Thesis Events

Thesis Workshop

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Criterion Software Use for Editing

San Jose State has at its disposal an online electronic editing service, called Criterion, to which students have access at no cost. Papers can be downloaded on a website, at which point a text editor quickly produces an on-screen read-out with various kinds of writing errors identified. GS&R has invented a course – GSR290E (GSR Editing) – with the password of GSR for your use.

Access to the Editor. To gain access to this service, go to the eCampus page of the Academic Technology website at http://www.sjsu.edu/at/ec/ and follow the prompts. Under Teaching Tools on the left side of the page, select Criterion. On the Criterion page, type your name, email address, and department and press Submit. Note the Access ID and password. Select http://criterion.ets.org for transfer to the Welcome to Criterion page where you should select Go to Criterion Student Website. Register as a new user if it's your first time on the site, and log in thereafter using the User ID and password indicated on the Criterion page. 

Activating the Editor. Once you have logged onto the student portal, you need to find the GS&R class. The Criterion site will ask you to add a class. Enter GSR290E as the Access ID and GSR as the password. At the Home Page, select Thesis or Project Writeup. To enter text for editing, press Continue. Copy and paste passages from your thesis or project writeup that you wish to subject to the text editor. Do not enter figures and tables, and avoid titles and headers whenever possible. Submit when finished. The Trait Feedback Analysis will appear. To view it in the context of your written submission, press “Grammar,” or one of the other headers and one of the selections on the left that is highlighted (indicating errors identified). If you waive the mouse over the error, an explanation will appear. You must then decide whether the editor is correct so that you would change your original thesis or project writeup.

Editing Accuracy. The editor is imperfect. It misses some errors. Most of the errors it positively identifies though are indeed errors. However, one must use discretion in all cases. For example, it struggles with headers and titles, where it often calls them incomplete sentences or lacking in ending punctuation. Do not take these corrections as a way to make your paper flawless, but they can help to improve your paper if you use good judgment in choosing the suggestions to accept.

 

The Outstanding Thesis Award

Two Outstanding Thesis Awards of $500 are presented personally by the President of SJSU at Commencement each May. SJSU allows each College to select only one thesis to be sent forward for consideration. Students with degrees awarded in May of the year of award are eligible, as well as those with degree dates from the immediately past May, August, and December. Prior May degree recipients are included so that high quality work completed too late for the past year's selection process can participate. Only Plan A Theses qualify for this award. Interested students are encouraged to contact their faculty advisor or department early in the Spring, as the thesis must be nominated by the student's College. More information about this award is available online.