The Dissertation Format: 5 Points To Take Into Account

All the research students need to follow the proper format of dissertation writing, absence of which can spoil all their endeavors. To follow the format, you need to figure out many elements in terms of organization and presentation. Follow the tips presented by DissertationTeam.

Among many guidelines, following are 5 must part to be included-

1. Avoid plagiarism: Never use any other student’s thesis or dissertation template. Use it merely for reference.
2. Follow your instructor’s guidelines: You might be asked to write your dissertation in either MLA format or APA format. There you need to maintain the margin of one inch from all the sides. Times New Roman text in 12 points size is suggested for maintaining a professional look. You may use smaller fonts for tables, footnotes or for writing content outside the chief text. Usually black color is used for writing general text. You may use other colors for making tables and figures. Maintain single line spaces while making tables, lists, footnotes, endnotes, quotations, figures, tables, captions or bibliographic entries. Always begin acknowledgements lists, table of contents, appendix via a fresh page and they should leave 2 inch margin from the top.
3. Bibliographic section: It is always written at the end of the dissertation. This is the suggested format by any discipline for the thesis writing.
4. Tables, figures, illustrations and appendix: They should be numbered consequently throughout. All the chapters, their titles and page numbers should be stated clearly in the table of content. “Chapter” should be written as a heading before each chapter number on both the places i.e. the table of content and the beginning of the chapter. Separate list of tables, illustrations and appendix should be created if there is more than one. The matter in the front should be written in lower case of Roman numerals at the centre bottom of the page as i, ii, iii etc whereas dissertation text always initiates with page 1, 2, 3 etc.
5. Sequence of front matter in dissertation: Writing the title page is mandatory. No need of writing page numbers. Frontispiece, Copyright, acknowledgement, preface and dedication are optional sections that require no page number. Though Frontispiece and copyright do not require page numbers but if you are mentioning dedication, acknowledgement or preface section, you must write page numbers. Table of content is mandatory part of front section and should include page number. List of tables, figures appendices are mandatory if there are more than one. These should have page numbers. List of abbreviations, acronyms, symbols are optional part and page number should be written in the front section. Abstract is optional but should include page number in the front section.