Undergraduate Program

Preparing to Write a Thesis in Government

Although you don’t actually write your thesis until senior year, the success of your thesis depends in large part on what you do junior year.

The first decision you have to make is whether to write a thesis or not. This decision involves a combination of both academic and non-academic considerations. Devoting your senior year to thesis writing doesn’t require that you drop everything else (at least not until the final few weeks), but it does mean that you’re choosing to spend a very considerable portion of your time senior year engaged in scholarly research and writing.

Many students find this academic challenge an exciting capstone experience to their Government Department and Harvard experience. But many students also choose not to write a thesis because they wish to focus their energies elsewhere. Approximately 30-40% of Government concentrators each year choose to write a thesis.

When you start your junior year, you might not know yet whether you want to write a thesis. If you’re like many of your peers, you’ll have questions such as, “What exactly does a thesis look like?”, “So how much work do I really have to do?” and “What are the steps involved if I want to write?” The Government Department’s course offerings and programming for juniors are designed to answer these questions, and many others related to thesis preparation.

If you already know that you wish to write a thesis, your questions may be slightly different: “What courses do I need to take to prepare me to write a thesis?”, “How much statistical preparation do I need to succeed in my thesis?”, or “Is anything different for me if I’m writing a political theory thesis?” Our programming junior year is also designed to answer questions like these.

In addition to official Government Department programming, however, it’s also up to you to take initiative to explore the possibility of writing a thesis. Below is a rough schedule of what you should be doing during the junior year if you’re thinking about writing a thesis. (You can also download this timeline as a .pdf document.)

Late summer / Early fall: Before junior year classes start …

• Start thinking about whether you want to write a thesis, and if so, what topic it might be on. (It’s okay if the answers are still very vague at this point.)
• If you are a joint concentrator, you should be in touch with both of your Departments, and speak with the Undergraduate Program Office in the Government Department about your plans.
• To give yourself a better understanding of the thesis writing process, check out the Guide to Writing a Senior Thesis in Government. The Guide contains a wealth of useful information, and should be your first stop in exploring the thesis writing process.
• Now is the time to open a conversation with your House Concentration Adviser, former TFs, and advising staff in CGIS about your thesis ideas. Seek their advice on courses to take, people to talk to in the Department, and pieces to read. Even if you don’t have an idea, it’s good to open up this dialogue because an idea might very well come to you in the course of the emails or conversations.
• One of the best ways to learn how to write a thesis is by examining theses written by Government Department seniors in the past. There are several ways to do this, and you don’t need to wait for Gov 99 to get started. First, you can visit the Harvard library system, and look at the Hoopes prize theses. These represent some of the best theses in our department and beyond. Second, you can also check out the online Harvard College Thesis Repository, which includes a growing number of recent Government theses.

Early Fall: Selecting courses junior year

• As you start to sketch out some ideas for possible topics, look at the course catalog to see if there are Research Seminars that might align with your interests. Feel free to contact the professors before classes begin to express your interest, and solicit their advice.
• Research Seminars. In order to be on the Government Honors track, you need to take at least one Research Seminar (Gov 98). But we strongly recommend that you take more than one. There are three reasons why multiple research seminars will be beneficial. First, it will expose you to multiple methods for conducting research. Political science does not have a “one size fits all” approach to research, and taking just one research seminar won’t give you full exposure to the range of tools political scientists use in their work. Second, more research seminars means more practice actually doing research. The more research you do junior year, the better prepared you’ll be senior year. Finally, taking more than one seminar will provide you with more personal contact in the Department. As you search for an adviser and seek out advice on thesis writing, these close personal relationships with professors can be very important.
• Think about the courses you’ve taken so far, and determine if there are any methodology courses that you need to take in order to write a successful thesis. Specifically, have you taken Gov 50? If not, do you feel comfortable enough with research design to carry out a thesis that will require it? If you’re considering heavy use of qualitative methods (e.g. interviewing, content analysis), you might also consider looking at Sociology 128 (you’ll need the instructor’s permission to join).

