Orals Announcements and Abstract Guide

Announcement/Abstract Guide for Orals

Produce your orals announcement via a word processor on your computer (templates available below).  Email it as a Word attachment to your committee chair, who will approve and submit it to the Graduate Advisor, a minimum of one week prior to the date of your orals.

FORMAT:

Put the following information at the top of the page (see formatted orals announcement for visual example):

                                                     Preliminary (or Final) Orals

Name                                                                                                                                       Day and Date 
Program                                                                                                                                   Time, Room 
                                                                                                                                                 No. of subjects from
                                                                                                                                                   subject pool (if any) *
    *(Needed for Preliminary Orals only)

                                                             TITLE OF THESIS

Next, type your abstract. (Remember, this is all on 1 page.)

Usually include:
    Par. 1 – Purpose, major variables and major aspects of
                     setting, background.
    Par. 2 – Major aspects of method including subjects,
                     materials, procedure, data analysis, etc.
    Par. 3 – How you expect it to turn out and what it would
                     mean if it did turn out that way.

Note: For Preliminary orals, use future tense as in the proposal.

At the bottom of the page include:

Committee:   List committee members
                             (with titles/positions and affiliation if
                             third/fourth member is not Psych faculty)

Format is the same for both preliminary and finals orals’ announcements.  However, for final orals shorten the purpose and method paragraphs, and add results and discussion paragraphs.  Use past tense for method and results, and present tense for discussion.  The thesis abstract is usually used.

Click here for a formatted example of the Orals Announcement.  (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

Templates are available for your use, formatted in MS Word: Preliminary Oral template, Final Oral template.