Formatting Your Thesis

Revised: March 28, 2007

This document has been created to supplement the thesis guide available in the Writing Center. It will show you how to format various items. When in doubt, consult a style guide - Turabian, Chicago, MLA, APA, etc. You should work with your reader(s) to select the appropriate style guide for your discipline. If you still have questions, the staff at the Writing Center is glad to help. Or you can always email the Center at writingcenter@cmc.edu.

General

  1. The font should be one of the following: Times, Times New Roman, and Courier New.
  2. If you decide to not to use Times or Times New Roman, make sure that your footnotes and page numbers are also in the same font.
  3. The text of your thesis may be either Left Aligned or Full Justified. Note that Full Justification looks nicer, but if you put breaks at the end of a line, it will be left aligned.
  4. The margins for your thesis are as follows:
Top: 1.2" Left: 1.5"
Bottom: 1" Right: 1"
  1. To set the margins, select File > Page Setup. Enter the settings as shown on the figure on the right.
  2. Click the "OK" button to apply the change.
  1. Titles for all sections except the Table of Contents, are 2" down from top of page.
  2. Indent the first line of each paragraph either one quarter inch or one half inch. Be consistent.
  3. Only one space should follow all punctuation marks.
  4. Consult your preferred style guide for specific guidelines about the various sections of your thesis.
  5. If you have problems using Microsoft Word or other programs, see the friendly consultants in Poppa Lab, or the tutors in the Writing Center. Specific help for writing technology issues is available from the Writing Center's writing technology tutor, Tauseef Rahman, on Tuesday nights from 7-9pm in Bauer 22 (the BTC).

Tips for saving your thesis

  1. Save each chapter as its own file, i.e. the first chapter may be called "Chapter1.doc".
  2. When you make big changes to a chapter, save the file under a new name, i.e. "Chapter1-1.doc", to indicate that it’s an updated version.
  3. Keep several copies of your thesis: thumb drive, hard drive, U:\ drive folder, and wherever else you’d like. (Avoid floppy disks and zip disks - they tend to lose data. A CD is a nice, durable option for regular backups.) You may want to create dated folders to keep track of your progress. Remember that you cannot be too paranoid about keeping your thesis safe.
  1. Saving a copy to your U:\ drive folder:
  1. Create a folder with the date you last updated your thesis.
  2. Copy the thesis components to the folder with new date. You should want to have older revisions of your thesis to refer back to.
  3. The next time you work and save your thesis, repeat the process again.
  1. After you’ve saved a copy of your thesis, take the time to make sure the copy you backed up is uncorrupted.
  2. KILL THE TREES. When you've made radical revisions, print, date, and store hardcopy in a safe place. In case of disaster, it's much, much better to have to re-type your thesis than to have to start from scratch. These copies will also give you something to put in that "Working Papers" folder you have to turn in with your thesis.
  3. Maxine Hong Kingston once lost an entire novel she'd just completed: wildfires in Berkeley destroyed her whole neighborhood, including every one of the many backup copies she had created of her book. While we don't expect wildfires at CMC any time soon, this does demonstrate a key point: spread your backups across multiple systems and locations. Send a copy to yourself on Gmail. Store on the U-Drive (to take advantage of the ITS backups) and on your own computer (in case something horrible happens at ITS).
  4. Modify your working habits if necessary. Some people will sit in front of a computer until their chapter is finished, and they won't exit, save changes, nor make backup copies. This is a very BAD idea. If the power fails at the 11th hour and the file becomes corrupted, you will undoubtedly think that you’ve just lost the most inspired 11 hours of your life.

Title Page

  1. Follow the sample title page on last page of Senior Thesis syllabus.
  2. All text is in capital letters.
  3. Vertically center the text.
  4. Save the title page as its own document.

Footnotes

  1. Footnotes are separated from the rest of your chapters by a line. They contain references to the work you cited, as well as any notes you write to explain certain parts of your thesis.
  2. Footnotes start with number 1 at the beginning of each chapter. Even if you have used a source in previous chapters, you need to fully cite the work the first time you refer to it in each chapter.
  3. To insert footnotes, select Insert > Footnote. Click the "OK" button to insert it.
  4. Keep the footnotes with the referenced text. If they go to the next page, put a hard page break at the bottom of the page to make them fit.
  1. To insert a page break, press Ctrl-Enter.
  1. Indent the first line of the footnote one quarter inch or one half inch from the left margin. Make sure it’s consistent with the indentation for all your paragraphs. Second and subsequent lines go back to the margin.
  2. The general format is:    1 First_name Last_name, Title of Work (City_of_publication: Publisher, year), page_number.
  3. Consult the your style guide for specific formats. In Turabian, for example, Chapter 11 has precise footnote examples labeled "N". In the MLA Handbook, see Appendix B.
  4. If you still have trouble making the footnotes fit on a page, consult the Advanced Word: Tips and Troubleshooting guide. You might also attend the Writing Center's workshop on advanced editing in MS-Word, or speak with the writing technology tutor in the BTC (Tuesday nights, 7-9pm)

Page Numbers

  1. Page numbers for the majority of your thesis are in the top right corner or top middle of each page.
  2. The page number for the first page of each chapter should either be at the bottom center or omitted.
  3. To insert page numbers, select Insert > Page Numbers.
    1. For position, choose Top of Page.
    2. For alignment, choose Right.
    3. To omit the page number on the first page, leave the Show number on first page checkbox blank.
    4. Click the "OK" button when you’re done.
  4. If you want to insert a number on the first page, select File > Page Setup.
  1. In the "Layout" tab, in the Headers and Footers section, make sure the Different first page checkbox is checked.
  2. Click the "OK" button to exit.
  3. Select View > Header and Footer.
  1. Click the Switch between header and footer icon.
  2. Press Ctrl-E to center the paragraph.
  3. Type the number 1.
  4. Click the "Close" button.
  5. Renumber the page numbers for each section of your thesis.
  6. After step 3c above, click the "Format…" button.
  7. In the Page Numbering section, choose Start at:, and type in the number.
  8. Click the "OK" button twice to exit.
  1. The page numbers for the sections before your first chapter (Table of Contents, Acknowledgement, List of Tables, etc.) are in roman numerals at the bottom center.
  1. After step 3c above, click the "Format…" button.
  2. For Number Format, choose i, ii, iii….
  3. In the Page Numbering section, choose Start at:, and type in the number.
  4. Click the "OK" button twice to insert the page number.
  1. The Table of Contents is page 3; the Acknowledgements page is 4, and so on.
  2. Tables at end of the thesis are on the top right corner.
  1. Insert the page numbers as shown above and make sure the Show number on first page checkbox is checked.

Bibliography

  1. The title of the page is 2" down from the top margin.
  2. The page numbers are the same as for the chapters.
  3. The citation entries have a hanging indent on the first line. In other words, the second and subsequent lines of the citation are one quarter inch or one half inch from the left margin. Make sure that the amount is consistent with the indentation for all your paragraphs.
  4. The general format is:
  • Last_name, First_name. Title of Work. City_of_publication: Publisher, Year.
  1. Consult the your preferred style guide for specific formats. In Turabian, for example, Chapter 11 has precise bibliography examples, labeled "B". Extensive examples are also available in MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.

Created: June 10, 1998 by Anita Chiou. Updated March 2007 by Jason Stiffler.

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