Step Six: Writing
Thesis formatting
The Department has a few rules regarding format for the PDF submission (differences in formatting for the Hard Copy submission are detailed on the submission page.) Specific requirements are included here, along with suggestions where no requirements exist.
Section One: Requirements
Front Matter
Your thesis must contain and should begin with a title page, an acknowledgments page, a table of contents, and an abstract, in that order.
Front Matter/Title Page
Use the title page format for your thesis that corresponds to your program:
Front Matter/Acknowledgments Page
Your acknowledgments should include specific references to the following:
- the aid and support given by your supervisor and readers
- any help received from various other members of the University faculty or other researchers in the preparation of the thesis
- access given to manuscripts, data, and unpublished work by various researchers
- support of any type, particularly financial, from the Department, a foundation, or a federal agency; you should state the name of the foundation or agency and if applicable, you should report the contract number; this applies not only to grants made directly to you but also to those made to your supervisor which have helped you in your research
Many thesis writers also extend thanks to those friends and family members who have provided personal support throughout the thesis process.
Front Matter/Table of Contents
A table of contents listing at least the major headings should be prepared for any thesis that is divided into sections, as most theses are.
Front Matter/Abstract
An abstract does not usually exceed 350 words and is usually double-spaced.
Back Matter
A bibliography is required. Appendices are often appropriate.
Citations/References
Most theses will use APA style in the bibliography and in citations in the body of the text. Consult the APA Publication Manual for details.
You may also use APA style in tables and figured used, but the department will also allow you to include figures and tables in the text itself, which can be preferable to the APA convention. Consult with your supervisor to decide which style to follow in your thesis.
Spacing/Margins/Pagination
The PDF version of the thesis should be double-spaced with margins of approximately 1 inch at top and bottom and right- and left-hand sides.
Individual footnotes, bibliographic references, and long quotations may be single-spaced, but double-spaced between entries.
Page numbers are required, but the format is up to you. As in a book, page numbers can be centered at top or bottom, or placed in the upper right-hand corner. Page numbers should be at least a half inch from any edge of the paper. It is customary not to have a page number at the top of a page containing a chapter heading; if you placed the numbers at the top of the page, we suggest it be omitted entirely on chapter heading pages. Be sure that page numbers are adjusted accordingly on any page where you have changed the orientation of the page to landscape.
The title page of a thesis need not be numbered, and all front matter through the Table of Contents can be numbered with lower-case Roman numerals - i, ii, iii, iv, etc. Following the Table of Contents, the Abstract can be page 1 and the body of the thesis can follow beginning with page 2.
Section Two: Suggestions
Style
As with format, the Department of Psychology does not set specific stylistic criteria for you to follow in writing up your thesis. Your specific area in psychology and thesis topic will influence the shape of your work. Consult with your supervisor if you have any specific questions on formatting and style. There are, however, basic common-sense guidelines you should employ in preparing any piece of scholarship at this level.
A thesis is a proposition, an assertion supported by arguments, and not just a mere collection of data. This means that when you have finished your research, you should systematically arrange your material to inform the reader of your purpose and direction.
In your introduction you should define the problems you are going to deal with and explain in what way and in what order you plan to discuss the problem or problems. Every part of the body of the thesis should be set down in a logical pattern – just as readers should never be unsure about what you are trying to prove, so should they never be unsure about how a particular fact or point fits into the development of your work. When a reader arrives at your methods section, s/he should say, “this is obviously what the writer had to do.” Finally, in your conclusion, you should restate the main points you have made in the course of your work and briefly summarize the developments leading to main points or lessons.
Be aware that a good thesis can sometimes be almost destroyed by an inadequate attention to grammar and style or by poor spelling. In these matters, you should strive for both accuracy and consistency. Readers are not indifferent to such matters. A carelessly prepared thesis may very well influence the readers' decisions about the final evaluation. Thus, adequate proofreading is highly important. (Note that although word processing spell checks are helpful, they are no replacement for careful proofreading.) You should organize your work schedule to leave yourself enough time after you have written your first draft to re-write, re-arrange, and expand or (more frequently) condense your manuscript as often as you and your supervisor deem necessary, and, finally, to proofread your final text without damaging haste. One to two weeks for typing of the final draft and proofreading are not too much to plan for.
A final word on style may be presented by the late Professor Gordon Allport’s Epistle to Thesis Writers.
Length
A thesis is usually between forty and one hundred pages long. The average length is around sixty pages of text, exclusive of appendices.
There is acceptable variation from these norms, and if you have any questions about the appropriate length for your specific thesis, you should speak with your supervisor.
Printing/Corrections
You will not be permitted to make changes to format or content (with the exception of fixing minor typos) once the submission deadline has passed, including on the hard copy.
Front Matter
In addition to required sections, other front matter may, at the discretion of the student, include any of the following: a dedication if one is desired; a list of illustration and tables; a glossary of terms; one or more epigraphs – pertinent quotations at the beginning of thesis or chapter; and a copyright notice.
Copyright Notice: The Copyright Act of 1976 provides for statutory copyright protection of a work from the moment it is tangibly fixed. To secure this protection, a copyright notice should be affixed on a separate page immediately following the title page; it should include the Copyright symbol ©, year in which copyright is established, full legal name of the author.
The notice should appear thus:
© 2009 by John Harvard Smith
All rights reserved.
Section Three: References
The APA Publication manual is the main reference for theses in psychology, as theses should generally conform to APA style. The other references may also be useful, when they do not conflict with APA standards.
APA GUIDES:
Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2009.
APA style guide to electronic resources. Available here to Harvard undergraduate students with PIN for personal use only. Please see this resource for how to cite electronic resources and for "gray" materials such as conference posters, symposia, etc.
OTHER GUIDES:
A manual of style (15th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Bem, Daryl, Writing the Empirical Journal Article. Available at http://dbem.ws/WritingArticle.pdf
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA style manual and guide to scholarly publishing. 2nd ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1998.
Strunk, William. The elements of style. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999.
Turabian, Kate L. A manual for writers of term papers, theses, and dissertations. Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing. 6th ed. / rev. by John Grossman and Alice Bennett. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
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