Thesis
and Dissertation Guidelines
Arrangement
of Contents
Every graduate degree document has three major parts: the preliminary pages, including a brief overall abstract of the thesis or dissertation, the text, and reference material.
Preliminary Pages and Abstract
The preliminary pages and abstract must appear in the following order:
title page
copyright page
approval page
abstract
dedication
acknowledgements
table of contents
list of tables
list of figures
list of symbols
abbreviations
nomenclatureAlthough not all of these preliminary pages are required parts of the document, specifications are given here for their preparation (optional pages are identified as such). Samples of each kind of page have been included in Appendix A and B. Each element of the thesis or dissertation is given in the order in which it should appear in the finished document.
Title Page (Required)
The title page includes: the full title manuscript (double-spaced) in inverted pyramid style; the author's full name with no abbreviations (preceded by the word "By"); the appropriate identification, i.e., "A Thesis (Dissertation) Submitted to the Faculty of Mississippi State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (Doctor of Philosophy, etc.) in English (Civil Engineering, etc.)" in the Department of English (Civil Engineering, etc.); the location ("Mississippi State, Mississippi"); the month (May, August, or December); and year of the graduation at which the degree is awarded with no comma between the month and year. The format of this page may be seen on the example page in the appendix.
The title is intended to provide meaningful description of the scholarship being presented. Information retrieval systems consulted by many scholars to located theses and dissertations relating to their own work rely on the keywords in the title and abstract. Consequently, oblique references and cryptic quotations should be avoided; if possible, word substitutes should be found for formulas, symbols, superscripts, foreign alphabet letters, and the like.
Copyright Page (Optional)
For documents to be copyrighted, notice of copyright is centered in the following form on the sheet immediately after the title page:
Copyright by
John Quincy Student
1999
See the section titled Protocols for further information on copyrighting graduate degree documents at Mississippi State University.
Approval Page (Required)
The approval page includes the manuscript title (double-spaced) in inverted pyramid style, author's full name with no abbreviations, and blank lines designated for the signatures of the Director of the Dissertation or Thesis, the Graduate Advisor (if different than research director), the departmental graduate coordinator, member of the candidate's graduate committee, and the dean of the college or school in which the discipline lies. (For individuals completing graduate degrees in interdisciplinary programs the dean of the college or school of the dissertation director, if different from the dean where the program resides, should also sign the approval page.) The names (without degree designations) and academic titles of these individuals should be placed below their signature lines. A general format for the approval page may be seen in Appendix A (the line spacing may vary with the number of signatures required for approval).
The Dean of the degree-granting unit will not sign the approval page until the approved manuscript has all required signatures.
Abstract (Required)
As a brief summary being presented, the abstract should state the problem being investigated and outline the method of investigation, the results obtained, and the conclusions reached. In writing the abstract, candidates should remember that it functions chiefly as a guide to student's and scholars surveying research in their field. As such, it should provide a concise guide to the entire work.
Because thesis and dissertation abstracts are sent to University Microfilms for inclusion in its monthly publication Dissertation Abstracts International, specifications for their preparation are set by University Microfilms.
Appendix A illustrates the correct format for all abstracts. Each abstract includes author's name, date of degree, institution, major field, major professor (and director of dissertation or thesis if different from major professor), title of document, number of pages in document (i.e., last numbered page), and summary of the content of the document.
Doctoral dissertation abstracts cannot exceed 350 words; Master's thesis abstracts cannot exceed 150 words. As a rule, 350 words consume fewer than two pages of double-spaced typing. Longer abstracts will not be accepted by the Library because they cause processing delays at University Microfilms.
Charts, graphs, tables, or figures are not allowed in the abstract.
Note that the abstract is not counted as a page within the document and is not numbered.
Dedication (Optional)
The heading DEDICATION appears centered without punctuation leaving two inches of white space at the top of the page; the text begins three spaces below the heading. If used, the dedication page is numbered with roman numeral ii. For and example, see Appendix A.
Acknowledgements (Optional)
The heading ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS appears centered without punctuation leaving two inches of white space at the top of the page; the text begins three spaces below the heading. The acknowledgement is a record of the author's indebtedness and includes notice of permission to use previously copyrighted materials which may have been used in the text.
Table of Contents (Required)
The heading TABLE OF CONTENTS appears centered leaving two inches of white space at the top of the page. The listing of actual contents begins at the left margin three spaces below the heading.
The titles and numbers of chapters and subsections listed on the table of contents must be worded exactly as they appear in the body of the document. The table of contents indicates the page on which each heading and subheading appears.
