Honours Program

Fall of 4th Year – PHYS 498 (0 credit)

In the "498" semester, students meet with the 498/4999 coordinator right away, and choose a research project and supervisor (usually a department faculty member) the first week of term. Students are free to consult with as many potential supervisors as they wish before making their decision. Some students negotiate a project with a professor in advance of the Fall semester, but they cannot include summer or other employed work as part of their honours project.

Once a supervisor is chosen and the 498/499 coordinator is informed, PHYS 498 consists of the following:

1. Regularly attend the Physics Seminars, as scheduled, and if possible, notify the 498/9 coordinator in advance, if unable to attend a specific seminar.
2. 2-3 hours of work per week, including literature review, planning scope of laboratory research, working on written progress report and oral presentation, regular meeting with supervisor to discuss progress, etc.
3. Written Progress Report (5-10 pages). A 1st draft is due for your supervisor 11 weeks into semester (for their advice), and 3 final copies (for the committee) are handed in to the 498/9 coordinator 12 weeks into semester. (e.g. if the 1st day of classes is a Wednesday, the due dates are Wednesdays.)
4. Oral Presentation (10 minutes) of the Report, before a 3-person committee of friendly professors, usually the day before the semester exam period.
5. Fielding questions (10 minutes) from the committee immediately after the Presentation, related to your research and designed for assessment of your comprehension.

Winter of 4th Year – PHYS 499 (3 credits)

 In the "499" semester, research work continues in earnest, leading to a written Thesis and oral Defense of the work. PHYS 499 consists of the following:

1. Regularly attend the Physics Seminars, as scheduled, and if possible, notify the 498/9 coordinator in advance, if unable to attend a specific seminar.
2. 6-10 hours of work per week, including laboratory research, research thesis and oral presentation preparation, regular meeting with supervisor, etc.
3. Written Research Thesis (25-40 pages). A 1st draft is due for your supervisor 11 weeks into semester (for their advice), and 3 final copies (for the committee) are handed in to the 498/9 coordinator 12 weeks into semester. (e.g. if the 1st day of classes is a Wednesday, the due dates are Wednesdays.)
4. Oral Presentation (15 minutes) of the Thesis, before a 3-person committee of friendly professors, anytime from 4 days before end of classes to 1 week into exam period (consult with the 498/499 coordinator).
5. Fielding questions ("Thesis Defense", 20 minutes) from the committee immediately after the Presentation, related to your research and designed for assessment of your comprehension.
6. Corrected Research Thesis. 3 unbound copies, with committee-requested corrections made, are handed to the 498/9 coordinator, which the Department will convert into bound copies for posterity (for the student, the supervisor, and the Department). This is due 5 days after the Defense. 
7. Release Form. The student must clean up their lab equipment/computer files and after making the final changes to the thesis recommended to the committee, submit the final copy to the Physics Department Library for archival purposes. The signed form is also due 5 days after the Defense.

Student progress is expected to be somewhat limited in the 498 semester relative to the 499 semester, due to a training period for students new to research and the reduced time expectations. For that reason, the 498 progress report (written and oral) is down-weighted relative to the 499 thesis (written and oral). The following is only slightly modified from the CHEM 401/402 grading scheme.

End of 498: tell the student their grade for the 498 components, but temporarily enter IP (In Progress) for the 498 grade.

End of 499: derive an overall grade for the sum of the 498/499 work, and enter this grade for both 498 and 499.

*The “research performance” category will reflect your research effort, talent, and accomplishments. (Don't get discouraged if your studies do not work out as planned, your research attitude and level of skills gained are at least as important.)

Research companies love to see Progress Reports from their staff scientists to keep an eye on research progress. In 498, it will serve to:

1. Give you practice and feedback in scientific writing (useful in advance of the 499 Thesis)
2. Distribute the workload of writing a Thesis
3. Allow the 498 committee to assess your scientific writing skills

A thesis represents new knowledge generated from academic research. The document has more in common with a scientific report than a published science journal article, although both styles are quite similar. (For instance, a thesis may have more details and a more general introduction than a journal article.) In 499, the Research Thesis serves to:

1. Gives you practice writing a full scientific report, including collecting data and forming conclusions
2. Allow your supervisor to assess your results
3. Allow the 499 committee to assess your scientific writing skills

• LaTeX is preferred, following the format of a well-recognized journal, such as the APS (revtex-4) style-files
• All reports must be typed using a readable font size (e.g. 12-point Times New Roman), 1.5-spaced
• Headings and section titles should be bold and/or underlined, and numbered
• The first page of the Introduction should be Page 1; all earlier pages should be labeled with roman numerals (i, ii, iii, ...) Consult an old thesis for more style syntax
• References should follow a professional journal format
• Avoid quoting web pages, or plagiarizing figures from the internet
• Diagrams, tables, and graphs are generally very useful in explaining results, and should be numbered consecutively (Table 1, Figure 1, Table 2, Figure 2, etc.) with descriptive captions so the reader can understand what information they are designed to present

• Start organizing your thoughts by preparing an outline that contains headings and ideas. Go back and fill in the details.
• The number of pages is limited so be careful about the amount you write. Know your audience - assume your readers have some knowledge in the field but are not as expert as you. Write down only those details that would allow them to understand what you have done and to repeat the work if that were necessary.
• You may find it easier to finalize all the data into tables, graphs, and figures, before writing the text for the Results and Discussion section.
• Use figures, tables, and graphs where they are most useful for illustration and explanation.
• Subheadings may be helpful, especially in the Results and Discussion section(s) (but don't go crazy with this).
• Detailed calculations, or large numbers of graphs and tables, should be placed in Appendices. In that case, use only a few illustrative examples in the body of the report.
• Write clearly, in well-constructed, complete and grammatically correct sentences. Past-tense passive is preferred ("The flask was heated", rather than "I/We heated the flask", although the latter is becoming more common). Proofread carefully. One common problem is lack of agreement between subject and verb (The table suggests, or the values suggest.