How To Choose The Correct Format For A Dissertation: Basic Tips
As a student, writing your dissertation can be an extremely stressful time in your academic career. A huge portion of your grade depends on this project, so it is detrimental that you create a strong project. Aside from content, how you format it is one of the most important things. This project should take quite a lot of time to complete, and as such, you will have a lot of content. Figuring out how to format it on your own can be very overwhelming, so here are some basic tips to get you started on how to arrange your final project:
- Choose a style: There are several different style manuals to choose from depending on your degree and field, but you should select one that most appropriately matches the styles of other academic works in your school. Ask your adviser or professor what style they would recommend you follow.
- Select a printer: If you have a printer that does not function that well, or if the quality of works printed by it are blotchy and inconsistent, you might want to consider paying to have your project professionally printed and copied. It is likely that you will have several graphs and images throughout your work, and low quality printers that lack in contrast might make these images difficult to read.
- Select a typeface: Find out the guidelines your school requires for typeface size and font. Typically, a font sized between 10 and 12 points is preferred, with most leaning closer to 12. Too small of a font can make reading difficult and poorly affect your grade.
- Align text: Set the margins of your pages so that the content appears properly on the page. The left, right, top, and bottom margins each need to be aligned properly so that the content fills up the correct amount of space.
- Double space: Double spacing your work will make content easier to read and grade. All text should be double spaced, with the exception of quotations, titles, references, and footnotes.
- Paginate: Paginate all of your pages and make all numbers appear about 3/4” from the bottom of the page.
- Include copyright: As soon as you publish your dissertation, it will be copyrighted. Include a page for the copyright to be printed on, as well as space with your name and date. This will appear beneath the copyright once the work is published.