By Christijan Draper
The office of BYU graduate studies is wondering if the Web is a good channel to publish thesis and dissertations.
The graduate studies office is evaluating an ETD, or electronic thesis and dissertation program, that would allow the publication of graduate theses on the Internet, said James Crane, an academic advisor with BYU graduate studies.
The Web-based thesis software would build a template that students would use to create their thesis, Crane said. The thesis would then be published as a web document rather than being printed and bound.
At least one university, Virginia Tech, has already begun using an ETD program to publish graduate theses on the Internet, Crane said.
'We are evaluating ETD to make them available in the future,' Crane said.
He said the graduate studies office is going through the process of developing an electronic thesis with two current BYU graduate students.
Crane said that the program would not be available generally at BYU for some time. It is just in the test phases now to see how it works.
According to the BYU graduate studies Web site, BYU offers 146 master''s programs and 53 doctorate programs from 52 departments. BYU admitted 1,494 graduate students in the year 2000.
According to Applied Technology Service Web site at http://www.iada.byu.edu, 1,929 students were enrolled at BYU in coursework aimed at a Master''s degree in Fall Semester 2000.
Crane said most of the master''s programs at BYU are thesis-based. Others are project-based.
Ross McArthur, a retired BYU professor, said that taking the time to do original research is an important part of education.
'You can read about it, but it doesn''t have the meaning,' he said.
Geof Harston, a BYU alumnus finishing a master''s thesis in electrical engineering, said he values the research he has done for his thesis.
'It gives you a change up and a chance to pull everything together. When you do a lab, the professor knows the answer. ... When you do a thesis you get to take the things you''ve learned and apply it to something that hasn''t really been done before,' Harston said.
Although guidelines may vary among the various fields of study, graduate students seeking a master''s degree generally must offer a prospectus to a committee of at least three active BYU professors in their field, Crane said.
'They must be on the professorial track at BYU,' Crane said, adding that students must be researching and publishing at the time of their committee membership.
Although the Office of BYU Graduate Studies publishes a style guide listing the appearance and physical aspects of the thesis, the topic of the work is dependent on the student and the thesis committee, Crane said.
Indeed theses can vary widely.
One thesis available in the Harold B. Lee Library is entitled 'An illustrated compilation with some aesthetic considerations of major radiator emblems of automobiles manufactured in the United States during the years 1900-1930.'
The thesis, accepted in 1967 by the Department of Art at BYU, delivers, as its title promises, scores of pictures of the emblems from car radiators with aesthetic evaluations of each.
Another thesis, delivered to the Department of Communications in 1992, is titled 'The portrayal of Arabs in political cartoons in three American newspapers during selected events from Oct. 1973 to Nov. 1990.'
Outlandish as some theses can appear, McArthur said his Master''s thesis was a turning point in his life.
'It was probably one of the highlights of my education,' he said.
While he was attending Utah State University, McArthur wrote his thesis on the history of the standardization and unification of screw threads.
He pitched his idea of writing on screw threads - a 'screwy idea,' he called it - to the committee, but they turned it down.
'They said, ''No way. You couldn''t find enough on it,''' McArthur said.
He finally convinced them he could do it, and for the next three summers he spent most of his time researching the topic -including a 30-day trip to the East Coast to visit the standards bureau and a bolt manufacturing plant.
McArthur found a lot of information about screw threads and their standardization.
In fact, he estimated in his thesis that more than 11,000 people died in World War II because British and American screw threads were not compatible with each other.
Harston, who now works in Philidelphia, summed up another value to the thesis process.
'As much as I hate writing, any experience you get writing is good for you. It builds character,' he said.