Grants and Writing Resources for Jacksonville State University
Four JSU students played significant roles in the production of a Longleaf Studios documentary on outdoor destinations in Calhoun County and elsewhere in Alabama, among them the Chief Ladiga Trail and the Pinhoti Trail. Its Alabama Public Television premiere was set for April 23, 2026. In March, eleven students from the university's American Marketing Association chapter went to the AMA International Collegiate Conference in Chicago, the chapter's first appearance there, and earned an honorable mention in the case competition sponsored by Major League Baseball, finishing 24th of 110 teams.
Prizes for Presenting Research
Undergraduates and graduate students compete for cash at the annual Jax State Student Symposium. Talks run ten minutes. Posters and demonstrations are welcome too, and demonstrations have included robotics, computer games, sculpture and film shorts. Faculty and staff score each entry with a rubric and email feedback afterward. At the March 2026 symposium, Best of Showcase carried $400, and the $200 awards included Best of Discipline, Best Paper/PowerPoint, Best Poster/Demonstration and Best Cover Design.
Honors College members with sophomore standing can go further. An Honors professor nominates work from a three-hour Honors course or an Honors by Contract project, the student submits an abstract, and accepted students present at the Southern Regional Honors Conference each spring.
Graduate Assistantships
JSU awards about 80 assistantships each fall and spring and about 25 in summer, as funding allows. There are three kinds. A Graduate Teaching Assistantship pays a $4,000 stipend for a semester, and the assistant is responsible for a credit-bearing course under a supervising professor. Graduate Research Assistants help faculty with data, lab or field work and reports, and Graduate Administrative Assistants help administrative staff with data and special projects; both earn $8.25 an hour. All three run up to 20 hours a week for 16 weeks and carry remission of up to nine hours of tuition plus the General University Fee and the Athletic Fee.
To qualify, a student must be a degree-seeking graduate student enrolled in six to nine graduate hours and hold no other campus job.
Writing Help and the Thesis Process
The English department's JSU Writing Center, in 227 Stone Center, holds in-person and online consultations and works with anyone in the university community. Sessions last 30 minutes, and the consultant takes up one to three weak spots the writer names. The center's FAQ says the goal is for writers to learn to identify and fix those problems. ESL writers can book consultations or academic conversation partner sessions. The spring 2026 workshop series included Graduate Writing on Microsoft Teams, along with sessions on APA and Chicago citation and on avoiding plagiarism.
For a thesis or dissertation, the student sends the finished draft to Graduate Studies, which passes it to an External Reader and returns the reader's comments. After the signed final approval forms are in, the approved document goes to Digital Commons. Graduate Studies posts a Thesis Guide, a Dissertation Guide and Word templates for both. Finished work is collected in the library's Theses, Dissertations & Graduate Projects collection.
Before a draft goes to Graduate Studies and the External Reader, our editors can give it a final edit for grammar, consistency and format. See our Jacksonville State University dissertation and thesis editing and Jacksonville State University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.
From Our Writing Guides
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Managing Editor of Editors For Students. Links checked October 2026.
Editors For Students is an independent editorial service and is not affiliated with Jacksonville State University, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your JSU writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.