Thesis Guide Department of Biological Sciences Western Illinois University Macomb, Illinois 61455, USA Phone: (309) 298-1546 Fax: (309) 298-2270 Email: cn-jacques@wiu.edu Ranessa Cooper Chris Jacques Department Chair Graduate Committee Chair 28 February 2019 THESIS GUIDE _____________________________ FORMAT REQUIREMENTS AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PREPARATION OF MASTER OF SCIENCE THESES _____________________________ DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES WESTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY _____________________________ GRADUATE COMMITTEE _____________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION .1 GUIDE FOR WORD PROCESSING AND PRINTING .3 FORMAT OF THESIS .7 GUIDE TO GRAMMAR, STYLE, AND USAGE .15 CONSTRUCTING TABLES AND FIGURES .37 TABLE 1 COMMON EXPRESSIONS WITH SUPERFLUOUS WORDS .40 TABLE 2 TABLE FORMAT AND STYLE GUIDELINES .43 APPENDIX A INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING *.44 APPENDIX A INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING *.44 APPENDIX B COMMON PROBLEMS AND FAQ .48 APPENDIX C – IN-TEXT CITATIONS AND LITERATURE CITED .50 APPENDIX D – MANDATORY ABBREVIATIONS FOR TABLES, FIGURES, AND PARENTHETICAL EXPRESSIONS .61 APPENDIX E – SAMPLE THESIS CHAPTER .64 ii INTRODUCTION A thesis is original research that is intended for eventual publication by the student as the first author and the advisor as the second author. Students are given 3 semester hours of credit for writing the thesis. The process can be long, tedious, and frustrating. Students should not take criticism of their thesis personally, but rather understand that the advisor and committee members are working to make the thesis the best possible document.
Students should expect many revisions of their thesis based on comments from their advisor and committee members. In the long-run, paying attention to format and writing details will shorten the process for everyone. Students need to adhere to the schedule of events in submitting, revising, and defending a thesis. Attempts by students to short-cut or bypass steps only results in delays and frustration of the thesis committee, which is also the oral examination committee.
During the process of writing a thesis, the advisor and committee experience the student’s ability to work independently and professionally, to pay attention to detail, and to think critically. The thesis represents the caliber, analytical skill, and writing abilities of both the individual student and faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences. A clear, concise document with consistent formatting suggests discipline and attention to detail, both of which are important in conducting research. Conversely, a sloppy, inconsistent document suggests the research also was sloppy.
Thus, proper formatting of the thesis is important for creating a positive impression on the reader and serves as a basis for future publication. This Thesis Guide contains the regulations and format requirements needed to prepare a master’s thesis in the Department of Biological Sciences at WIU. The primary 2 goal of this Guide is to be a “guide” – that is, to help you with your writing by providing answers to common questions, pointing out common mistakes, and giving good examples. A person with a Master’s Degree in Biology should have good writing skills, and this document was created to help you gain those skills.
Another goal of this document is to enforce consistency both within an individual’s thesis and among all theses created in the Department. Consequently, the most important concept to be followed when creating a thesis is consistency in format. This guide is NOT intended to provide strict guidelines covering all possible situations. While some broad formatting guidelines to which all theses must adhere are necessary, consistency within a thesis is more important than consistency between theses.
For problems which cannot be answered from this Thesis Guide, it is the student’s responsibility to seek help from their advisor or from the Graduate Committee Chair. In addition, consulting the Council of Biology Editors (CBE) Style Guide (now called the Council of Science Editors, www.org, accessed 11 February 2019) may be helpful. Do not assume that “it will be all right”, “they won’t catch this problem”, or “they won’t require corrections to be made”. The thesis will not be bound until it is free of errors.
Do not use past theses as examples of format because the format has changed several times over the last few years. The Department of Biological Sciences Graduate Student Handbook outlines the steps for having a thesis reviewed and approved, giving a thesis seminar, and taking the final oral examination. This document can be found on the Biology Graduate Program web page (www.edu/biology/graduate/, accessed 11 February 2019). Note that non- thesis students must also complete a research project, which is called an “Advanced 3 Biological Project”.
The Advanced Biological Project (ABP) must be written and defended just like a thesis, so all the information contained in this document applies equally to the non-thesis ABP. However, the ABP was designed to be more flexible, so its structure might be different. For example, the ABP might be based on an internship so that the traditional sections of a thesis (e., results) might not be relevant. In addition, the ABP could discuss the internship, the student’s responsibilities, or lessons learned while conducting research.
The traditional thesis structure can be modified to suit the ABP as needed. Also note that the ABP is NOT submitted for binding – thus, it will not be in the Library and will not be in the online database. It will be kept in the Department, so maintaining proper formatting will still be important. GUIDE FOR WORD PROCESSING AND PRINTING The School of Graduate Studies requires that certain procedures are followed in preparing a thesis (www.edu/grad/resources/paper/guidelines.php, accessed 11 February 2019).
