8 Basic Characteristics Of The Standard Dissertation Format

Dissertations and theses should be formatted in the right manner as per the style guidelines. A dissertation is a paper consisting of in-depth exploration of a particular study area. Research should be largely or wholly library- based and can involve empirical collection of data which can be done through interviews and surveys. This should therefore, involve putting enough time in the dissertation.

Dissertations and theses aren’t collaborative and should therefore be authored by the student. Students are supposed to follow a certain style guide such as APA and MLA. You should find out the acceptable style and should be quite familiar with it before you start preparing your dissertation. You should also let the graduate college to know the style guide that you will be using.

Some schools have student’s advisory committee whose role is to judge whether the essay is acceptable from different points of view such as content, neatness, writing quality, compliance with the writing style and the formatting requirements. Here are some general formatting requirements.

  1. Fonts
  2. Ensure that your dissertation is in an easy to read format such as Arial and Times New Roman size 11 or 12.

  3. Margins
  4. Ensure that each page of the dissertation has a margin of one inch in every side, left, right, top and bottom. Page numbers are the only ones that can be placed outside the margins.

  5. Spacing
  6. Use double spacing apart from areas that require you to use single spacing such as indented quotations, tables and footnotes.

  7. Pagination
  8. Ensure that you have numbered all pages apart from title page. The page numbers should be placed at the bottom or top of each page. You can right or center justify them. The important thing is to ensure that these have been placed in a consistent manner in your document.

  9. Page size and orientation
  10. Ensure that you have your pages in portrait orientation and let your pages be 8.5 by 11.

  11. Illustrations, charts and figures
  12. Ensure that all illustrations and images are within the page margin of one inch. When saving or scanning images, ensure that you have set the resolution at a minimum of 300 dpi.

  13. Use of previously published work
  14. Where you are allowed by the graduate program or committee to use previously approved work, ensure that these meet the required formatting guidelines.

  15. Title page
  16. Include in the title page details such as your name, as well as graduate program.

For more ideas on the dissertation forma, check this website.

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