General Format for a Thesis Written in English

The following provides an acceptable standard for a thesis written in English:

The thesis must be expressed in a satisfactory literary form consistent with the discipline concerned and must display a scholarly approach to the subject and a thorough knowledge of it. A critical review of previous work related to the subject and a concluding summation of the contribution to scholarship in the chosen field must be included in the thesis. The structure of the thesis shall consist of some or all the following sections in the order listed below:

Introductory Pages

Cover Page

See (Layout 1a)

Title Page

The style of the title page to be used for thesis is shown in Layout 1.

Thesis Committee

A list containing the names, title, and affiliations of the committee members, with space for their signatures and date (Layout 2).

Thesis Examining Committee

A list containing the names, titles, and affiliations of the Thesis Examining Committee members, with space for their signatures and date (Layout 3).

Dedication (Optional)

It should be brief and need not include the work “dedicated”; for example, “To Khalfan” is sufficient.

Acknowledgement  (Optional)

In the acknowledgement, the student thanks mentors and colleagues who supported the research. The acknowledgements should not exceed one page.

Abstract

An abstract briefly summarizes the contents of the thesis. It should be approximately one page single-spaced. A translation of the title and abstract in Arabic should follow. (Layout 5).

Epigraph  (Optional)

An epigraph is a brief, pertinent quotation. The name of the author of the epigraph (sometimes only the last name of a well-known author) appears below the epigraph, right justified.

Table of Contents

The table of contents lists all the parts of the thesis following the Table of Contents (Layout 4).

List of Tables (Optional)

This is a list of all the table titles in numerical order with their page numbers.

List of Figures (Optional)

This is a list of all figures titles in numerical order with their page numbers.

List of Symbols and Abbreviations (Optional)

This is an alphabetical list of the conventional signs and shortened forms of words or phrases used in the text.

Glossary (Optional)

A thesis which contains many foreign or technical terms should include a list of them, followed by their translation or definition. These terms should be arranged alphabetically. 

Body of Thesis

Text

The text is divided into chapters, which include an introduction, a statement of the problem and the purpose of the research, a literature review, the methodology, the main text including analysis, and a summary, conclusions, and/or recommendations, as appropriate. However, the organization of the chapters may vary depending on the nature of the thesis.

References

The references list is the last part of the thesis. Refer to Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA 2001), for example. Some disciplines may have an additional accepted practice which can be used. The style used must be consisted with published guidelines in the discipline concerned. 

Appendices

Appendices are helpful if the detailed description of certain material is inappropriate to the body of the text or is distracting because of the length or level of detail. Some examples of material suitable for appendices are a new computer program specifically designed for research and unavailable elsewhere, an unpublished test and its validation, a complicated mathematical proof, a list of stimulus materials (e.g. those used in psycholinguistic research), and a detailed description of a complex piece or equipment. Appendices should be included only if they help readers to understand, evaluate, or replicate the study.

Production of Thesis

The student is responsible for ensuring that the correct format is followed in all sections of the thesis.

The thesis must be 1.5 line spaced, except for the abstract, footnotes, figure and table captions and quotations, which should be single-spaced. The maximum length of the thesis varies depending on the subject matter, with the left margin 40mm and all other margins 25mm. This applies to figures and tabulations as well. Type style such as Times Roman or Arial or their equivalents should be used. Only one side of the paper is to be used.

Type Font and Size

The same font type and size must appear throughout. A standard type size of 12 points is requires for text.

Paper

A white A4 size paper of minimum 80-mg weight is suitable for the final copies of the thesis.

Pagination

Introductory pages, excluding the title page, must be numbered with lower case Roman numerals. The main body of the thesis, including the text, references and appendices, must be numbered consecutively by Hindi numerals. The page number must be placed in the centre bottom of the page.

Figures, Tables, Maps, and Diskettes

Figures must have scales and symbols defined on them or in the figure legend and not in the text. Figure captions must appear on the same page below the figure, while table captions must appear above the table. Both figure and table captions must be single spaced. Maps, figures, diagrams, etc. should be inserted in the appropriate place in the text. Illustrative material which cannot be bound, diskettes or CD ROMS, should be held in a protective pocket inside the back cover. Photographs and/or maps are to be scanned or photocopied in color and included in the text. They are not to be attached using adhesive materials. Other supplementary materials, such as audio or video tapes, should be submitted in an appropriate binder.

Copyright

The international copyright symbol must appear, typed at the foot of the title page.

Cover and Binding

The color of the library copy cover should be dark brown for the doctorate and dark blue for the masters thesis. The student’s name, degree and year of completion should also appear written in gold on the spine (Layout 6) in the language of the thesis. A front cover page should have a copy of the title page excluding the copyright symbol in gold type. The binding should have one protective sheet of heavier weight paper before and after the text. The student will provide two bound copies of the thesis to the Deanship of Postgraduate Studies.  

APA. 2004 for more information on preparing a thesis, the student should consult the supervisor. Deanship of Postgraduate Studies suggests Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2001. Washington DC. American Psychological Association, as a useful comprehensive guide. It can be found in the Main Library # BF 76.7 – P82.

General Format for Thesis