CIT Thesis and Directed Project Checklist Last Updated: 9/26/13 4:58 PM INTRODUCTION This document is provided to CIT students and faculty as checklists for: the process of completing your thesis or directed project, as well as the the proper formatting of a thesis or directed project These checklists have been compiled from various sources. They will help you avoid common mistakes that can result in the Graduate School delaying your graduation, or rejecting your thesis or directed project report for final deposit. PROCESS CHECKLIST The thesis and dissertation timeline is published by the Graduate School at: http://www.gradschool.purdue.edu/downloads/thesis/thesis_timeline.pdf The current semester calendar of deadlines is published at http://www.gradschool.purdue.edu/calendar/deadlineinfo.cfm Trust us! You do not want to miss the above deadlines if you expect to graduate this semester. The following checklist is provided below. As a general rule, you need to work backward from the Graduate School s deadlines; therefore, this list is presented in reverse order as follows: q Schedule your thesis deposit meeting AND do not miss it. (This step is not applicable to directed projects.) If you plan to graduate this semester, you should do this ASAP because the highly desired late time slots get taken quickly. Once those time slots are exhausted, it backs up this entire process, giving you less time to complete the earlier tasks. To schedule your deposit appointment, go to the following web address: http://www.gradschool.purdue.edu/thesistemplate/appointmentforms/tdorsusers/students/ q Schedule your thesis or directed project defense (also called the final examination). You should try to leave approximately one week between the defense and final exam to provide time for any thesis changes required by your committee or format advisor. There are forms to be filed. See Stacy Lane in KNOY 255 to schedule your defense (but only after you have scheduled the aforementioned thesis deposit meeting). q Schedule your thesis or direct project advising meeting with Prof. Jeff Whitten. This meeting should occur 1-5 business days before your defense. You must bring both printed and key disk copies to the scheduled meeting. During that scheduled meeting, your thesis/dp advisor will scan your document for formatting errors, and submit your document to a plagiarism detection software service. Stacy Lane in KNOY 255 can schedule this meeting at the same time she schedules your defense.
q Once you have scheduled all of the above meetings, check with your major professor and committee members to learn their lead- time requirements for drafts and final reports. THESIS TEMPLATES (also used for Directed Projects) Most students use either Microsoft Word or LaTeK to develop their thesis or dissertation. The Graduate School has developed templates that follow most (but not necessarily all) Purdue formatting rules. Students who prefer to use MS Word should use one of the templates published at the following web address: http://www.gradschool.purdue.edu/thesis5.cfm Students who prefer to use LaTeK instead of MS Word should view the instructions published at the following web address: https://engineering.purdue.edu/%7emark/puthesis/ THESIS AND DIRECTED PROJECT FORMAT CHECKLIST This checklist has been developed to help you avoid formatting errors that can result in the Graduate School s rejection of your thesis for final deposit. The most recent clarifications are in red. DOCUMENT ORGANIZATION: The sequence of pages must be: 1. ETD Form 9 (thesis only) 2. GS/ETD Form 32 (thesis only) 3. TITLE page 4. Dedication page (optional, but common) 5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS page (optional, but common) 6. PREFACE page(s) (optional, but rare) 7. TABLE OF CONTENTS page(s) 8. LIST OF FIGURES page(s) (required if document has figures) 9. LIST OF TABLES page(s) (required if document has tables) 10. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS page(s) (recommended because of CIT s pervasive use of acronyms) 11. GLOSSARY (required) 12. ABSTRACT page(s) usually one page 13. BODY (the CHAPTERS) with properly numbered headings and subheadings 14. REFERENCES cover page 15. REFERENCES pages 16. APPENDICES cover page 17. APPENDIX(CES) (as appropriate) 18. PUBLICATION(S) (as appropriate) ENTIRE DOCUMENT: The margins for pages that include a section/chapter heading must be: q Top = 2 q Bottom = 1 ¼ q Left = 1 ½ q Right = 1
ENTIRE DOCUMENT: The margins for all other pages must be: q Top = 1 q Bottom = 1 ¼ q Left = 1 ½ q Right =1 q Header = ½ q Footer = ½ ENTIRE DOCUMENT: The font must be one and only one of: Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman. q Must NOT use multiple fonts q Must NOT use special font variants (e.g., bold, italic or underline) except in headings (as allowed by Purdue) and references (as allowed by chosen citation style usually APA) ENTIRE DOCUMENT: Intellectual Property for Images Used in your document q If any images in the manuscript were copied or re- rendered, you must make sure that the Graduate School may require proof of permission to copy or re- render said images. And they may not be allowed to deposit without that proof. Proof can be an email or letter. FRONT MATTER: Front matter includes q TITLE page q Dedication page (optional, but common) q ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS page (optional, but common) PREFACE page(s) (optional, but rare) q TABLE OF CONTENTS page(s) q LIST OF FIGURES page(s) (required if document has figures) q LIST OF TABLES page(s) (required if document has tables) q LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS page(s) (recommended because of CIT s pervasive use of acronyms) q GLOSSARY (required) q ABSTRACT page(s) usually one page FRONT MATTER: Page Headers/Footers q Page numbers in front matter should be small Roman numerals do no write the word page in front of actual number q No other page headers are allowed q No page footers are allowed FRONT MATTER: TITLE page q CIT is now requiring the university standard thesis title page in place of College s directed title page for both theses and directed projects. q No page number on title page q Title of thesis or directed project must be in ALL CAPS q Title of thesis or directed project must match the Form 9 q Correct manuscript type must be indicated on the title page (Thesis or Directed Project) q The student name must be in mixed- case (= upper and lower case) q The correct graduation term must be specified q The correct campus must be specified