List of Tables and Figures
A List of Tables and/or a List of Figures is (are) required if any tables and/or figures appear in the document.
The heading LIST OF TABLES or LIST OF FIGURES appears centered without punctuation leaving two inches of white space at the top of the page; the listing begins at the left margin three spaces below the heading.
Tables and figures should be identified by the same numbers and titles in their respective lists that have been assigned in the document itself. All titles in the List of Tables and List of Figures must be worded exactly as they appear in the body of the document.
Page designations of tables and figures should be those on which the titles appear.
List of Symbols, Abbreviations, and Special Nomenclature
The list is optional unless symbols, abbreviations, and special nomenclature are essential to understanding the document. It follows the lists of tables and figures and may take any form acceptable in the candidates field of study.
Text
The candidate and advisor will have devoted most of their attention to the text, or body, of the thesis or dissertation. The style must be appropriate to the subject and discipline; punctuation, spelling, and general format should be accurate and consistent; the body itself is divided into chapters which are numbered CHAPTER I, CHAPTER II, etc. At a minimum, a thesis or dissertation must include and Introduction (Chapter I); discussion of the research, which may be presented in one or more chapters; a list of references which may be presented at the end of each chapter or at the end of the document; and a conclusion.
Division Into Chapters - The document is divided into chapters to aid the reader in understanding the research. In addition to general titles such as CHAPTER I and CHAPTER II, the chapters must also have descriptive titles. In developing these descriptive titles, the author should choose language that allows a reader to readily understand what is being presented.
Preface - Normally, there is no need to include a preface to the document unless the genesis of the project is important for an understanding of the work, or unless the method of research is so unusual as to require some explanation.
Introduction - An overall introduction is required, even if subsequent chapters have their own introductions. The overall introduction should not be a recapitulation of individual chapter introductions. Its function is to explain how the individual chapters work together to form the cohesive document described in the publications policy statement.
The introduction must be the first chapter. The heading CHAPTER I in all capitals must be at the top of the page and centered beneath two inches of white space; the word INTRODUCTION is placed two spaces below. Generally, in this arrangement, the introduction does not itself have a descriptive title. The text begins three spaces below the work INTRODUCTION.
Other Chapters - The remaining chapters are numbered consecutively using capital letters and roman numerals: CHAPTER II, CHAPTER III, etc.
Conclusion - The conclusion explains how the preceding chapters work together to solve the problem outlined in the introduction.
The Reference Material
The reference material for graduate degree documents consists of a bibliography or list of references, which is required, and appendices, which are optional.
Bibliography, References, List of References, etc. - Any document making use of other works either in direct quotation or by reference must contain a bibliography listing these sources. The bibliography may appear at the end of each individual chapter and/or as a general bibliography at the end of the document. The latter method is preferred if it does not conflict with discipline requirements.
Some sample bibliographic styles are illustrated in Appendix C. Additional format guidelines can be obtained from standard style guides. Like footnotes, bibliographic entries are in a form acceptable to the department and discipline.
The heading BIBLIOGRAPHY, REFERENCES, or LIST OF REFERENCES, for example, is centered without punctuation leaving two inches of white space from the top of the page; the list begins three line spaces below.
Each bibliographic entry must be single line spaced with a double space between each entry.
Appendices - Reference materials, such as tables, charts, figures, illustrative documents, folklore interview transcriptions, and other addenda that are not absolutely necessary to the text often are grouped in an appendix or in appendices. If used, an appendix generally follows immediately after the last chapter of the text. However, the bibliography or references may precede the appendix.
If the information to be appended dictates more than one appendix, the multiple appendices are numbered APPENDIX A, APPENDIX B, etc.
Each appendix with its title must be listed separately in the table of contents as a subdivision under the heading APPENDIX or APPENDICES.
Any table and figures appearing in the appendices are handled in the same manner as those in the text, i.e., they are identified as tables and figures, numbered consecutively and appear in the list of tables and figures in the preliminary pages. Appendix tables and figures may be identified by the letter of the appendix and respective table number (for example, a table in Appendix B may be identified as Table B.2).
(The above mentioned appendix or appendices are not currently available on this website. To obtain these examples, please refer to the hardcopy version of Guidelines for Preparing Dissertations and Theses).
Appendix A Sample Preliminary Pages for Dissertations (.PDF format)
Appendix B Sample Preliminary Pages for Theses (.PDF format)
Appendix C Sample Pages for Dissertations and Theses (.PDF format)
