During the winter term the Director, Comprehensive Paper will solicit topics from faculty. Faculty will submit a paragraph outline of the proposed topic for a paper. Topics will be posted in May (view latest topics).
Students will normally be expected to have at least a CGPA of 3.5
The Faculty Mentor will meet with the student as early as possible after the start of classes to develop a work plan acceptable to both.
Through the fall term, the Faculty Mentor will meet with the student on a regular basis. Students must prepare the following by the last day of classes of the fall term for 30% of the final course grade. This grade must be made available to the student and the Director in advance of the last day to drop Y courses without academic penalty and will include: (1) bibliography; and (2) rough outline of the paper.
The final paper, between 12,000 and 15,000 words and worth 50% of the final grade, will be graded by the Faculty Mentor and will be due by the last day of classes of the winter term.
The Faculty Mentor will assess the student’s overall performance in the course, which should be determined by factors such as regularity of attendance at meetings, initiative, amount of guidance needed, responsiveness to suggestions, collegiality, etc., and which will represent 20% of the total final grade. The Faculty Mentor will report the student’s final grade to the Director, by the Faculty of Arts & Science’s sessional deadline for grade submission.
TRINITY COMPREHENSIVE PAPER II (TRN477H1Y)
Course Structure and Timeline
The goal of TRN477H is to provide students with an in-depth experience of what is involved in the production of a high-level publication quality manuscript. Writing is typically an iterative process that involves collaborative skills, the ability to work with editors, an understanding of the iterative review process, the importance of assessing feedback, and the decision processes surrounding the incorporation of feedback into a final document.
TRN377 is a prerequisite for this course. The draft paper written for TRN377Y will be reviewed by the Faculty Mentor who will provide detailed feedback by September 30. The student will work together with the Faculty Mentor to bring the paper, 12,000 to 15,000 words in length, up to a quality equivalent to a high-level review publication.
Modifications to the original TRN377 paper may include changes to the structure of the paper, coverage of the field, bibliography, content and style, and will be substantially more than simple editing.
The revised paper after modifications must be submitted to the Faculty Mentor by the end of classes in December.
The paper will be reviewed by two faculty members with expertise in the field. Mentors will have been invited to make suggestions of possible reviewers. By January 15, the external reviewers will provide a grade, worth 30% of the course final grade, and a detailed review equivalent to a review of a submitted journal manuscript.
Based on these reviews, the student would further modify the paper to take the reviewers’ concerns into account. Once this is done, the student will submit the paper and the supervising Faculty Mentor will provide a final grade, derived in part from the quality of the final paper (40%) and in part from the student’s overall performance in the course (30%).
Overall performance may be determined using guidelines similar to those used in TRN377. The final paper is due at the end of classes in the winter term.
In the event that the student’s final paper is published, it is understood that the student will be listed as a primary author of that publication.