The body of each manuscript contains text describing research performed as part of the completion process for a master or doctoral program. Formatting may vary depending on the style guide used, or whether the document is a journal model or a creative thesis; however, all manuscripts must adhere to SHSU’s basic format standards:
Page numbers:Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), right side, top of page. Page numbers start with 1 on the first page of the first chapter and continue to the end of the document.
Margins:Left margin 1.5 inch.Top, Right, Bottom 1 inch.
Font:12 pt.Double-spaced throughout.Use same font style throughout document.
DIVIDING THE CONTENT
The first thing you will do when constructing a thesis or dissertation is create a basic outline of your content. This same outline can be used to generate chapter titles and headings throughout the document.
Titles and headings help readers understand how you have structured the subject matter, and prepares them for what they are about to read. A logical and consistent progression of headings helps with this.
Unless stated otherwise in your specific style manual, the following outlines the basic structure for titles and headings:
Each chapter begins with a chapter designation on the top line of the page:
Bold
Centered
ALL CAPS
Followed by a Roman numeral:CHAPTER I, CHAPTER II, CHAPTER III, etc.
The next line is the chapter title:
Bold
Centered
Headline Style Capitalization. (Use CHPT_HD)
Heading style 2:
Bold
Left-justified
Headline Style Capitalization. (Use Heading2)
Heading style 3:
Bold
Indented for paragraph
Sentence style capitalization ending with a period. Regular text starts after period. (Use Heading3)
Heading style 4:
Bold
Italicized
Indented for paragraph
Sentence style capitalization ending with a period. Regular text starts after period. (Use Heading4)
Heading style 5:
Italicized
Indented for paragraph
Sentence style capitalization ending with a period. Regular text starts after period. (Use Heading4)
You may not need to use all of these heading formats, but knowing will take some of the guesswork out of the creation process.
NOTE: Heading formats must be used in consecutive order. You cannot skip one heading level in preference for another.
Also, you cannot have only one subsection within a section. Use at least two, or none at all.
Refer to the page Setting Up Your Document to find out more about heading styles and how to create re-usable font styles in your document.
A journal model manuscript should contain 2 or more journal articles. If it does not, then the document should be formatted as a regular thesis or dissertation.
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