Bachelor Thesis

Important Documents: 

For general content, learning aims etc., see the general module description.

Writing Your Bachelor Thesis in Literature (March 2025) (PDF, 115 KB)

Template Cover Bachelor Thesis (English) (DOCX, 56 KB)

You can find a summary of the information on this website in the Bachelor Thesis Guidelines. (PDF, 90 KB)

The ideal semester for writing the Bachelor Thesis is during your final semester of studies at Bachelor level. That means you have to contact potential supervisors the semester before you plan on writing the Bachelor’s Thesis (see below).

It is strongly recommended that you choose a project which is based on a course you have attended (e.g. a Bachelor Seminar). However, this is not absolutely mandatory, i.e. you may propose different topics if you feel sufficiently confident that you will be able to acquire the necessary background knowledge.

If you have already written a seminar paper on this topic, then

• you cannot write a Bachelor’s Thesis on exactly the same topic,
• but you can write the Bachelor’s Thesis on a different topic in the same general field.

To find out what types of topics individual instructors may be interested in supervising, you can consult their homepages. You can find links to all instructors’ homepages via the UZH English Department's Staff List.

You should, at the very least, have a relatively clear idea about the topic of your Bachelor’s Thesis before contacting potential supervisors. Ideally, you will proceed as follows:

• prepare a brief proposal
• contact a supervisor regarding writing the Bachelor’s Thesis with them

You should have contacted potential supervisors by the following dates:

• for a Bachelor’s Thesis to be submitted in the fall semester: 30 April
• for a Bachelor’s Thesis to be submitted in the spring semester: 30 November

Please note that supervisors are not obliged to take on any supervision as they might already have reached their maximum capacity or might not feel like they are the right person to supervise your chosen topic. Therefore, it might take you some time to find a supervisor, meaning you should not leave it until the last minute.

Do not contact several supervisors at the same time.

• You can expect a minimum of two meetings to discuss content, argument, structure, research, research question(s) and design, etc.
• You can expect feedback on your 1–2-page outline and optionally on a sample passage from your thesis (ca. 10% of the total).

At the start of the supervision process, you should discuss the mode of supervision with your supervisor (e.g. Will there be regular meetings? How often are you allowed/supposed to contact your supervisor?)

Should you encounter any major problems, then please make sure to get in touch with your supervisor as early as possible!

Supervisors at the UZH English Department will try to respond to emails as soon as possible. 

Should you not hear back from your supervisor after one week, please send them a short reminder.

If you still do not hear back from your supervisor a week after your second message, you should contact the study advisor at englishstudies@es.uzh.ch .

Please take into consideration that during the semester break instructors may be away from their desk, so it might take longer for them to answer. 

You book the BA thesis module during the regular booking period via the module booking tool.

Do not book the module unless a supervisor has agreed to take you on!

If an instructor agreed to supervise you, but you cannot find their name in the module booking tool, contact englishstudies@es.uzh.ch and cc your supervisor in the email.

Once the module booking period is over, you will receive an e-mail asking you to indicate your supervisor and the preliminary title of your thesis in the thesis tool.

Linguistics

8,000 words (excluding the bibliography and appendices, but including tables, figures, and examples; +/- 10%)

Literature

10,000 words (excluding the bibliography; +/- 10%)

• c. first week of October in the fall semester
• c. first week of April in the spring semester

• in the fall semester: December 1
• in the spring semester: June 1

The thesis must be handed in as PDF version to your supervisor and to englishstudies@es.uzh.ch. Your instructor may additionally request a Word file and/or print copy.

Make sure to use the BA Thesis Template Cover. (DOCX, 56 KB)

Additionally, you will receive an e-mail asking you to confirm the finalized title of your thesis in the thesis tool.