CHAPTER 14: FORM AND STYLE IN THESIS WRITING

Preliminaries of a Research, Thesis or Dissertation

      1. Title Page

      2. Approval Sheet

      3. Acknowledgement

          Here, the researcher expresses his gratitude to the different persons who assisted, 

          Facilitated and guided him to make his research work a reality.

      4. Contents

          It contains the preliminaries, the chapter titles, page numbers, the main heading 

         and subheadings in a text including the bibliography, appendix and curriculum

         vitae.

      5. Tables

          There are two ways of numbering tables:

1. They are numbered singly and consecutively by Arabic numerals throughout the research paper, thesis or dissertation.
2. They are double-numbered based on the chapter number in Arabic numerals.

      6. Figures

          There are two ways of numbering figures:

1. They are numbered singly and consecutively from Chapters 1 to 4 in Arabic numeral throughout the research paper, thesis or dissertation.
2. They are double-numbered based on the Chapter number with Arabic numerals indicated.

                   7. Plates

                       Refer to any photographic representation or illustration.

                   8. Abstract

                       Gives the reader a panoramic view of the research paper, thesis and dissertation.

                       It has three forms:

• Short form

Consists of 100-250 words.

• Extended form

Consists of 500-900 words. This is required for research paper contest and presentation of scientific papers during symposium and seminars.

• Long form

Consists of 900-1,000 words. This is required in master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation.

Text of a Research Paper, Thesis and Dissertation

Five Chapters

1)      The Problem: Rationale and Background

2)      Review of Related Literature

3)      Methodology/Materials and Methods

4)      Results, Analysis and Interpretation/ Results and Discussion

5)      Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations/Implications

Chapter Heading

Three level Headings

1)      Middle heading is the first level

2)      Left side heading is the second level

3)      Paragraph heading is the third level

ü  Documentation in Research Paper, Thesis and Dissertation

It determine if a researcher has read and used several research works and other materials as references.

Notes

1)      Endnotes

Are indicated at the end of a sentence in parenthetical documentation format.

Three Types of Endnotes:

-          Author-year format – This form is usually applied for scientific papers designed for publication in research journal.

-          Author-year-page format – The format is almost the same with the author-year format, but there is an addition of a page number where the source material is taken.

-          Author-page format – This is similar with author-year-page format, but the year of publication is not included.

2)   Footnotes

      Document source materials which is placed at the foot or bottom of the page.

      Three Types of Footnotes

-          Author-year-material format – The author’s name is followed by a year and the name of the source of material.

-          Author-year-page format – This is almost similar with endnote author-year-page format where only the surname of the author is used, year and page as footnote.

-          Author-Latin-abbreviation format

Five forms:

-          Ibid “in the same place” – This is used to refer to the same reference material used by the same author to avoid repetition.

-          Op. cit “in the work cited” – It is employed when the same reference material to the same author is cited not consecutively and to different page to refrain from repetition.

-          Loc cit “the place cited” – It is used when the same reference material of the same author is cited not consecutively in the same page.

Ways of Numbering Footnotes

1. Numbering from Chapters 1 – 5

2. Numbering footnote consecutively per Chapter

Encoding Instructions

• Font size 12 Arial or Courier New.
• The size of bond paper is 8.5 X 11 inches.
• Succeeding page number is placed at the right align with the right margin and the distance is 1.5” inches.
• The distance from page number to the first line of the page is three single spaces.
• If page number is at the bottom, especially for the beginning of a Chapter page, the distance of the page number from the bottom of a page is one inch.
• The distance from the top of a page to the middle heading is five single spaces for beginning of a chapter.
• The distance of middle heading to the first line of the text is three single spaces.
• There are seven spaces for every paragraph indention.
• The text is always double-spaces in all times.
• The distance of left-side heading from last line before it is three single spaces and bold.
• The next line of the left-side heading is the spaces hanging indention and bold.
• The first line after left-side heading is two single spaces.
• The distance of paragraph heading from the last line is two single spaces.
• There is always two spaces after period; one space after comma; and one space after semi-colon and colon.
• There must be maximum of twenty-five lines per page and proofread the computerized work before printing them.