OK, I've looked up the course in my handy-dandy online catalog and am relieved to see that I won't have to deal with that teacher for a while. I remember you mentioning the name, Bri.
Bbbbbut.... that is a grad level course. How'd you get in?
To Zengum: I believe that when Bri says "thesis" she is not referring to the paper itself, but rather to the main argument of the paper, a "thesis statement." We would call the resulting paper a "thesis." A longer work would be a "dissertation." But I could be wrong, I'm new at this stuff; this is my first year with 300's and above.
But now I have to write a 10-page "thesis" on Rita Dove.