THE FOLLOWING IS INTENDED AS A QUICK CHECKLIST OF THE AREAS THAT PRESENT THE MOST PROBLEMS FOR STUDENTS. PLEASE REFER TO THE UNIVERSITY STYLE AND FORMAT GUIDELINES FOR MASTER'S THESES AND PROJECT REPORTS FOR COMPLETE GUIDELINES.
Paper -
Standard 20 lb. copy paper in a 8½ x 11 lidded box (suitable boxes available at the Bookstore).
Use 12 point Courier, Courier New, Times Roman, or Times New Roman font; use one size and one style only.
Italics may be used to replace underlining in bibliographies, genus and species names, and statistical symbols.
Smaller or condensed fonts may be used in tables/figures where space is an issue. The smallest acceptable font size is 8 point Courier or Courier New and 10 point Times Roman and Times New Roman. The table/figure number and title/caption must remain in 12 point.
Special symbols for mathematics, the sciences, engineering, electronics, music, languages, and so forth, should be set in a type font as similar to the basic text as possible.
Italicize statistical symbols.
Colored materials require one copy of each colored page per copy of the thesis (original submission needs to be in black and white).
Double space throughout except where single or more than double spacing is required.
Margins are: 1.5" left margin, 1" right margin, 1" bottom margin, 1" top margin, except for the following which have 2" top margins, first page only
Single lines of text at the top or bottom of a page are not allowed (2 lines of text required).
Headings at the bottom of a page must be followed by at least 2 lines of text.
Use a left margin justification with a ragged right margin; except for chapter titles and first level subheadings, which use center justification.
Abstract - is not numbered if only one page; if two pages, it is numbered with Arabic numerals.
Preliminary Pages - include in order Title Page, Approval Page, Acknowledgements/Preface (optional), Table of Contents, and the List of . . . (optional).
Page count begins on the Title Page, but it is not numbered, nor is the Approval Page. Using lower case, Roman numerals, actual numbering will begin with page "iii" on the Acknowledgements or Preface and continue in sequence throughout the remaining Preliminary Pages. Otherwise, the actual numbering will begin with the Table of Contents first page as "iii."
Copyright Page - it is not counted nor numbered.
Text Pages - main body of text including all Appendices, References and half-title sheet pages are counted and numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals.
Half-Title Pages - required for the Appendices introduction, each Appendix and Bibliography/References with the title printed half way down the page in capital letters; number the pages.
Page numbers are centered at the bottom of the page in the same font and size used for the body of text. Page numbers cannot intrude into the prescribed 1" bottom margin (set footer at 1").
GUARD SHEETS - ABSTRACT - TITLE PAGE - APPROVAL PAGE
Two blank pages called "Guard Sheets" are not counted or numbered; one sheet comes after the Abstract; the other is at the end of the thesis.
Abstract, Title Page and Approval Page
Abstract
Approval Page
Dot leaders end and align 3-4 spaces before the longest page number; align all page numbers to the right.
LIST of TABLES (etc.; optional, required if any tables are included in thesis) - is listed before any Chapters, the list itself follows the Table of Contents and uses Roman numeral page numbers.
All chapter titles and subheads must match exactly with titles/headings in the text.
CHAPTER and APPENDIX titles must all be in capitals.
Subheadings
APPENDICES
Indented to align with chapter number, each is assigned a letter, capitalize letter and title.
REFERENCES
Follows appendices wtih page number to reflect half-title page in text.
CHAPTER HEADINGS and SUBHEADINGS in TEXT
Chapters begin on a new page, with chapter number in Arabic numerals, centered, with the title on the next double space line and centered in capitals with a 2" top margin on page.
Subheadings
Headings are to go all the way across the page before they are wrapped to a second line or more for long titles.
CITATIONS / FOOTNOTES and REFERENCES / BIBLIOGRAPHY
Refer to the approved style manual/journal citation style for your department.
References includes all sources that are cited in the text; Bibliographies include sources in addition to those cited.
References/Bibliography
Citations
Footnotes
Endnotes are not allowed.
Sources follow terminal punctuation in block quotations.
APA
Make sure apostrophes are used appropriately, for possessive forms.
Accents and diacritical marks must be included.
Contractions may not be used unless in a direct quotation.
Dashes are formatted as double "--" or "em" ( — ) dashes, no space before or after.
Ditto marks may not be used for repetition.
Bold and bullets are not allowed (bolding is permitted in Mathematics).
Borders and boxes are not allowed around text.
Abbreviations such as etc., e.g., and i.e., are confined to parenthetic material.
Ellipses are typed as 3 period dots with a space before and after each dot.
Periods and commas go inside quotation marks.
Double space after all colons and periods, except for abbreviations and initials.
Do not mix "straight" and "smart" apostrophes and quote marks.
All numbers beginning a sentence are written out in full.
Add commas between groups of 3 digits in figures of 1,000 or more except for page numbers.
Align all numbers in Tables on the assumed or visible decimal point.
APA
Percentages (100%) are written as numerals followed by the symbol unless they begin a sentence (Fifty-five percent . . . ).
Numbers 10 and above are written as numerals (10, 11, 12, . . . ). Numbers 9 and below are written out in full (nine, eight, seven, . . . ; APA Publication Manual, pages 122-130).
Exceptions are numbers that represent time, dates, ages, sample/sub-sample/population sizes, specific numbers of subjects/participants in an experiment or study, scores/points on a scale, exact sums of money or grouped in comparison are formatted as numerals.
Each table and figure must have a number and a title or caption.
The title and number of a Table (e.g., TABLE 1. Demographics) may be flush left or centered, just be consistent. The caption and number of a Figure is always flush left.
Table titles are placed above the table and are formatted in headline style capitalization.
Figure captions are placed below the figure and are formatted in sentence style capitalization followed with a period.
Tables, figures, graphs, illustrations, etc., must be legible and of sufficient size and resolution to be reproduced effectively.
Outlined or shadowed material is not acceptable.
Tables may be single or double spaced.
Tables can be continued on another page; figures cannot.
If a complete table is on a page with no other text, center the table top to bottom on the page.
MEDIA (see pages 25-26) and COPYRIGHT(see pages 13-14)
The above does not address issues related to candidate requirements, fees, and the approval process. Those are all covered in CSULB's University Style and Format Guidelines for Master's Theses and Project Reports (revised 2007).