Mid-to-Late Fall: Finding an adviser

• By mid-to-late Fall, you should start thinking more carefully about what you might want to write your thesis on, and who you might like to work with. In the Government Department, advisers can be either Government Department faculty or graduate students. A list of graduate students who have expressed particular interests in advising is available here.
• It’s important to start looking now because there are a number of thesis research funding deadlines in February, and in order to apply for some of them, you’ll need a decent idea of your thesis topic, as well as faculty support for the idea.
• To make your thesis adviser search easier, please read Advice on Finding a Thesis Adviser. Remember: you don’t need to know your precise question before you start talking with potential advisers. Indeed, one of the roles of an adviser is to help you arrive at a question. While you certainly need a general topic area, this may be enough to open up a conversation with an adviser.
• In November, start looking for emails from the Government Department Undergraduate Program Office announcing the “introductory session" for juniors interested in writing a thesis. This panel, which is usually held before Thanksgiving, will provide you with a chance to hear from Harvard faculty members about how to find a thesis adviser.  Here are notes from last year's panel.
• You should also draw on your House Concentration Adviser and the CGIS Staff as you try to select your preliminary thesis topic and search for an adviser. We can send emails on your behalf, recommend colleagues for you to talk to, and serve as a sounding board for your ideas.

Late Fall / Early Spring: Finding Funds for Thesis Research

• There are many opportunities to obtain funding for your thesis research. But many of these funding opportunities have their deadlines in February, which means that you need to start thinking in late Fall and early Spring semester about what to apply for. We have compiled a list of funding opportunities.
• In the first week of the Spring semester, we will hold a “Funding Your Thesis Research” session, in which we will talk about how to prepare a grant proposal. You should also be in touch with your House Concentration Advisers and the CGIS Advising staff to get feedback on your specific proposals.
• If you’re still undecided, make sure to attend our panel in February, comprised of seniors who wrote a thesis and seniors who didn’t, to talk about the pros/cons of writing.

Mid-to-Late Spring: Finding a topic and adviser

• By the middle of your Junior Spring, you should be fully exploring your potential thesis topic, and be engaged in the search for a thesis adviser in the Department.
• In order to keep your thesis-writing options open, a series of three mandatory sessions, as well as a number of strongly recommended workshops, will be run in March and April. These sessions are designed to introduce the thesis process in more detail, and introduce you to the skills you’ll need to conduct your research. You’ll have ample opportunity to speak with members of the Gov 99 (Senior Thesis Writers’ Workshop) teaching staff about your particular ideas. We will cover topics such as: How to select your cases, How to conduct a literature review, Preparing to do summer research series, Content Analysis, Interviewing Methods, and Measurement / Operationalization of your variables.
• If you are planning on writing a thesis in Political Theory, you will take a special track that introduces you to issues specific to theory writing.

Late Spring: Submit your adviser contract, prepare for summer research

• By the end of May, you need to submit an Adviser Contract to the Undergraduate Program Office. It is critical, even if you’re not going to be doing research over the summer, that you leave campus in the Spring with a thesis adviser set for the following year. Trying to find an adviser over the summer is often difficult because of travel schedules, and not being on campus. If you spend the beginning of the Fall semester still looking for an adviser, you’ll be behind your peers.
• If you’re struggling with finding an adviser, or even coming up with a thesis topic, speak with your Concentration Adviser or come into CGIS and meet with members of the Undergraduate Program Office. We’re here to help.
• Once you have an adviser, you can talk with her/him about any plans for summer research. You don’t have to do research over the summer, and certainly many high-quality theses have been written without any summer research. At the same time, many students have found it worthwhile to spend part or all of their summer working on thesis research. Just as your decision whether or not to write was based on both academic and non-academic considerations, so too will your decision about summer research involve more than just Government Department questions. You may have great opportunities in an OCS summer internship, for instance, that you don’t want to miss. Whatever you decide, it’s important to be clear with your adviser what you will (or will not) accomplish over the summer. That way, when you come back in the Fall, you’ll both know where you’re starting from and what you need to do.

Summer: Adviser search (if necessary)

Sometimes, either because you decided late to write a thesis or because you simply weren’t able to find an adviser before you left, you will enter your summer before Senior year without obtaining an adviser. Don’t worry. You’re not the only one who’s in that situation, and we can help you with your search.

About mid-summer, you will receive an email from the Undergraduate Program Office asking all prospective thesis writers without advisers to submit a précis to the Office. This precis, roughly a one page description of what you hope to write on, will be circulated to faculty and graduate students in the Department. Through email and follow-up on your behalf, we are generally able to match all thesis writers with advisers.