FRONT MATTER: DEDICATION page (optional, but common) q Note that this is the only section in the front matter for which there is no heading q The content of the dedication must be double- spaced q The content is centered vertically on the page FRONT MATTER: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS page (optional, but common) q Starts on a new page q Page heading, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, must be in ALL CAPS and centered at the top of the page q The content of the acknowledgements must be double- spaced FRONT MATTER: TABLE OF CONTENTS page(s) q Page heading, TABLE OF CONTENTS, must be in ALL CAPS and centered at the top of first page q Page mini- head must be above column of page numbers of every page this does not happen automatically when using the MS Word templates q Front matter page numbers must be small Roman numerals q Indentation must be used for the various levels of headings FRONT MATTER: LIST OF TABLES page(s) q Page heading, LIST OF TABLES, must be in ALL CAPS and centered at the top of first page q Figure and Page mini- heads must be above columns of figure numbers and page numbers of every page this does not happen automatically when using the MS Word templates q Entries must be single- spaced FRONT MATTER: LIST OF FIGURES page(s) q Page heading, LIST OF FIGURES, must be in ALL CAPS and centered at the top of first page q Figure and Page mini- heads must be above columns of figure numbers and page numbers of every page this does not happen automatically when using the MS Word templates q Entries must be single- spaced q If there are Appendix figures, there must be additional mini- heading, Appendix Figure FRONT MATTER: LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS page(s) q Page heading, LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, must be in ALL CAPS and centered at the top of first page q Entries must be single- spaced, but with a blank line between entries q Just include acronyms/abbreviations and spelled out terms no definitions. Definitions go in the GLOSSARY section. q If a table was used to construct the list of abbreviations, the lines must be invisible FRONT MATTER: GLOSSARY page(s) q Recently relocated from the Definitions section of Chapter 1 to this new front matter section this may differ from what was taught in TECH 646 for many students q Page heading, GLOSSARY, must be in ALL CAPS and centered at the top of the first page q Entries must be single- spaced, but with a blank line between entries
FRONT MATTER: ABSTRACT page(s) q Page heading, ABSTRACT, must be in ALL CAPS and centered at the top of the first page q The abstract begins with some vital information that is single- spaced and includes the fields: student (in last name, first name sequence), degree, semester and year, thesis or project title (where the title must precisely match that of the TITLE page and the Form 9) and major professor (in first name, last name sequence). q Abstract must be written as a summary of entire thesis and report, not just another introduction. Do not simply copy and paste from Introduction or Conclusions. Abstract is intended as a teaser into the results to get the reader to want to read the entire manuscript. q The body of abstract must be double- spaced BODY: CHAPTER HEADINGS q All chapters start on a new page q Numbered, centered, and ALL CAPS BODY: First Level headings within a chapter q Numbered #.#, centered, underlined, and mixed case BODY: Second Level headings within a chapter q Numbered #.#.#, centered, NOT underlined, and mixed case BODY Third level subheadings within a chapter q Numbered #.#.#.#, left- justified, underlined, mixed case BODY: Headers and Footers q Page numbers in headers are small Arabic, right justified no word page in front of numbers. q No other page headers are allowed q No footers are allowed BODY: When converting your thesis or directed project proposal to the final report q Methodology or planning chapters and sections from original Proposal must be converted to past tense because the research or project has now been completed. BODY: Formatting of in- line references (APA or IEEE). In- line references are similar to footnotes, except that they are recorded directly in the text paragraphs as opposed to at the bottom of the page. See APA or IEEE publication standards for the correct format and style to be used. q If following IEEE in- line references must match to same numbers in REFERENCES section. In- line references are numbered sequentially. q If following APA see APA style manual for approved approaches to in- line citations. They are not numbered. Instead, they require abbreviated citation formats based on author name. q There is an APA style for in- line references to conversations, instructional materials, and other unpublished works. However, such citations do NOT get included in the REFERENCES section.
