Dissertation / Thesis Instructions
For most students doing graduate work at Wake Forest University, a thesis or dissertation will be the culmination and defining point of their efforts, an important milestone in their scholarly development. The path of their research will take them to new knowledge, new insights, new abstractions for themselves, and as they push toward and beyond the current boundaries of what is known, they will be expected to share their new knowledge with others. This sharing is the primary purpose of a thesis or dissertation. It provides an opportunity for students to be challenged intellectually in an oral defense of their work, to have their ideas tested in a scholarly setting, and to enter the world of advanced scholarly attainment. For well over a century, ways of presenting original work have evolved into a strong tradition, and an important part of a student's work is to learn and to become part of that tradition.