This Thesis Guide includes the requirements of both the WIU School of Graduate Studies and the Department of Biological Sciences. If an inconsistency or conflict arises between the requirements of the Graduate School and the Department of Biological Sciences, the Department’s requirements will take precedence. Thus, the final thesis must meet all the format requirements of this Thesis Guide. More specific requirements and suggestions concerning the preparation of a thesis are described below.
Electronic Submission All theses are now submitted electronically. The student does not need to print a copy on thesis bond paper. All pages of the thesis (including the signature approval 4 page) must be combined into a single Adobe Acrobat (*. The Chairman of the Graduate Committee will work with the student to submit the thesis electronically via the University’s electronic thesis web portal (www.com/cgi-bin/school?siteId=189, accessed 11 February 2019).
A nice feature of electronic submission is that extra files may be uploaded with the thesis. For example, if a thesis involved unique mating calls of a bird species, audio files containing recordings of the bird calls can be uploaded with the thesis. In this way, when others access the thesis from the database, they will also be able to access the audio files. This feature is not limited to just audio files; any type of relevant file can be uploaded with the thesis.
Number of Copies and Binding Students are required to pay for a minimum of two bound copies of their thesis. After the successful oral defense of the thesis and the final signature approval page is signed, the bound thesis is distributed as follows: one copy is for the Malpass Library and one copy for the major advisor. More than two copies may be ordered at the student’s expense. All fees will be charged to the student via credit card when they submit their thesis electronically.
Oral Exam Once the graduate reader has approved the thesis, the student may schedule an oral exam in consultation with the advisor and committee members. The student must provide an electronic copy of the thesis to the Department Secretary at least 5 business days prior to the defense. This electronic copy will be provided to any faculty member who requests to review the thesis. 5 On the day of the defense, the student should provide each committee member a hard copy of their thesis to use as a reference during the defense.
At the oral exam, the student also must provide one copy of the signature approval page, which will be signed by the committee, scanned in, attached to the final electronic version, and bound in each copy of the thesis, assuming the student passes the defense. Pagination With the exception of the signature approval page, title page, and first page of the introduction, every page in the thesis has a printed page number. For prefatory materials (e., acknowledgments, abstract, table of contents, list of tables, list of figures), use small Roman numerals (e., ii, iii, iv). Center these page numbers at the bottom edge of the paper.
Please note that the title page has no page number. For the body of the thesis, use Arabic numerals (e., 2, 3, 4) and place the page number in the upper right-hand corner. For pages that are in a landscape orientation, the page number still is in the upper right-hand corner (pay attention to margins if putting a page in landscape orientation). Proofreading and Correcting Be sure to run spell check before giving the thesis to the advisor.
Once the thesis is in final form, the Chair of the Graduate Committee will assign a Graduate Committee “reader” (a member of the Department’s Graduate Committee) to check the format of the thesis. The reader will require an electronic version (in Microsoft Word format). Spacing Double spacing is required throughout all sections of the thesis, including table headings, figure captions, table of contents, list of tables, list of figures, and literature cited. 6 Word Processing Enter the text of the thesis using a computer with Microsoft Word or similar software application.
Due to the popularity of “proportionally spaced” fonts, the use of two spaces after a period or colon is no longer required. If the thesis is written in Microsoft Word (*.docx) format, the advisor and committee members can use this program to track changes, which can be very useful when working through several drafts. However, the final thesis will need to be saved in the Adobe Acrobat (*.pdf) format for electronic submission (see instructions in Appendix A). Thesis Page Format General Guidelines The following general page formatting guidelines apply to all text files: 1.
Theses should be prepared in 8.5 × 11-inch format, single-sided, and double-spaced throughout; including title, student’s address, text, long quotations within text, literature citations, table footnotes, table titles, table bodies, and figure captions. Do not hyphenate words on the right margin. All text should be left-justified. Do not justify the right margin.
The margins required are 1 inch from the top, right, and bottom of the page. The left margin is 1.5 inches to accommodate binding. Italicize words or symbols, such as scientific names and mathematical symbols intended to appear italicized in print. Use Times New Roman font, 12-point type throughout the thesis, including the title, headings, figures, tables, literature cited, and appendices.
It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that font style and point size of figures and tables matches the text. FORMAT OF THESIS In final form, the thesis resembles a publication in a scientific journal, but is usually longer and more detailed than most journals will publish. It is arranged in three main sections: prefatory materials, thesis body, and appendices (optional). The number of parts within these sections may differ depending on the outline of the thesis.
Use a consistent scheme of designating headings and subheadings of sections. Divisions of text should follow a standardized sequence as described below. Refer to Appendix E (Sample Thesis Chapter) to see examples of proper formatting. The Prefatory materials include (in this order) the signature approval page, title page, acknowledgments, abstract, table of contents, list of tables, and list of figures. Prefatory materials (except the signature approval page and title page are numbered with lower case Roman numerals, which are centered at the bottom of each page.
Signature approval page.After a successful defense of the thesis, the signatures of the examining committee will be entered on the page along with the date of the oral examination. Each committee member’s name should be typed below their signature line.
