University of Malta Department of Theatre Studies School of Performing Arts Information & Style Sheet for Dissertations and Theses 1 All dissertations submitted are to follow strictly the norms detailed in this information and style sheet. Adherence to the department s house style is mandatory and is taken into consideration when assessing the work submitted. Students are urged to familiarise themselves with this style early in the course and to adopt it whenever possible when writing essays and other assignments. No style sheet can answer every query that might arise when writing a dissertation. Where the style sheet fails to offer guidance, consult the supervisor. The most fundamental rule to keep in mind is consistency of style. Theatre Studies follows the MHRA Style Guide for text conventions, referencing system, and bibliography. This is downloadable from http://www.mhra.org.uk/publications/books/styleguide/download.shtml. Particular attention should be paid to the section on Citation by the Author Date System, which is the one preferred by Theatre Studies. The author date system requires all bibliographical references to be placed at the end in alphabetical order by names of author(s) or editor(s), followed by date of publication. In the author date system, footnotes are not used for citation purposes but to provide addition information. See section 11.4 of the Style Guide for full details. 1. LENGTH BA (Hons): 12,000 15,000 words, inclusive of Notes, Bibliography, but not Appendices. MA (by research): Option (a): 45,000 50,000 words, inclusive of Notes, Bibliography, but not Appendices. Option (b) for School of Performing Arts MAs only: 25,000 30,000 words (inclusive of Notes, Bibliography, but not Appendices) in support of a presentation of artistic practice. PhD: 80,000 90,000 words, inclusive of Notes, Bibliography, but not Appendices. (MPhil: up to 50,000 words, inclusive of Notes, Bibliography, but not Appendices.) 2. TYPESCRIPT AND TEXT CONVENTIONS Students should pay special attention to the following text conventions. For all other cases, consult the relevant sections in the MHRA Style Guide: Spacing Indent all paragraphs except for the first of every section. Use double spacing in the text, except for indented quotations or footnotes where single line-spacing may be used. 1 While this information and style sheet is intended as a guide for the presentation of dissertations, all Theatre students are advised to familiarise themselves with the Text Conventions and to adopt them when writing assignments. 1
Margins The left-hand-side should be 4cm. The top and bottom margins should be 2.5cm deep. The right hand margin should be 2cm. Pagination Pages should be numbered consecutively through the main text, excluding photographs and/or diagrams which are not embodied in the text. Page numbers should be located on the right at the bottom of the page. Quoted Matter Single inverted commas throughout for quotations; double for quotes within quotes. (He said: The word she used was patriarchal. ) No inverted commas around extracts of more than 40 words. (Extracts over 40 words will be set in a smaller size type, single spacing, unindented, with extra space above and below.) Commas and full stops fall outside inverted commas around phrases, inside inverted commas around complete sentences. (He maintained that the article broke new ground. He maintained: The article breaks new ground. ) Use three points within square brackets for ellipses to indicate omissions in quoted matter. Do not use ellipses at the beginning or the end of quotations. Use square brackets to indicate any added text within a quotation. Spellings Use UK spellings (e.g. harbour rather than harbor). Use ise spellings (e.g. organise, not organize) when there is a choice. Titles and emphasis Use italics for play and book titles, with upper and lower case mixed: The Importance of Being Earnest, The Way of the World. Use quotation marks only for short poems, chapter titles and similar. NEVER USE ALL CAPITALS FOR TITLES OR EMPHASIS. Dates For dates, use day, month, year in the form 1 May 1832 (not 1 st May or 1 May, 1832). Use the twentieth century (or twentieth-century dramatists), not 20 th or Century. Elide AD years to 2 digits (AD346 48, 1924 25), but do not elide BC years: 341 340 BC. Punctuation Footnote or endnote reference numbers should be inserted following any punctuation except a dash, and at the end of a sentence if possible: [ ] composed. 23 Apostrophes. For modern names and classical names with a single syllable use Dickens s, Jones s, Zeus s, etc. For classical names with more than one syllable, apostrophe alone (Eurpiedes, Aeschylus ). Hyphens. Use adjectivally, as in eighteenth-century architecture, the music-hall bill, but in the eighteenth century, going to the music hall. A slow-moving actor (in distinction to a slow, moving speech). A well-made book (but: this book is well made). No hyphen in compounds with adverbs ending in -ly (for example: expertly written texts). Commas. Use Siddons, Kemble, and Kean, not Siddons, Kemble and Kean. Parenthetical Dashes. Use en dash with space before and after (the outcome a delay in publication was regrettable). 2
Abbreviations and Acronyms A contracted form of a word that ends with the same letter as the full form, including plural -s, is not followed by a full stop (e.g. Dr, Jr, Mme, Mr, Mrs, St, vols). Other abbreviations take a full stop and are followed by a space (e.g. M. Dupont [Monsieur], Prof. J. Jones, pp. 106 09, vol. xix). Full stops are omitted for capitalised acronyms or similar abbreviations in general use (BBC, NATO, BC, AD). Capitals Minimum use (the king pondered, the Peloponnesian war, western influence, classical tragedy, ancient authors). Numbers Numbers up to and including one hundred should be written in words when the context is not statistical. In expressing inclusive numbers falling within the same hundred, the last two figures should be given, including any zero in the penultimate position: 13 15, 44 47, 100 22, 104 08, 1933 39. Accents Minimum use (role, premiere, regime, elite in English usage, none on French capital letters). Useful Link The University of Malta E-Dissertation Guidelines (a step-by-step guide to create a userfriendly electronic dissertation) can be found here: www.um.edu.mt/ data/assets/pdf_file/0005/138299/edissertations_guidelines_2011.pdf 3. PRELIMS The following order should be followed: i. Title-page, naming the full title of the dissertation, the candidate s name, the qualification aimed for, Department of Theatre Studies/School of Performing Arts or Faculty of Arts/University of Malta, month and year of submission ii. Abstract iii. Dedication (if any) iv. Table of Contents v. List of illustrations/maps/tables/graphs/etc. vi. Acknowledgements (if any) 4. SUBMISSION OF DISSERTATION FOR EXAMINATION Three soft-bound copies of the dissertation are to be submitted to the Head of Department, as well as an electronic copy. BA (Hons) dissertations are to be handed in to the department s secretary by the working day closest to 15 May of the final year. After the examination, two hard-bound copies should be re-submitted to the department. It is normal practice that students give a (third) copy of their dissertation to their supervisor. 3
