Thesis Format
Social Studies Senior Theses should be between 20,000 and 30,000 words of text. Theses that exceed 30,000 words may be penalized by up to half a grade for excessive length. Theses that do not reach the minimum required length may fail to receive honors. You are required to attach a word count to your thesis. To do so, print out the word count on an otherwise blank piece of paper and include it as the last page in your thesis. Theses will not be accepted without a word count.
The thesis should be printed on one side of the sheet only and, apart from quotations of more than 50 words and from footnotes, should be double-spaced. The shelf copy kept by the Honors Program office must be printed on white, 8.5 x 11 paper. Baylor&rsquoThe Honors Program office requires both a paper and a digital copy of your thesis. Students may also purchase additional, professionally bound copies for a small fee. So, as an example, if you want 2 personal copies, please bring in 3 total printed sets, boxed if possible with a colored sheet in between each copy. Students can purchase a maximum of 4 personal copies of the thesis.
The digital copy must be submitted online in a single PDF file. Digital copies are not to be sent via email or turned in on a flash drive.
Please note: The program strongly recommends, but does not require, that each Honors student print and purchase an additional bound copy to be given to her or his thesis director.
Students who are currently writing and completing Honors thesis projects should familiarize themselves with the extensive guidelines linked below. Questions about them, or about formatting issues not discussed by these guidelines (or by other resources discussed in them), may be addressed to Dr. Al Beck, Admissions and Advising Coordinator of the Honors Program. A thesis format is a set of rules you should follow to plan, structure, and organize your main ideas. It is essential to give a logical direction to the thesis paper.What is the Proper Thesis Format?
A thesis format usually consists of four major sections.
Section 1 - Preliminary Pages
- Title page (required)
- Dedication (optional)
- Acknowledgment (optional)
- Abstract (required)
- Table of contents (required)
- List of tables (required)
- List of figures (required)
- List of abbreviations (optional)
Section 3 - References/ Bibliography (required)
Section 4 - Appendices (optional)
The sections of the thesis paper format are discussed below in detail.
Preliminary Pages
Preliminary pages are the write-ups that come before the main chapters of your thesis. They are counted in sequence. Moreover, such pages are used to arrange and divide the various sections logically.
The following are the main parts of the preliminary pages.
The title page serves as a basic introduction to your thesis research. It is a meaningful description of your work. Furthermore, a thesis title page format must include the following elements:
However, never put a page number on this page.
Check out our compiled list of thesis topics to get amazing ideas for your work.
Dedication is one of the preliminary pages of your thesis. It includes the dedication of research work to your loved ones or the people that hold in high regard. Furthermore, it is an optional page but should be numbered with Roman numerals if included.
On the acknowledgment page, the writer appreciates and acknowledges the people who contributed directly or indirectly to the research. These may include the supervisor, advisors, and the parents who supported you to produce successful wor
The abstract is a description of your work. It should briefly state the research methodology, research problem, conclusion, and results. Moreover, an abstract is of 100-150 words that roughly makes 5-10 sentences.
The table of contents contains a list of headings and subheadings of the thesis with the page numbers. This section must be numbered with Roman numerals at the center bottom of each page.
Also, make sure to write the text with double spacing and follow the supervisor’s format.
Tables usually list the tabulated numerical data. Thus, a list of tables is a type of reference tool that includes table titles and numbers. It enables the readers to quickly navigate to data on a thesis page. Moreover, it is similar to creating a table of content and also includes page numbers.
Some common types of figures include images, charts, maps, drawings, and graphs. Thus, the list of figures in a thesis must consist of the figure titles and numbers. Furthermore, this section also follows the same format of thesis used in the table of contents.
Remember to use double spacing and Roman numerals for page numbers.
A list of abbreviations includes unfamiliar terms, symbols, acronyms, and their meaning. These can be in different fields and languages like Latin and English abbreviations.
The text contains well-defined parts and chapters discussing the analysis of your thesis. Also, it should start with page 1 in Arabic numerals.
The main chapters included in the text are given below.
It is referred to as the first chapter of a thesis project. Furthermore, a good thesis introduction must state the following aspects.
- The purpose of the study
- The problem being studied
- The background of the research (context and importance)
- Previous work by other scholars
- A methodological approach to carry the research
- Criteria for the success of the research
The important parts of the main body are as follows.
- Theoretical Framework - It discusses the research problem within the framework of a theory. Moreover, it will further develop a theoretical basis for your methodology design.
- Methodological Procedures - List and describe the key methodology and designs used to conduct the thesis work. Similarly, this section can also use visuals to illustrate the testing procedures.
- Findings - The findings usually present the results with the help of tables and graphs. Furthermore, you can also characterize the result patterns by estimating their accuracy.
- Discussion - This section will discuss the results and their significance in detail. You can also compare the results with the relevant theories.
The following are the major elements of a thesis conclusion.
- Summarize the Research - Provide a brief summary of the research approach and the findings. Also, review and relate the results to the problem statement.
- Assess Your Study - This section will assess your work’s success according to the success criteria mentioned in the introduction. Similarly, it will also discuss how well the results matched your expectations.
- State Your Contributions - It will state the contribution of your research to the knowledge in your field. Explain how the study helps solve the problem statement and address the gap in the existing literature.
- Recommendation - Here, discuss how the results have confirmed or challenged an existing theory and recommend future research directions.
