M.A. Thesis Guidelines The Oral Defense Copies of the Thesis Submit 2 copies of your oral defense drafts to the Faculty Secretary five weeks before the end of the semester. Submit the copies within black spring binders, available for free at the Library. Contact the Faculty Secretary to schedule an oral defense to take place before the last week of classes. The Final Copy of the Thesis Submit the final copy to the Faculty Secretary on the first day of the exam period. Submit the final copy in a spring binder, available for free at the Library. The final copy should show all the corrections and changes required by your readers. Include a filled-out copy of the vita form (which may be downloaded from the following link: http://www.drew.edu/uploadedfiles/depts/library/forms/vita_form.pdf). If you want your own bound copy of the dissertation, contact the Library, which charges a modest fee to do that. Basic Style Guidelines The MA thesis should conform in style to the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. Note that Chicago recognizes two different citation styles: Footnotes that include full bibliographic information, or in-text parenthetical citations keyed to a bibliography at the end of the thesis. (See M.A. Thesis sample pages for examples of both citation styles.) Typically, theses in the humanities follow the first style; theses in the social sciences follow the second. The Chicago Manual of Style is available online via the Library s homepage. Parts of the Thesis The thesis should contain: title page, table of contents, body of text, footnotes or in-text citations, and bibliography. Optional items include: a dedication page, a preface, appropriate tables, charts and figures. An abstract of no more than 250 words should accompany the thesis. Ink, Font, Paper Your final text must be in black ink and of letter quality or near letter quality. Your font should be Times New Roman or equivalent, in 12 point. You should use a laser printer. Use 8 ½ x 11 inch paper Your final copy should be on paper that is at least 25% fiber content; acid-free is best. Your oral defense drafts can be on regular printer paper.
Margins Follow these margins: Left: 1 ½ inches Right: 1 inch Top: 1 inch Bottom: 1 inch to 1 ¼ inch below the last footnote line Even after you have set your margins on your computer, be sure the pages print out with these margins. A lesser left margin will not be acceptable, as it will not submit to binding. Pagination Follow this pagination style: For the text: upper right hand corner, except for the first page of a chapter, which should be bottom center. For front matter (everything before the first page of your text): bottom center in small Roman numerals. Footnotes and In-text Citations If following footnote style, place them at the bottom of the page (not at the end of chapters) If following in-text citation style, place the parenthetical citation right after the citation but before any succeeding punctuation, e.g. undying love (Smith 220). Line spacing Double space (or use space-and-a-half for) all text, but single space: Block quotations Footnotes Bibliography or reference list items Other Spacing After periods: After initials, use one space: T. D. [not T.D.] After abbreviations, omit spaces: Ph.D [not Ph. D.] After periods or other punctuation that end a sentence, use 2 spaces. On the title page: Center the title and follow inverted pyramid style (reduce and center succeeding lines) Double-space between all lines Margins o Top: 2 inches o Bottom: 1 to 1¼ inches Consult the sample title page herein On the abstract:
Center the title and follow inverted pyramid style (reduce and center succeeding lines) Double-space between lines Format with 1 inch margins on all sides Keep to below 250 words Follow the form of the sample abstract Examples of Common Bibliography and Footnote Forms The first line of a bibliography citation is flush with the left margin; further lines within the citation are indented The first line of a footnote is slightly indented, and further lines of the note are flush with the left margin. In the examples below, the bibliography form is given first; the footnote form, second. The last number in the footnote citation is a page number. (Note the abbreviation p is omitted.) In general, bibliography citations favor periods, and footnotes favor commas. Apart from the online Chicago Manual of Style, there are several user friendly, online guides to citing in Chicago style. Consult these: http://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/docchicago.html http://www.uwp.edu/departments/library/guides/pdf_guides/turabian.pdf 1. Book with a single author 1 John Smith, How to Write (New York: Random House, 2009), 25. 2. Book with two or more authors Smith, John and Howard Doe. How to Write. New York: Random House, 2009 1 John Smith and Howard Doe, How to Write (New York: Random House, 2009), 25. Smith, John, Howard Doe, and Jane Jones. How to Write. New York: Random House, 2009. 1 John Smith, Howard Doe, and Jane Jones, How to Write (New York: Random House, 2009), 25. 3. Edited book Smith, John, ed. How to Write. New York: Random House, 2009 1 John Smith, ed., How to Write (New York: Random House, 2009), 25. 4. Online book within Google Books http://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=intitle:how+intitle:to+intitle:write 1 John Smith, How to Write (New York: Random House, 2009), 25, http://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=intitle:how+intitle:to+intitle:write
5. Online book within a library database http://www.oxfordscholarship.com.ezproxy.drew.edu 1 John Smith, How to Write (New York: Random House, 2009, 25, http://www.oxfordscholarship.com.ezproxy.drew.edu 6. Essay within an edited collection of essays by many authors Doe, Jane. Grammar and Style. In How to Write, edited by John Smith, 25-43. New York: Random House, 2009 1 Jane Doe, Grammar and Style, in How to Write, ed. John Smith (New York: Random House, 2009), 25. 7. Translated book Doe, Jane. How to Write. Translated by John Smith. New York: Random House, 2009 1 Jane Doe, How to Write, trans. John Smith (New York: Random House, 2009), 25. 8. Book in a series Smith, John. How to Write. Basic Reference Guides. New York: Random House, 2009. 1 John Smith, How to Write, Basic Reference Guides (New York: Random House, 2009), 25. 9. Article in a journal Doe, Jane. Writing for Profit. Journal of Writing 18, no. 2 (June 2009): 25-43. 1 Jane Doe, Writing for Profit, Journal of Writing 18, no. 2 (June 2009): 25. 10. Online article from a database (like ATLA) Doe, Jane. Writing for Profit. Journal of Writing 18, no. 2 (June 2009): 25-43. 1 Jane Doe, Writing for Profit, Journal of Writing 18, no. 2 (June 2009): 25. 11. Unpaged article within a database (like ATLA) Doe, Jane. Writing for Profit. Journal of Writing 18, no. 2 (June 2009): 25-33.* 1 Jane Doe, Writing for Profit, Journal of Writing 18, no. 2 (June 2009): par. 13. [*the pagination is from the database citation] [see rule 14.17 in the Chicago Manual of Style for more guidance on this] Quotations Shorter than 50 words: Integrate within your sentence and enclose within double quotes: quote
Longer than 50 words: Indent the left margin of the quote and single space Do not enclose the whole in double quotes Periods and commas go inside quotation marks, e.g. the way, the truth, and the life. Dashes and Hyphens For a dash, use the em-dash, which pressing the space bar after two hyphens usually produces Do not use a single hyphen for a dash. Ellipses These indicate omitted text but in subtly different ways. Note: text text means something is omitted from the middle of a sentence text... Text means the omission occurs between the end of one sentence and beginning of another text. [T]ext means what follows the omission grammatically starts a new sentence, but does not do so in the original text. For more guidance on ellipses, see the appropriate section of the latest edition of Turabian s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses and Dissertations.