Fall 2011 Thesis Workshop for Engineering graduate students

1. Formatting Your Thesis or Project Report The University Guidelines Manual and Engineering Style

2. Thesis and Dissertation OfficeUniversity Library, Room 501(562) 985-4013email: lib-thesis@csulb.eduhttp://www.csulb.edu/library/guide/serv/9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday Format Evaluators: Vivian Reed and Laurie Welch Administrative Assistant: Sue Joshee

4. Formatters read through manuscripts on a first come first served basis. Pages are flagged and corrections are noted on the pages. It may take up to 4 weeks from when you submit your manuscript to when you receive an email to pick it up. Plan to submit as soon as possible if your official transcript with degree posting is required by a specific date for a graduate school application, a job, a raise, your leaving the country, or some other major change in your life.

5. Once you’ve made corrections, return the revised manuscript to the Thesis and Dissertation Office. We recommend setting a 2 week turnaround time for yourself to insure completing the process within the term deadline.Role of the Thesis and Dissertation Office

8. University Style and Format Guidelines for Theses, Project Reports, and Dissertations (2010—2011 will be available soon on the Thesis and Dissertation Office web pages)

9. The University Guidelines Manual takes precedence over departmental style manualsCurrent Edition Style Manuals

10. Thesis and Dissertation Office Web Pages

13. Only these 4 font styles allowed: Times Roman, Times New Roman, Courier, or Courier New font in 12 pointfont size

14. Margins: 1 ½ INCH LEFT MARGIN IS USED THROUGHOUT THESIS; one inch margin on top, right, and bottom except on the first page of every major section where a two inch top margin is used

15. Use TWO SPACES AFTER PERIODS and other punctuation ending sentences and all colons

16. Center page numbers just ABOVE the one inch bottom margin (set footer to 1”) and match the font size and font style of page numbers with text

17. Use paragraph format with uniform double line-spacing(one empty line between two lines of text) with no additional line space between the text and chapter titles or subheads. Select text and set line spacing to “0 pt.” to eliminate wide blank spacesFormatting Essentials

19. Guard Sheet

20. Title Page

21. Signature Page

22. Acknowledgements—Use lowercase Roman numerals (iii) for page numbers; 2 inch top margin for first page

23. Table of Contents—Use lowercase Roman numerals; 2 inch top margin for first page

24. List of Tables, then List of Figures, and so on—lowercase Roman numerals; 2 inch top margin for first page of each

25. Chapters—Use Arabic numerals for page numbers; 2 inch top margin for first page of each chapter

26. Appendices—Each begins with a half-sheet title page

27. Bibliography or Reference List begins with a half-sheet title page; 2 inch top margin for first page

30. Use double line-spacing for the blocks of text, except use single-line spacing for the names of committee members on title page

31. The title of your manuscript on the abstract, title page, and signature page must match exactly in wording and line breaks and be formatted in an inverted pyramid (longest line first)

32. Your name must also match on those pages as it is listed in your official university recordsPreliminary Pages

33. Table of Contents

35. Include headers—CHAPTER and Page. On the first page, they are located within the other elements. On all other pages, they are located at the top of the page

36. Match the wording of chapter and subhead titles in table of contents with the wording of titles in text; be sure page numbers match too

37. Subheads and multiple-lined chapter titles are single line-spaced but leave a blank line before and after chapter titles and other elements like List of Tables and appendices

38. Dot leaders end in alignment 3-4 spaces before the longest page number (programmed as a tab)

39. Page numbers must be right aligned (a tab also)

41. Nocolor font (other than black)

42. Nocontractions

43. No outlines

44. No bullets

45. Noright justification

47. Subheads

49. Headline style capitalization

50. Centered

52. Headline style capitalization

53. Begins at left margin

55. Sentence style capitalization

56. Paragraph indentation

57. On the same line as text

59. Tables and Figures

61. Do not box tables; there should be not lines on left or right edges.

64. RIGHT PLACEMENT

66. Widows and orphans (single lines at top or bottom of page) are not allowed

67. For ellipsis, use 3 period dots with a space before and after each dot

68. Use 12 point font size for page numbers, footnotes, table titles and notes, and figure captions

69. Periods and commas inside quotation marks

70. Use two hyphens—with no space before or after—to create “em” (long) dash

71. Consistent style for quotation marks: "straight" vs. “smart”Other Common Mistakes

72. Appendices

74. If there is only one appendix, begin the half-sheet title page with APPENDIX and then the title on the next line

75. For more than one appendix, begin with an APPENDICES half-sheet title page; the first appendix half-sheet title page begins with APPENDIX A and then the title on the next line

76. Appendices have page numbers

77. Appendices maintain the 1 ½ inch left margin; one inch top, right, and bottom marginsAppendices

78. References

80. Single line-space within each citation and leave a blank line between each citation

81. Do not break up a citation onto two pages. Move it to the next page if needed

82. Format spacing consistently (single spacing after periods or colons is accepted in this section)

83. If you use reference numbering—[1] or (1)—the numbers go inside punctuation, and references should be numbered in numerical order according to their order of appearance in the text

84. Refer to a source by author or title of work in a sentence, not by the number Example: A key principle is explained in Smith’s dissertation [5]. NOT A key principle is explained in [5]. References

85. Engineering Specifics Use the style approved by your department or committee: Civil–ASCE; http://www.asce.org/Audience/Authors,--Editors/Books/General-Book-Information/ Author-Date-References/ Computer Science—IEEE Computer Society; http:// www.computer.org/portal/web/publications/styleguide Electrical—IEEE; http://www.ijssst.info/info/IEEE-Citation-StyleGuide.pdf Mechanical & Aerospace—ASME; http://journaltool. asme.org/Help/AuthorHelp/WebHelp/JournalsHelp. htm#Guidelines/Getting_Started.htm

86. Approval Letter ****ALL Engineering Students**** Need to obtain an approval letter from Dr. BurkhardEnglert to submit with the thesis or project report

87. Plagiarism If you are unsure about giving credit to a source, then for your own protection you should cite the source Copyright Information A brief discussion of copyright is available at the Thesis and Dissertation website: http://www.csulb.edu/library/guide/ serv/copyr.html Copyright Permission (Contact Author or Publisher) Samples of copyright permission forms are also available at the Thesis and Dissertation Office web page. Keep copies of any permission forms you obtain and bring to Copy Center with your manuscript Plagiarism and Copyright Permission

89. If you hire a typist or editor or formatter, make sure that they follow the appropriate guides. Agree on this from the beginning or you may find yourself having to pay twice to fix the problems caused by this miscommunication.Using Other Theses as Samples and Getting Outside Help

90. Don’t Forget the Author Login

92. All three sections of the Author Login must be complete before we can accept your manuscript for format evaluation. Contact us if you have problems entering information.

93. You will receive an email verification after you complete the Author Login. Please check to be sure all the information is correct, especially email addresses.Don’t Forget the Author Login

95. Many people hire a typist or editor or formatter if the task becomes too overwhelming.

96. You are responsible for your manuscript being formatted in a professional manner that adheres to all university and departmental formatting guidelines. The manuscript should be formatted to the best of your ability when it is submitted, but there will be opportunities to correct errors after is it submitted.It’s Not the End of the World