Everything You Need To Know About The Dissertation Format For Undergraduates

When it comes to your doctoral dissertation, there are specific formatting guidelines you should stick to for your paper to be accepted and approved. In formatting your paper, there are required and optional pages. From the first page to the last page, the following guidelines should help you properly format your academic paper. These guidelines are as follows:

• The Title Page: This particular page is required and is not longer than a page, with the content centered, both vertically and horizontally.
• Acceptance Page: This is a required page which shows that the committee has approved and accepted your dissertation. It is a page of its own.
• Copyright Page: Unlike the first two pages, this particular page is optional and only necessary if you choose to copyright your academic paper. The contents are vertically and horizontally centered.
• Dedication/Acknowledgement Page: This is another optional page which is geared towards recognizing the people and organizations that assisted you through the process either financially, technically, academically or otherwise.
• Abstract: Another required page which briefly tells your target readers about the “main juice” of your work. If your work dissertation will be published online, it is important to use specific keywords within the title.
• Table Of Contents: This page is required and is for the sole purpose of guiding your target readers on where to find specific content or information.
• Supplemental Materials Page: This is an optional page where the list of tables, appendixes, figures, abbreviations and others are all found.

It is also important to talk about other important elements that impact on the format of your academic paper. The first among them is the font type and size which should be Times New Roman or Arial in size 12. The footnotes, title page, tables, and picture descriptions can be typed with larger and smaller fonts as required. It is important to maintain consistency as far as font style is concerned. The second is spacing which the body of the dissertation should be double-spaced. Margins are usually 1½” by the left hand side while the top, bottom and right margins are 1” each. This applies to all the pages in the paper.

As for page numbers, they have to be clearly printed on all pages except the title page and the CV page (if included). Most of all, your paper should be clearly written in English language, the only exception being if you have an agreement with your department to write in another language.