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The Graduate School

Introduction to ETD Requirements

Every thesis and dissertation must meet some general requirements:

  • Page Dimensions: Pages must be 8.5 x 11 throughout the document. Landscape pages are acceptable, but they must be 11 x 8.5.
  • Font: All body text must be the same font and font size. All body text throughout the document must be black on a white background.
  • Text size: Apart from chapter headers and captions for tables and figures, all text must be the same size. All page numbers must be the same size as the body text.
  • Line Spacing: Body text must be 1.5- or double-spaced.
  • Margins: The top, bottom, and right margins are required to be 1 inch, but the left margin can either be 1 inch or 1.25 inches.
  • Running Header: Your document should not have a running header that appears in the top margin of each page.
  • Page Numbers: Page numbers should be in exactly the same location on each page. Preliminary pages are numbered with lower-case Roman numerals, starting with “ii” on the page after your Title Page. Main body pages are numbered with Arabic numerals, starting with “1” on the first page of your main body text and increase consecutively throughout the document. See below for more info on page numbering requirements.

Required and Optional Pages

Every thesis and dissertation is comprised of some basic elements. Some of these pages are required, but some are optional. These pages are listed below, including some general information about them, including whether they are required or optional, and whether they require a page number.

  • Abstract: required (no page #)
  • Copyright: optional (no page #)
    • Copyright lines should be in the very center of the page (centered horizontally and vertically).
    • Include your full name and the year in which you will graduate.
  • Title page:required (no page #)
    • Should not be signed by your committee.
  • Dedication: optional (start preliminary page numbering, with Roman numeral “ii”).
  • Biography: required (if no Dedication page, start with “ii”)
  • Acknowledgements: optional (Roman numeral page #)
  • Table of Contents:required (Roman numeral page #)
    • List of Tables should be your first listing.
    • List of Figures should be your second listing.
    • Do not include listing for Table of Contents page itself.
  • List of Tables: required (Roman numeral page #)
  • List of Figures: required (Roman numeral page #)
  • List of Schemes, Symbols, or Terminology: optional (roman numeral page #)
  • Body text: required (start main page numbering with Arabic numeral “1”)
  • References: required (Arabic page #)
  • Appendices Intro Page:required if appendices included (Arabic page #)
    • If you have just one appendix, this intro page should read “APPENDIX” rather than “APPENDICES”. The header should be centered at the top of the page, formatted in the manner of your preliminary headers, with nothing else on the page. See a visual example here.