References/ Bibliography
This section contains an alphabetical list of all the sources used in the research. Follow the bibliography, footnote, and thesis reference format guidelines specified by the institution.
However, if your referencing section is longer than two pages, classify and divide it into subsections. It should be done according to the type of sources (books, journals, etc.) or time period.
Appendices
A writer must provide calculations, procedures, and data in separate and detailed appendices. Moreover, give each appendix a letter (A, B, C), a title, and an introduction paragraph.
Refer to the below-given document to understand the format template of a thesis paper.
The APA formatting rules
Page layout
Ensure every page in your document is US Letter size 8.5” x 11” with margins of at least 1” on all sides. Most dissertations require a larger binding margin, this is not specified by APA but will often be part of specific University Guidelines. Other than the title page and copyright, all pages of the thesis should be numbered right the way through to any appendices at the back.
All text should have flush left justification so text has a ragged, unjustified right edge. The first line of all paragraphs should be indented by 0.5”. The only exception is the first paragraph of the abstract.
Pages should be balanced to avoid windows and orphans. This means no single line of text should appear alone at the top or bottom of a page. The thesis should be double spaced throughout, even in block quotes, footnotes and references.
No words should be hyphenated and there should be two spaces after end-of-sentence punctuation. Italics should never be used for emphasis.
Lists or seriation should be separate sentences identified by an Arabic numeral followed by a period. The first word is capitalized, and the sentence ends with a period. If bullets are used then these should be small squares or circles. Commas should separate each item in a series, even before the conjunction and, i.e. the serial, or Oxford, comma is required.
Headers
The header is located within, not below, the margin. There is no need to set the header at a specific distance from the top of the page.
APA guidelines then specify that the title page should have a running header of:
Running head: TITLE OF PAPER 1
The next pages then follow with a running header of:
TITLE OF PAPER 2
However, your University Guidelines may override this instruction instead requesting roman numerals in the front matter and removing the words “Running head”.
Preliminary Pages
Typically the title and copyright pages are counted but not numbered. The remaining preliminary pages are then all paginated with lower case roman numerals. It is very common for each University to have their own format for the title page and copyright pages so we would recommend checking these carefully and ideally finding examples from other thesis to compare to.
If you include an abstract then the first paragraph is the only one that is not first line indented.
The table of contents can be tricky to get right. Consistent levels of heading must be included although levels as low as 4 or 5 will typically be omitted. Headings longer than one line must have a second line indent of 3 spaces, but not 5 spaces or this will appear as the next level of heading. Every level should use leader tabs and dots.
Headings
The first page of the first chapter should not repeat the dissertation title. To improve readability, it is then acceptable to triple or quadruple spaces before major heading levels 1 and 2. All headings must then be formatted according to five possible formatting arrangements:
Heading 1: Centered, Boldface, Titlecase
Heading 2: Flush Left, Boldface, Titlecase
Heading 3: Indented, boldface, lowercase, ending with a period.
Heading 4: Indented, boldface, italicized, lowercase, ending with a period.
Heading 5: Indented, italicized, lowercase, ending with a period.
Tables
Table captions are italicized, single spaced and major words capitalized. Each must be labeled with a consecutive table number. The page number, table number and table title must then be included in a List of Tables at the front of the thesis. Any table in the thesis must be referred to in the text but only by their number never by “
When styling a table keep in mind that every column must have a heading and it is typically acceptable to single space text or numbers within cells.
Wherever possible you should keep the whole of a table on one page. For tables continued onto the next page, use a line for lower border and place under the line a note in parentheses as follow (table continues) at bottom right. The column headings but not the table title must be repeated with continued table. Table notes should not be repeated but should appear at the end of the last page of table.
Table notes begin with a superscripted letter and are separated by periods. They are styled with in italics followed by two spaces and then the note itself which should not be italicized. General points like copyright attribution will end with a period whereas explanations of abbreviations or symbols will be separated by a semi-colon. Specific notes about an individual row, column or cell are then indicated by superscript lowercase letters.
Figures
Figure captions are italicized and should end with a period. Each must be labeled with the correct consecutive figure number. The caption label and text should be on the same line as each other. The page number, table number and table title must then be included in a List of Figures at the front of the thesis. Any figure in the thesis must be referred to in the text but only by their number never by “
Quotations
Any direct quote of 40 words or more must be styled in block format and indented half an inch. If there are additional paragraphs in a single quote then the first line of the second paragraph should be indented an extra half an inch.
All quotes must end with a period before the citation in parentheses and should be preceded by a colon.
References
The references section of an APA thesis must start on a new page with the word References in uppercase and lowercase letters, centered. Every reference entry should then be double-spaced and use hanging indent format, so that the first line of each reference is flush left and subsequent lines are indented.
Footnotes
All footnotes should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order they appear in the text. A superscript reference number can be placed anywhere other than in a heading and can follow any punctuation mark, except a dash.
Appendices
If there is only one appendix, label it Appendix
An appendix can include its own headings and subheadings as well as tables, figures, and displayed equations. Every table, figure and equation in an appendix must be numbered to include the letter of the appendix, such as Table B1. If there is only one appendix then just use the letter A, such as Table A1, to distinguish from those in the main text. If one table fills a whole appendix, the table does not require separate labeling.
The next pages then follow with a running header of:TITLE OF PAPER 2