The Jurist 11 (1951) 206-225, 208.
Bibliography:
Franciscus Roberti, “De recessu ab accusatione matrimonii per promotorem iustitiae”, Apollinaris 12 (1939) 527-530.
Joseph Wolter, “The promoter of justice and the common good in matrimonial causes”, The Jurist 11 (1951) 206-225.
An article cited more than once.
Footnote:
Roberti, “De recessu”, 529. Roberti, "De recessu", 530.
Wolter, “Promoter”, 208. Wolter, “Promoter”, 220-221. Wolter, “Promoter”, 215.
Bibliography:
Roberti, “De recessu” • Franciscus Roberti, “De recessu ab accusatione matrimonii per promotorem iustitiae”, Apollinaris 12 (1939) 527-530.
Wolter, “Promoter” • Joseph Wolter, “The promoter of justice and the common good in matrimonial causes”, The Jurist 11 (1951) 206-225.
A monograph cited but once.
Footnote:
Joseph Petrovits, The New Church Law on Matrimony, (McVey, 1921), at 3.
Ladislas Örsy, Marriage in Canon Law, (Glazier, 1986), at 3.
Bibliography:
Joseph Petrovits, The New Church Law on Matrimony, (McVey, 1921), 458 pp.
Ladislas Örsy, Marriage in Canon Law, (Glazier, 1986), 327 pp.
A monograph cited more than once.
Footnote:
Petrovits, Matrimony, 3. Petrovits, Matrimony, 165. Petrovits, Matrimony, 23. Petrovits, Matrimony, 49-51.
Örsy, Marriage, 3. Örsy, Marriage, 122-123.
Bibliography:
Petrovits, Matrimony • Joseph Petrovits, The New Church Law on Matrimony, (McVey, 1921), 458 pp.
Örsy, Marriage • Ladislas Örsy, Marriage in Canon Law, (Glazier, 1986), 327 pp.
A multi-volume work cited but once.
Footnote:
Bibliography:
A multi-volume work cited more than once.
Footnote:
Bibliography:
A book review cited but once.
Footnote:
Bibliography:
A book review cited more than once.
Footnote:
Bibliography:
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