Guidelines for the Structure and Format

of a

Thesis or Applied Project

Western Illinois University

Department of Geography

Update: April 5, 2012

 FORMAT

A thesis is usually composed of three main parts: preliminaries, text, and references.

Preliminaries are paged with small Roman numerals. Text and references are paged with Arabic

numerals.

Page Numbering

You may use one of placement styles for page numbers. In the first style, the numbering

of preliminary material and the first page of each chapter is placed bottom center with the

numbering of the remaining text placed in the upper right-hand corner. In the second style, all

page numbers are placed at the bottom-center of the page. Please see the Guidelines for Margins

document for the correct distances from the edge(s) of the page.

Elements in the Thesis/Project

Preliminaries

Preliminaries include the following:

 Title Page of Abstract (Thesis/Project only). The title page is not numbered.
 Abstract (Thesis/Project only). The abstract is not numbered.
 Approval Page (Thesis/Project only). The approval page is not numbered.
 Title Page (Thesis/Project, Thesis/Project Proposal, Two-Paper Option). The title
page is page i (lower-case Roman numeral) but is not shown.
 Acknowledgments (Thesis/Project only). The Acknowledgments page is page ii.
 Table of Contents (Thesis/Project only). The Table of Contents includes page
numbers of chapters and all sub-sections. The page numbers are right-aligned and are
preceded by a dot leader. The Table of Contents is numbered using small Roman
numerals. The Table of Contents includes Appendices but not Tables or Figures.
 List of Tables with page references (Thesis/Project only). The List of Tables is
formatted the same as the Table of contents.
 List of Figures (Thesis/Project only). The List of Figures is formatted the same as the
Table of contents.

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Text (Body of Document)

The Introduction starts on with page 1. In a thesis/applied project, each chapter starts on a

new page. Indent each paragraph a half an inch. Do not have extra space after each paragraph

(Word’s default setting is for there to be 10 pts of spacing after each paragraph – change this to

zero points for the entire document). Use double line spacing in the document.

Bibliography

Bibliography or (Literature Cited) starts on a new page. Page numbering continues from

the main body of the document.

Appendices

Each appendix should have a cover page with the appendix material starting on the

following page. Page numbering continues from the Bibliography.

STYLE

Theses and Applied Projects in the Geography Department will use the Chicago Manual

of Style. Use parenthetical citations; do not use numbered footnotes. All works cited in a paper

should be listed in the bibliography alphabetically by author (multiple works by the same author

are listed chronologically). The bibliography is to be double-spaced, and should include the

author’s last and first names. Although you often see initials for an author’s given name, you

should spell out the name when provided. If two or more publications from the same author are

published in the same year, add a letter following the year (start with “a” and progress

alphabetically). In multi-authored articles, do this only if all the authors are identical and in the

same order for each publication.

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 In the text that follows, examples are shown using purple text. Purple is used only to

make it clear that you are looking at an example. Do not make text in your thesis, project, paper

or proposal purple. Some of the provided examples come from the Chicago-Style Citation Quick

Guide.

Citations & Bibliographic Entries

In-Text Citations

Up to Three Authors. Do not separate the name and date by a comma. When including a

specific page in the citation, it follows the date, preceded by a comma. Please note that all of the

examples provided in this document are contained in a box so you can easily distinguish the text

from the example.

(Knox 1994)
(Short and Kim 1999, 128)
(Dempsey, Goetz, and Szliowicz 1997)

More Than Three Authors. Use the name of the first author followed by “et al.”

(Salter et al. 2000)

Two or More References Given Together. Separate the references chronologically using

a semicolon.

(White 1988; Hamilton 1989; Cropper and Gordon 1991)

Two or More References by the Same Author. Cite by date only and separate using

commas.

(Giuliano 1986, 1995)

(Payne-Maxie Consultants 1980a, 1980b, 1980c)

Author of a Chapter in an Edited Book. If the author of a book chapter is known, cite

the author, not the editor(s) of the book.

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(Livingstone 1992, 31)

Bibliographic Entries

In Chicago B, bibliographic entries are indented in the second and subsequent lines.

Maintain your line spacing in the bibliography. Do not switch to single-spacing.

Books. The items that are to be included for a book are:

 Name of author(s), editor(s), or institution responsible for writing the book

 Year of publication
 The full title of the book (including the subtitle)
 The title of series (if any) and the volume or number in the series
 Volume number or total number of volumes of a multivolume work
 Edition (if not the original)
 City of publication
 Publisher’s name

Book, one author. The title of the book is italicized. When giving the place of

publication, give the first city if two or more cities are listed with the publisher’s name. If the

place of publication is not widely known, the abbreviation of the state (or country) should follow

it, preceded by a comma. For example:

Knox, Paul. 1994. Urbanization: An Introduction to Urban Geography. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Prentice-Hall.

