Content:
- Thesis subject must be approved by SLBC or HBCI.
- Choose from any Bible related subject such as a
character, doctrine, teaching,
passage, book, etc., or even the Bible as a whole; or, alternatively, it can be on any secular subject
as it relates to the Bible, God (Father and/or Son and/or Holy Ghost), or Christian living.
- You must fill out and submit a Thesis
Approval Form giving tentative information about your
thesis. This preliminary information can be changed later at your own
discretion and without prior approval. However, for a change of subject
you must have prior
approval.
- ATTENTION students pursuing a Master or
Doctor degree: Candidates who had their thesis
subject approved on or after October 9, 2014 must
submit a Prospectus. Candidates who had their thesis subject
approved before October 9, 2014 will proceed under the old
requirements and do not have to submit a Prospectus.
Those candidates with subject approval dated on
or after October, 9, 2014, must meet the following:
1. Once your subject has received
approval, you must then write and submit your Prospectus.
2. After your prospectus has been
approved by the Thesis Committee, you may proceed to compose
your Thesis.
3. Once your Prospectus has been
approved, no changes can be made to it without review and approval
by the Thesis Committee.
4. Be prepared to "defend"
your thesis.
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Size
and reference requirements:
Old requirements for students from
August 31, 2013 and earlier.
-
Bachelor's
thesis, 15,000 words minimum utilizing at least 15 reference works.
You may go more than 15,000 words but you cannot go less than 15,000 words.
- Master's thesis, 20,000
words minimum utilizing at least 20 reference works.
1. You will have to be prepared to defend your Master's thesis upon request by the review committee.
2. You may go more than 20,000 words but you cannot go less than 20,000 words.
- Doctoral thesis, 25,000
words minimum utilizing at least 25 reference works.
1. You may go more than 25,000 words but you cannot go less than 25,000 words.
2. You will have to be prepared to defend your Doctoral thesis upon request by the review committee and complete any rewrites upon notification.
3. Doctoral thesis must be of publishing quality.
Decision by
SLBC or HBCI concerning whether thesis is of "publishing
quality" is binding.
4. It must be a significant
addition to the body of theological, biblical, or Christian
Living, study.
ATTENTION:
New requirements for students from
September 1, 2013 and later.
As of the
beginning of the 2013/2014 schoolyear, which started on September
1, 2013, the following requirements went into effect.
Students who submitted their
Thesis Approval form on or before August 31, 2013 will be held to the
old requirements listed above.
Students submitting their Thesis
Approval form on or after September 1, 2013 must meet the new
requirements listed below.
New requirements for students
from September 1, 2013 and later.
- Master's thesis, 25,000
words minimum utilizing at least 25 reference works.
1. You will have to be prepared to defend your Master's thesis upon request by the review committee.
2. You may go more than 25,000 words but you cannot go less than
25,000 words.
3. Master's thesis must be of publishing quality.
Decisions of the college will be binding concerning whether or not
the thesis is of "
publishing quality."
4. Thesis needs to be submitted
only in electronic format unless a hardbound copy of the final
rewrite is also specifically requested
by SLBC or HBCI.
- Doctoral thesis, 50,000
words minimum utilizing at least 25 reference works.
(After August 31, 2023 the minimum
will go up to 60,000 words.)
1. You may NOT go more than
100,000 words without prior approval.
2. You will have to be prepared to defend your Doctoral thesis upon request by the review committee and complete any rewrites upon notification.
3. Doctoral thesis must be of publishing quality.
Decisions of the college will be binding concerning whether or not
the thesis is of "publishing quality".
4. Doctoral thesis must be
presented in electronic format for review purposes.
5. Upon
completion of rewrites and acceptance, thesis must be
presented in hardbound format and also in electronic format.
6. Thesis must be a significant addition to the body of
studies in Theology, the Bible, or Christian Living.
The
decisions of the college will be binding concerning whether the
work is a "significant addition".
WARNING:
Because of the problem of plagiarism that has been growing over
the last decade until it now has reached plague status, all submissions to
the college will be subjected to analysis to determine if
plagiarism is present in the submitted work.
First offense:
The student will be informed of the plagiarism and for the first
offense will be required to write and submit a Plagiarism
Paper. In it they will be required to research the topic,
"plagiarism" so that in the future (1) they will
understand what it is, (2) the dangers of it, (3) and how to avoid
it. After researching the topic, student will write and submit a
700 - 1,000 word paper on plagiarism, addressing those three
sub-topics, and include 3 reference works accessed while
researching the paper. Student will input the paper in the
"Research Paper" field on the form and include one
reference in each of the three reference fields on the form. There
is a plethora of online sources addressing this topic.
Second
offense:
A second offense will result in a 30 day suspension. When
the suspension is over the student will be allowed to continue
their studies but will be on probation for 6 months.
Third
offense:
A third offense will result in the student being permanently dismissed from
the student body.
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Subject and time
requirements:
- Only two changes of subject will be allowed
after the first proposal. This means that the third proposal
will be binding and cannot be changed.
- Student must complete their thesis, submit
it, defend it, and have it accepted by the College before
continuing on with their studies toward the next higher degree.