BODY: Figures/figure numbers and captions are properly formatted q Figures must be numbered sequentially within chapters q Figure numbers and captions are centered beneath the actual figure. q The numbering scheme is #.# where first # is chapter # q The number must be preceded by the word Figure q #.# must be followed by a figure title/caption q The figure should always be located AFTER its first mention in the text, as close to that mention as possible. q There is a special APA formatting style for figures that exceed one page. BODY: Tables/table numbers and captions are properly formatted q Tables must be numbered sequentially within chapters q Table numbers and captions are centered above actual table q The numbering scheme is #.# where first # is chapter # q The number must be preceded by the word Table q #.# must be followed by table title/caption q There can be no vertical interior or exterior lines inside tables. See your APA manual for examples q The table should always be placed AFTER its first mention in the text. q Caption for any second page of a table is left- justified and above table on next page. The format is Table #.# Continued. q Horizontal/landscape tables/images must be properly formatted as specified in the thesis handbook. BODY: Widow and orphan lines q There should be no widow and orphan lines in paragraphs. o MS Word has functionality to automatically eliminate widows and orphans. o LaTeK does not have such functionality. You have to check for them manually. BACK MATTER: REFERENCES page(s) q There must be a cover page with REFERENCES centered horizontally and vertically. No page number for this page. The actual references start on the next page. q There must be a REFERENCES header on the page that begins the actual citations. q Full citations in must be in either APA (preferred) or IEEE format. To help with citations, consider using the Son of Citation Machine on the web. q Each citation should be single- spaced. q There should be double- space between citations. q A citations may NOT be split across pages q IEEE style should be sequenced according to inline numbers q APA style should be sequenced alphabetically by first author (see APA manual for special situations) q Citations must be reverse indented on first line q The capitalization of titles can be tricky, and differs according to type of publication. q The citing of page numbers can be tricky, and differs according to type of publication.
q Publications retrieved from the web require special formatting. q NO conversations or unpublished instructional materials should ever be cited in the REFERENCES section. Those only have in- line citations. BACK MATTER: APPENDICES pages q There must be a cover page with APPENDIX or APPENDICES, centered horizontally and vertically. No page number for this page. The actual references start on the next page. q If multiple appendices, each must start on new page with centered single line title Appendix A Title at the top of the page, followed by three blank single- spaced lines. q If single appendix, there should be no alpha designator. q Figures and tables within APPENDIX(CES) require special numbering. FORMAT ADVSORS If you have any questions about formatting your thesis, dissertation, or report, please feel free to contact your thesis/directed project format advisors: Professor Jeff Whitten in KNOY 245 or at jwhitten@purdue.edu You can schedule appointments with Prof. Whitten through either of his assistants, Stacy Lane or Stephanie Schmidt. OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES The web page for the Graduate School s Thesis and Dissertation office is at: http://www.gradschool.purdue.edu/thesis.cfm That page includes many useful links to resources and services to help you succeed.