ETD Tutorial 2 Formatting Your Document
All text on your title page should be centered. You should not include running headers on this page.
Your title should be written in capital letters, and can be single or double spaced. It should be about 1.5 inches from the top of the page.
Approx. 1 inch down from the title, write the word “by” in lowercase on a line by itself. On the next line, single spaced, type your name.
About 1.5 inches beneath your byline, include your dissertation or thesis statement. The statement must be written exactly as it appears on the formatting requirements page.
Some schools have unique degree names that don’t fall under Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Arts or Master of Sciences. For example, you might graduate with a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree from the School of Education, or a Masters of Science in Engineering (M.S.E.) degree from the School of Engineering. If this is the case, you should write your unique degree name for this statement.
About 1/2 inch beneath your statement, type “Baltimore, Maryland,” regardless of your campus location. Don’t abbreviate “Maryland.” On the next line, single spaced again, type the month and year in this format, for example: “October 2018.” Remember: this is not your defense month or your graduation month, but the month you submit your document to the library for review. Don’t include the day. And once again, the ETD submission deadline is two business days before your school’s final approval deadline.
A copyright notice is optional. Legally speaking, you automatically own the full copyright to your document, but you may choose to include a copyright notice to highlight this for readers. Your copyright notice should be 1 to 2 inches from the bottom of the page, and include the copyright symbol (©), then the year, then your full name (e.g. © 2018 Elizabeth Talbert). On the next line, single spaced, type “All rights reserved.”
Finally, the page number on your title page should be suppressed. Next, let’s take a look at the front matter.
The first element is your Abstract. Starting here, you should include lowercase roman numeral page numbers centered at the bottom of the page. All of your front matter will use roman numerals, and you’ll switch to Arabic numerals at the beginning of your main text. Note that the abstract should start on page ii. Even though you didn’t include a page number on your title page, it is technically page i.
Your abstract should be double-spaced, and no longer than 350 words. At the end of the abstract, include a list of readers/advisors.
The rest of your front matter may be double-spaced or single-spaced.
Your Preface/Acknowledgements/Quotes/Dedication page goes after the Abstract but before the Table of Contents. If you include more than one of these optional pages, you can place them in any order, but make sure none of them share the same page.
Your Table of Contents contains each page of your front matter, starting with the Abstract. It includes all chapters of your main text, your Bibliography, and your CV/Biographical Statement. As you can see, starting with the first page of your main text, you will switch to Arabic numerals and continue with them through the end of your document.
If your document has tables, figures, or plates, you must include a List of Tables, a List of Figures, and/or a List of Plates, in that order. These pages come after your Table of Contents, but are still considered front matter, as you can see by their lowercase roman numerals. This document has both tables and figures. Both lists include the name of the tables/figures and the page numbers on which they appear. Don’t combine any of these special pages.
Finally, here’s the first page of this document’s main text. The main text must be double-spaced, and page numbers restarted with Arabic numerals, beginning with page 1.
After your main text, include your references, including appendices and your bibliography. The final element should be a CV or biographical statement. Since your document will be publicly available online, you may want to edit out information like your birth year or home address. Remember to continue with Arabic page numbers in this section.
Sans serif fonts are generally preferred for accessibility reasons. You must use the same font for all body text, but you can change the size of the font so long as your main body text is at least 10pt. Chapter and section headings, as well as captions for figures and tables, should remain consistently styled throughout the document.
Margins should be 1 inch on all sides for digital-only documents. If you intend to have your document printed and bound, make sure your left binding side (your left margin) is 1.5 inches.
Note that there can be no completely blank pages in your document. If you want to include a blank page, include the phrase “Intended to be blank.”
Footnotes/endnotes should conform to the standards of your field. Footnotes must be two sizes smaller than your main body text.