5. PRACTICALITIES (a) Not later than the end of the first week after the Christmas recess of the second year, students are to submit (to the departmental secretary) a short proposal including a tentative dissertation title. However, the department reserves the right to the final decision on both issues. Supervisors and research topics cannot be changed without the department s permission. (b) Students are to consult their supervisor regularly. No consultation with the supervisor is to be sought after 1 May of the third year, that is, two weeks prior to the deadline for submission. (c) The supervisor is expected to read and make remarks on each chapter of the dissertation submitted, once only, following which it is the student s responsibility to make the suggested changes and corrections. Towards the end the student may submit to the supervisor the whole draft of the dissertation in time for the latter to be able to give their final advice before 1 May. (d) The supervisor s role is to guide and coach the student in research, methodology, and other skills, as well as to discuss content and interpretation, but it is not their role to proofread the dissertation or correct errors of grammar or syntax. (e) Supervisors will keep a log of meetings with students. This will include any appointments and deadlines missed by students without reasonable justification or notification. (f) Students will complete a Supervision Report Sheet (obtainable online or from the departmental secretary) within seven days of each meeting. The report will detail progress since the previous meeting, content discussed during the meeting, and agreed course of action for the following meeting. (g) Meetings may be substituted by other means of communication (e.g. email, Skype). Students are encouraged to make the most of their communication time with supervisors, to be prepared and to stick with any deadlines and tasks that have been agreed. Students should inform their supervisor of any problems that might potentially impact negatively their progress. (h) It is the student s responsibility to be aware of the implications of plagiarism and of the University s policy on the matter. See the Plagiarism and Collusion Guidelines : www.um.edu.mt/ data/assets/pdf_file/0009/95571/university-guidelines-on-plagiarism.pdf See also How to Avoid Plagiarism : www.um.edu.mt/ data/assets/pdf_file/0006/95568/how-to-avoid-plagiarism.pdf (i) Although registration for the dissertation study-unit is done in the third year, students are strongly advised to start work on it as early as possible and in particular to take advantage of the summer recess following their second year of studies. 4
Further Guidelines for BA (Hons) Students YEAR TWO Semester 1 Week 1 At the beginning of your second year, your attention will be drawn to this Information and Style Sheet so that you can start preparing for your Theatre dissertation study-unit THS3094. January By the end of the first week after the Christmas recess, you will submit to the departmental secretary the following information on one side of an A4: (1) Tentative dissertation title. (2) Summary of proposed dissertation, to include: (i) hypothesis, i.e. what you will be focusing upon (be as clear as possible), (ii) how you will discuss your hypothesis (including the relevant bibliographical, historical, theoretical/philosophic detail). Note: The department reserves the right to the final decision on both research topic and supervisor. Semester 2 Week 1 You will be assigned a supervisor at the start of semester 2. You will then meet your supervisor to plan the way forward. March By the final week of the month, you will submit the following information to your supervisor: (1) Bibliography containing about 20 titles (books, articles, and other sources). This should be well-researched. Make use of journals and also the internet to track any sources you might use. Consult the bibliography of books to boost yours. (2) In the meantime, prepare for the next task. After Easter Recess By the end of the first week after the Easter recess, you will submit the following information to your supervisor: (1) Updated title, updated proposal, and updated bibliography of dissertation. (2) Tentative chapter structure of dissertation, including tentative descriptions of each chapter. You will meet your supervisor to discuss this material and to prepare for the next task. May By the end of the penultimate week of the second semester, you will submit the following information to your supervisor: (1) Definitive dissertation title. (2) Definitive chapter structure (with titles and a summary of each chapter). You should aim to have five to six chapters (inclusive of Introduction and Conclusion). Seven chapters are also possible as long as the stipulated dissertation length of 12,000 15,000 words (inclusive of notes, bibliography, but not appendices) is respected. 5
You should now be in a position to start individual work on your dissertation. Ideally, you would have already started the writing process. Summer Personal work on dissertation, including: (1) research/reading, (2) writing of dissertation according to your chapter structure. It is up to you (in consultation with your supervisor) to decide the sequence of chapter-writing (e.g. you might want to begin with Chapter 3 rather than Chapter 1). Note: Though it is possible to anticipate deadlines, your supervisor will not be able to read chapters in July and August. YEAR THREE Semester 1 October At the beginning of your third year, you will hand in at least one chapter. You are reminded to pay close attention to the departmental text conventions indicated above. Semester 1 Semester 2 During this period you are expected to work regularly on your dissertation in consultation with your supervisor. It is essential that you stick with deadlines and tasks you have agreed with your supervisor. Semester 2 May You will submit your dissertation by the working day closest to 15 May as per the indications provided above. fc.09.2013 6