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Illinois Institute of Technology - IIT Thesis Format Guide
Dissertation & Thesis Editing Services
Dissertation and thesis preparation in APA style differs markedly from that of manuscript articles for submission to a professional journal. Dissertations are final documents prepared in accordance with university-specific guidelines for long-term storage and public usage, whereas journal manuscripts are prepared in accordance with journal-specific guidelines for editorial and typesetting purposes. Therefore, APA's guidelines specific to the writing and preparing of theses and dissertations are relatively brief (APA, 6.01-6.03; p. 321-326), and although schools often refer students to these and other sections of the APA publication manual for guidance in formatting and style, criteria are often set that supersede the APA recommendations.
The Illinois Institute of Technology has developed a thesis manual (which applies to both master's and doctoral work) that describes the specific requirements for the format that candidates must follow. This article outlines some of the important components of the dissertation specific to IIT, which may elaborate on or differ from APA guidelines. In general, writing with these basic guidelines and criteria in mind from the start is a much better strategy than waiting until the last minute to edit your project. Writing according to all style and formatting requirements in the beginning will save you a great deal of corrections and proofreading in the end.
Request IIT Dissertation & Thesis Editing
Abstract
The abstract always is a required component of the manuscript. The maximum length for the abstract is 350 words, although shorter abstracts are recommended. Note that this word limit is much longer than the maximum of 120 words for most abstracts in APA journals. This should enable writers to make the abstract as self-contained as possible, which is essential given the abstract is published and indexed separately from the dissertation in research databases. Some guidelines given by IIT for writing the abstract are as follows: The word "ABSTRACT" must appear in all-caps and centered on the top line. The abstract text begins on the fourth line with a paragraph indentation of 0.5 inches. Footnotes are never used in the abstract, and abbreviations should be spelled out the first time they are used, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. The abstract must concisely summarize all of the major components of your document for a reader familiar to, but not an expert in, your field.
Paper
The dissertation is a "final document" that is designed for long-term storage and public usage. Therefore, issues with paper quality arise that would not for ordinary journal manuscript submission. The final copies of the project must be printed on durable white paper with a minimum 20lb weight, and minimum 25% rag content (8.5 X 11 inch). The paper must also be watermarked to verify cotton content. Students should note that standard Xerox paper, which is often used for documents, is never satisfactory for long-term preservation in the context of dissertation submission. All pages must use the same type of paper and the method of reproduction must be uniform throughout the document. Manuscripts should not be stapled or bound in any way upon submission. Print must appear on only one side of each page, and noticeable corrections, such as by fluid or tape, are not permitted.
Tables and Figures
Tables and figures should be placed at the appropriate point in the text (i.e., following the text reference at the first place possible). Note that this differs from general APA manuscript preparation where tables and figures are placed at the end of the document. You may find that your dissertation will require additional and more elaborate tables and figures than a traditional journal manuscript due to your need to demonstrate adequate mastery of your dissertation subject. Tables that include raw data, exceed one page, or are not directly cited in the text may be placed in the appendix. In general, all formatting should maximize the readability of your table, and the document as a whole.
Quotations
IIT gives very specific instructions for the inclusion of quotations. Short quotations within the text need to be enclosed in double quotations marks with the final period, question mark, or comma preceding the final quotation mark. Foreign words and the titles of books and publications should be set in italics, not quotation marks. Long quotations -- those that consist of four or more lines -- must be set off from the rest of the text. A long quotation must be single-spaced and indented in its entirety 0.3 inches from the left margin and separated from the text both above and below by a triple space. All quotations must be accompanied by a citation in the bibliography.
Footnotes
Footnote citation in the text should always be superscript, Arabic numerals, one-half space above the line of the text. The last line of the last footnote on each page must be on the last line, which is the standard 1 inch from the bottom edge of the page. Lines within footnotes should be single-spaced, and lines between footnotes should be double-spaced. This is in accordance with APA formatting guidelines (section 6.02).
Bibliography
The bibliography must include all references cited in footnotes, text, and appendices. It should not include references that are not cited in the document or unseen by the candidate, unless the work is clearly identified in this way. The form and information required for each reference will change depending on the nature of the cited text. Sources such as a book, edited book, journal article, dissertation, electronic-journal article, technical research report, newsgroup, data file, on-line forum, personal email, or other source type must be documented in the reference list appropriately. You may wish to refer to chapter 4 of the APA manual, which lists 95 different possible source types. Although APA, MLA, and Chicago style are acceptable in formating references, you need to be consistent within the document, and you should consult your advisor, as appropriate.
Page Ordering
Every thesis and dissertation contains three major subdivisions of content: preliminaries, text, and supplementary information. The contents of these subdivisions, which are further specified by the IIT Thesis Manual, must appear in the order listed (with starred components as required in all cases):
Preliminaries
| * | Title Page |
| * | Blank Page (or Copyright Notice Page) |
| | Acknowledgments (optional, but usually included) |
| * | Table of Contents |
| | List of Tables (if thesis contains tables) |
| | List of Figures (if thesis contains figures) |
| | List of Abbreviations (if thesis contains symbols and abbreviations) |
| * | Abstract |
Text
| * | Introduction |
| * | Historical Review or Survey of the Literature |
| * | Body of the Report |
| | Methods and Procedures |
| | Results |
| | Conclusions |
| * | Summary (and recommendations for further studies) |
Supplementary Information
| | Appendix (if thesis requires appendix) |
| | Vitae (optional) |
| * | Bibliography |
Component-Specific Instructions
The above component ordering generally follows APA guidelines for dissertation preparation in section 6.02 of the manual. However, IIT gives extremely specific instructions for each of these components that must be followed, and in too great of detail to be completely enumerated within the scope of this article. For instance, the IIT Thesis Manual gives the following instructions for formatting the table of contents: The student must center the words "TABLE OF CONTENTS" at the top line of the page. Triple-spaced below the heading at the right margin (1-inch from the edge of the paper) the word "Page" must appear. The word "CHAPTER" follows the list of preliminary pages, double-spaced and at the left margin. On the next single-spaced line, the Arabic numeral "1" and a period "." must appear under the letters "E" and "R", respectively, in "CHAPTER". The Chapter titles follow in the third space after the period, capitalized, just as they appear on the pages indicated... This is a fraction of the instructions given in the table of contents formatting subsection of the IIT manual, and all must be followed for your dissertation to be approved.
The dissertation is probably the most important, and often the most stress-inducing document of your graduate career. Obtaining assistance with dissertation style and formatting allows you to concentrate on the conceptual issues that excited your interest in the field from the beginning, and will improve the overall quality of your project in the end.
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