Salt Lake Bible College (SLBC) and Heritage Baptist College, International (HBCI)


Thesis Information and Requirements
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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.

Size and reference requirements:
   Old requirements for students from August 31, 2013 and earlier.
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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.
   

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.

 

Thesis credits application: Although students will receive credits for each thesis that is accepted, those credits will not be applied to the current degree level for which the thesis is submitted; nor can they be applied toward the 32 credits that must be earned before any degree can be issued by us to the student.  However, if the student continues on toward a higher degree, then the credits for the current degree thesis will be applied toward the credit requirements for that higher degree.

 

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.

 

Active Status:
-  Once you have submitted your Thesis Approval Form and have received confirmation, then you may begin writing your thesis.  During this period, which may last from several months to several years, please submit an Active Status form every 30 days with a short statement of your progress.  This informs us that you are still academically active and have not dropped out of the program.  You can go to this form by clicking HERE or by clicking the words "Active Status" at the beginning of this paragraph.  You can also find that form on the "Forms" page which can be accessed from its link which can be found in the left-hand NAV bar on any pages that have that bar.
ATTENTION: If you are taking other courses and submitting tests and/or forms on a regular basis, then you do not have to submit the Active Status form.  Your submission of those tests and forms will automatically keep your file active.  You only are required to submit the Active Status form if you are going to go for a period of more than 30 days without submitting any course-work.

 

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