- Student must complete their thesis, submit it, defend it, and have it
accepted by the College before receiving their degree.
It is recommended that
students begin their thesis one or two years before the projected
date for the completion of their credit requirements.
- Exceptions: Exceptions to the subject
requirements, number of proposals and length of time for
completion of the thesis, will only be made for reasons of extreme
hardship or very unusual circumstances. Exceptions will be
totally at the discretion of SLBC or HBCI and their decisions are
binding.
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Binding, Formatting and Grading:
- Binding
Both of the following are required:
1. Electronic copy: A copy of the thesis must be submitted in electronic format. Electronic formats include: pdf file; Word; WordPerfect; Open Office; or any other word-processor format. This copy will be required to be sent first for purposes of assessment to determine any required corrections. Student will also be required to defend their thesis at the
Master and Doctoral levels upon request by the review
committee. Student will be notified when it has achieved final acceptance and at that time a final electronic copy that includes all required corrections will be sent
to the college for inclusion in the student's e-file.
2. Hard copy if requested by
the college for the Bachelor or Master level
theses. Thesis needs to be
properly formatted and bound (glued binding, comb binding, etc.).
3. Hard copy for Doctoral thesis is
required: This copy must be sent after student has been notified that their thesis has been accepted.
ATTENTION: As of the beginning of the 2013/2014
schoolyear, which started on September 1, 2013, the following
requirement went into effect.
Doctor thesis final copy must be glue bound with a front
and back hard-cover. The title of the thesis is to be
centered on the front cover and your name centered one space below
the title and the name of the college placed near the bottom of the front
cover.
-
Formatting:
- Minimum formatting requirement
includes: Title Page,
Table
of Contents, Introduction,
Body (including proofs,
comparisons, etc.), Conclusion/Summary
(you may include an Epilogue if you so desire but it is not required),
and a Bibliography
& References
with formal formatting. Click on any of the links to go to
a guideline/sample.
- You will be graded on formatting, spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc.,
as well as content.
- You will be required to defend your thesis upon request.
-Pagination and
numbering:
- A frequent problem is that students don't know how to set
automatic page numbering in Word. Goto the Instruction
Videos page and you will find a link to
"How to set automatic
page numbering in Word."
- Each page in a thesis must be assigned a number
formatted in regular, non-bold and non-italic, black type. (Note:
The thesis title page does not have a number placed on it even
though it is considered as page i.)
- The pages in the preliminary material must be
numbered consecutively with lower case roman numerals (e.g.,
i ii iii iv etc.).
Do not place periods,
parentheses, hyphens, dashes, or any other letters or marks before or after the
roman numerals.
- Page
numbers are placed in the upper right-hand corner, 1/2 to
3/4 inch from the top edge of the paper and even with the right
margin. The manuscript title page counts as page i,
although the number does NOT appear on the page.
- All
preliminary pages such as Acknowledgments, Dedication,
Table of Contents, List of Tables, and List of Figures are
numbered with the lower case Roman
numerals in consecutive order.
- All text pages must be numbered
in the upper right-hand corner, ¾ to 1 inch from the top edge of
the paper and even with the right margin starting with the first
page of the text and using Arabic numbers and are to be in regular, non-bold and non-italic, black type. The Arabic
numbers begin with the first page of Chapter 1 or the
first page of the Introduction if the Introduction is part of the
main body of the thesis, and continue throughout the study, and appendices. On pages printed in landscape, the
page number should be placed in the same position as on the other
pages. All page numbers must be of the same typeface and type
size as the text of the paper. Do not place periods,
parentheses, hyphens, dashes, or any other letters or marks before
or after the page number.
- Bibliography and Reference pages are not numbered but they are titled using the same formatting as CHAPTER HEADINGS.
- Fonts and Page
setup:
- Font size and
placement instructions are given on Title
Page guidelines for the Title Page.
- For all other pages use Times New Roman size 12
font for text and the same font and size for CHAPTER
HEADINGS.
CHAPTER HEADINGS are in capital letters, centered, and in bold
type.
BODY OF THESIS text is to be in Times New Roman size 12
font using Full Justify.
- Page Size and
Formatting- Standard 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch paper. All
margins=1 inch.
- Non-Scripture quotes: Use bold type and quotation marks for all short quotes. Quotes
of 4 lines or more are to be in a block by themselves,
indented an additional 5 character spaces past the regular indent
on the left side and the right side should reach to the regular
right margin. Use bold type but do NOT use quotation marks around the long quotes.
- Do not use an italics font for any quotes.
- Use bold type for all reference indicators, whether they
are as numbers and/or text, and encase them in parentheses' and
place them in superscript;
or, if not in superscript, such as when reference is to a
scripture, whether it is quoted or not quoted in the text, then
they are to be in parentheses
and spaced at least one character past the end of the text
for which they are given.
- All
Scriptures quoted of any size over 1 line in length need
to be in their own block with one blank space above and one blank
space below them. The block needs to be indented 5 extra
spaces past the regular indent on the left, put in bold type, with
the book, chapter, and verse preceding them on its own line and
positioned at the left edge of the block directly above the first
line of quoted scripture text. Quotation marks are to be
used at the beginning and at the end of the Scripture quote.
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