Instructions for History Master's Portfolios

In order to satisfy the requirements for a master's degree, History graduate students are required to submit a master's portfolio for archiving in ProQuest and the W&M BePress digital scholarship portal.

Parts of the History Master 's Portfolio

In addition to the standard required pages, the History Master's Portfolio will consist of exactly three chapters:

The first chapter will be the Intellectual Biography required as part of the portfolio.
The second chapter will consist of the first paper (written during the Fall semester).
The third chapter will consist of the second paper (written during the Spring semester).

Instructions

Before you begin the final formatting of your Portfolio, please review these standards carefully and consult your program for any additional style guidelines. Your document must use our templates and conform to the OGSR formatting standards before your draft submission to the W&M ETD Administrator website.

Title Page. Required. Title Page Template [docx]. There is a strict 220 - 240 (no more than 240) character limit for the portfolio title. This is the title that will be on your transcript, that must be filed with ProQuest, and is the title that you must enter into the William & Mary ETD Administrator website.
- If the two research papers share a common theme, create a portfolio title that reflects this theme.
- If the two research papers do not share a common theme, then the two titles should be abbreviated and separated by a forward slash — / — (e.g., "Spirited Enterprises/Drawn Together, Drawn Apart" rather than "Spirited Enterprises: Venezuela, the United States, and the Independence of Spanish America, 1789-1823/Drawn Together, Drawn Apart: Black and White Baptists in Tidewater Virginia, 1800-1875").
Copyright Page. Required. Copyright Page Template [doc]. If you use a Creative Commons License, please include that information on the template. An Attribution-NonCommercial license would look like this on your Copyright page: © Copyright by Iam A. Student 2013, This work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommericial 4.0 license. See About Copyright for further information.
Approval Page. Required. Approval Page Template [doc]. The Approval Page must be signed by you and each individual committee member.
Compliance. Required.
- All students must submit a Compliance Committee form [pdf] as a separate form (not inserted into the portfolio) to the Office of Graduate Studies and Research when the final portfolio is submitted. The form must be signed by you and your faculty research advisor, certifying either (a) the research did not require approval by a compliance committee or (b) the research was approved by the appropriate W&M compliance committee(s).
Abstract Page. Required. Abstract Page Template [docx]. The abstract forms part of the metadata for a submission, so conforming with these instructions will make it easier for those conducting searches to pick up the full titles of each of the two papers:
1. Your abstract must be left-aligned
2. The following content must fit within the text box indicated in the template:
  1. The full title of the first paper and that paper's abstract, followed by;
  2. The full title of the second paper and that paper's abstract.
Table of Contents Page. Required. Table of Contents Page Template [docx]. The Table of Contents must include the following:
1. Acknowledgement page.
2. Any needed optional pages.
3. The titles of each of the three chapters in your portfolio, in the order given above. The title of the first chapter, which must contain your Intellectual Biography, may be simply "Intellectual Biography" or an appropriate title of your choosing may be used. The chapter titles for the second and third chapters of the portfolio must be the full title of each paper.
4. Students may add section titles under chapter titles as appropriate, as outlined in the Table of Contents template.
5. See Page Order and Numbering for more information.
Acknowledgements Page. Required. Acknowledgements Page Template [dotx]. Acknowledgements should express gratitude to those who helped support and guide the completion of your thesis (e.g., your dissertation advisor, examination committee members, other faculty members, mentors, college staff, family, or friends).
Dedication Page. Optional. Dedication Page Template [dotx]. A dedication can be to whomever you would like (e.g., your parents, your spouse, your children, your cat). It is okay to dedicate your thesis to someone mentioned in the acknowledgments.
List of Tables Page. Optional. List of Tables Page Template [dotx].
List of Figures Page. Optional. List of Figures Page Template [dotx].
Portfolio. Required. There is no template for the portfolio, but it must contain the following chapters in this order:
1. Intellectual Bibliography
2. Paper 1 (written during the Fall semester)
3. Paper 2 (written during the Spring semester).