This study concerns with research designs employed by English Department student in their theses. This study has two problems : (1) What research designs are employed by English Department students in their thesis ? (2) What is the most frequent of research design chosen by students in their theses ? The scope of this research is all theses published in 1996-2001. They are chosen in order to know the most frequent research design chosen by English students in the five years spread. The population in this research is the English Department student’s theses that consist 145 theses in 1996-2001 periods. Then, the sample are 36 theses. The sample in this research are 6 theses published in 1996, 6 theses published in 1997, 6 theses published in 1998, 6 theses published in 1999, 6 theses published in 2000, 6 theses published in 2001. The theories include more explanations of characteristic variety research designs, like descriptive, experimental, ex post facto, etc. The research design which is used in this research is descriptive. From the analyzed data, it was found that : (1) Research designs which is used are : 1 or (2.7%) student uses experimental, 24 or (66.6%) students use descriptive, 1 or (2.7%) student uses correlational, 9 or (25%) students use content analysis and 1 or (2.7%) student uses ex post facto, (2) The most dominant research design chosen by the English Department students in their theses from 1996-2001 periods is 24 or (66.6%) students use descriptive
