General Requirements for the Preparation of the Honours Project
The Project is to be written in either French/German or English. Students are encouraged to write in French or German.
However, the choice of language does not influence the overall assessment of the completed project (which is largely content-based). The choice of language may also depend on the nature of the topic and the resources to be used. The language selection has to be agreed upon by the Chief Adviser before the onset of the actual Project work (September of Year IV).
If French/English was chosen, the abstract should be written in the complementary language (English), and vice versa.
Quotations of sources may maintain the original language (either English, French or German).
The length of the project thesis will normally be approximately 35 pages, unless otherwise specified or permitted by the Chief Adviser. This excludes footnotes, bibliography, and appendices.
The format of your Project must follow established standards. You may use any accepted style manual as a reference, such as Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
If the thesis is to be written in French or German, consult with your Chief Adviser for appropriate style conventions.
Footnotes should be placed at the bottom of each page (regardless of the style manual or conventions you follow).
All projects must be word-processed on the computer with A4 paper size selected. The required font size is 12 point type and the required font type is 'Times New Roman'. Typing is to be double-spaced. Standard margins apply.
There will be no first draft. That is, there will be only one submission, that of the final product, in order to help assure independence of the student's work and comparability.
Students have to hand in the final project in soft copy and hard copy format on or before the specific date set by the Department (normally the 1st April of Year IV).
The soft copy (MS Word, PDF or HTML format) will be stored by the Department and can be made available to the HKBU Library.
In addition, 3 identical bound hard copies of the final Project are to be submitted to the General Office of GIS Department.
One copy of the project will be read by the Chief Adviser. The second copy will go to the Second Examiner. The third copy will be kept by the Department after final signature by the Chief Adviser and the Second Examiner.
The Chief Adviser's copy can be sent to the External Examiner for review (samples only). After final assessment by the External Examiner, the Chief Adviser and Second Examiner will keep one copy each of the project. After the final grade has been confirmed by the External Examiner's review (if applicable), the copies will be signed by both the Chief Adviser and the Second Examiner, and the final grade will be submitted to the Department.
Sets of standard covers (see samples) will be provided for all students by the General Office. Students will be notified when these are available for collection.
The order of the materials included should be as follows:
An acknowledgement page is useful if one wishes to acknowledge assistance or support of public bodies such as libraries and government offices, or individuals. Consult your Chief Adviser if you have any questions as to whether this is applicable to your project.
Appendices may be the appropriate place for tables, charts and illustrations, questionnaire data, statistics, and the like if you feel they are too big and disruptive to include in the text. If possible, place each appendix on a new page and number it. If there is only one appendix included in the Project, simply put down "Appendix" on the sheet.
Binding of the Project would be done by the department. Projects would be stapled or bounded at standard places at the left margin.