Thesis formatting

From Eduwiki

While APA Style is the ultimate guide for writing research papers, that formatting is designed for submitting papers to journals. This means it is easy to read and find information, but not always the best looking. We deviate from pure APA to make final papers more attractive.

Contents 1 Elements of a research paper 1.1 Cover Page 1.2 Table of Contents 1.3 Abstract 1.4 Body of Paper 1.5 Acknowledgments 1.6 References 1.7 Appendices

Elements of a research paper

Cover Page

• (optional) Running head: (put your header here)
• Title (centered)
• Author (centered)
• University (centered)
• Assignment (bottom of page: e.g. Submitted for Master of Arts in Secondary Education)
• Date

Table of Contents

This is not part of APA style, but it is good Thesis style

• Title of paper
• List all chapters, references, abstract, appendicies with page numbers

Abstract

• No header or page number
• Title of paper
• Abstract should be half to 3/4 page
• Single space and fully justified

Body of Paper

• Chapter 1 should be page 1 (use a section break to start the numbering here)
• Double spaced, 1 inch margins on all sides, 12 point font
• Use a header (top left) and page number (top right)
• Use consistent style for Chapter titles, subheadings, Figure and Table labels
• Chapters start a new page
• APA Style formatting for all citations

Acknowledgments

Optional page between the last chapter and the references

References

• Use APA Style for all references
• Single space references with extra space between each reference
• Indent lines other than the first
• All book titles and journal titles should be italic
• Try to get short URLs for websites (dont use search engine URLs)

Appendices

Optional place to include extra information that does not fit into the text of the paper (would break up the flow too much). Examples are extra screen shots, transcripts of interviews, text of surveys or tests etc.

• Each item is a separate Appendix - labled with a letter (A, B, C...)