The main body of the thesis follows the front-matter, divided into chapters.
If using the traditional organization, there is a single bibliography/references section for the entire thesis placed at the end (after the thesis body, within the back-matter)
If using the manuscript organization, each chapter is without an individual chapter abstract but has its own bibliography/references section at the end of the chapter.
Pages in the body of the thesis are assigned Arabic numerals beginning with one ("1"), and run consecutively to the very end of the thesis (including the Vita Auctoris page).
Divided into chapters.
No particular style of presentation is recommended for the body of the thesis document (e.g. style of chapter titles, headings and sub-headings, heading levels, etc.). The single most important aspect of style is consistency: the same style must be followed throughout in all chapters. If your program does not recommend any particular style manual, the following are widely-accepted examples of the numerous style manuals available:
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- American Psychological Association (APA) style manual
- Turabian Kate. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses and Dissertations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Students in engineering and the sciences should consult their advisors for information about style manuals.
Divided into chapters as follows:
- Introductory chapter to the entire thesis with its own References (or "Bibliography") at the end of the chapter.
- Each subsequent chapter without an abstract, but with its own References (or "Bibliography") at the end of the chapter, and each chapter using same style for References regardless of the citation formats of the journals in which the manuscript may have appeared or will be published.
- Final chapter (general discussions and conclusions) to relate the separate studies to each other and to a relevant discipline or field of study.
Ensure that similarly to the traditional format, each chapter follows consistently the same style, e.g. the Titles of all chapters are formatted in the same style and each chapter uses the same heading levels and same formatting for sub-headings, etc.
Use the left-hand menu to navigate the format requirements. Next section: back-matter