Book, two or more authors. The name of the first author is reversed and the following names

are not reversed with all names separated by commas. For example:

Dempsey, Paul Steven, Andrew R. Goetz, and Joseph S. Szyliowicz. 1997. Denver International

Airport: Lessons Learned. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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 Book published electronically. List a URL. If the book has no page numbers, inclusion of a

chapter title or section title or

Austen, Jane. 2007. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics. Kindle edition.

Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. 1987. The Founders’ Constitution. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.

Chapter from a book. Titles of the chapter are given followed by “In” and the title of the

book in italics. Inclusive page numbers may be given if desired and should follow the reference

to the book’s editor. For example:

Livingstone, David N. 1992. A Brief History of Geography. In The Student’s Companion to

Geography, edited by Alisdair Rogers, Heather Viles, and Andrew Goudie, 27-35.

Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Journal Articles. Chicago Style uses no quotation marks for the article title, italicizing

the journal title. The volume number follows the journal title with no punctuation separating

them. Inclusive page numbers are included following the volume. A colon separates the volume

number and page numbers, with no space following the colon (e.g., 24:255-78). Note that “vol.”

and “pp.” are omitted. The items that are to be included for an article are:

 Name of author(s), editor(s), or institution responsible for writing the book

 Year of publication
 The title of the article
 The title of periodical
 Volume number
 Pages occupied by the article

Article in a print journal. The naming convention described earlier for books applies to

articles as well. For example:

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Sutton, Christopher J. 1999. Land Use Change Along Denver’s I-225 Beltway. Journal of

Transport Geography 7:31-41.

Goetz, Andrew R. and Christopher J. Sutton. 1997. The Geography of Deregulation in the U.S.

Airline Industry. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87:238-63.

Article in an online journal. Include a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) if the journal lists

one. If not available, list a URL. Include an access date. For example:

Kossinets, Gueorgi, and Duncan J. Watts. 2009. “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social

Network.” American Journal of Sociology 115:405–50. Accessed February 28, 2010.

doi:10.1086/599247.

Article in a newspaper or popular magazine.

Mendelsohn, Daniel. 2010. “But Enough about Me.” New Yorker, January 25.

Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, and Robert Pear. 2010. “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care

Vote.” New York Times, February 27. Accessed February 28, 2010.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.

Thesis or dissertation.

Sutton, Christopher J. 1995 “The Socio-Economic, Land Use, and Land Value Impacts of

Beltways in the Denver Metropolitan Area.” PhD diss., University of Denver.

Paper presented at a meeting or conference.

Sutton, Christopher J. 2008. “Using Google SketchUp and GIS for Local 3D Facilities Mapping:

Examples from Western Illinois” Annual Meeting of the Association of American

Geographers, Boston, Massachusetts. April 15–19.

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 Website.

Google. 2009. “Google Privacy Policy.” Last modified March 11.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.

McDonald’s Corporation. 2008. “McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy Safety Facts.” Accessed July 19.

http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/factsheets.html.

ABBREVIATIONS

Using “i.e.” and “e.g.” When using “i.e.” (an abbreviation for id est, “that is”) or e.g. (an

abbreviation for exempli gratia, “for example”) in a sentence, always follow the abbreviation

with a comma. The common abbreviations etc., e.g., and i.e. are used almost exclusively in

parenthetical references. For example:

All urban land is affected to varying degrees by business cycles and land ownership (e.g.,

numbers of owners, type of land).

Most of the zoning changed from a more restrictive use to less-restrictive, higher-intensity

uses (i.e., permissible building heights were increased and commercial zoning replaced

residential zoning).

TABLES AND FIGURES

Spell out the label (e.g., Figure 1). Figure captions appear below the figure and table

captions appear above the table (see later).

Referencing Tables and Figures

Every table is to be numbered and is cited in the text by that number. Do not reference

using “Figure 1 shows …” or “Table 3 proves …” Instead, describe the information that you are

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referring to in the figure or table and use a parenthetical citation to direct the reader to the figure

or table. When referring to multiple figures or tables, do not repeat “Figure” or “Table” in the

citation. For example:

For the portion of the corridor inward of I-225, at no time were densities high enough to

accept the research hypothesis (Table 19).

As with the I-225 corridor, the C-470 corridor includes land within one mile of the route

(Figures 3 and 4).

HEADINGS & SUBHEADINGS

Major chapter or section headings are in all capital letters. Chapter headings are always

two inches from the top of the page and centered. Precede each heading that does not begin on

a new page with three LINES of space. Do not use four lines (hitting Enter twice while in

double-spacing) and do not hit Enter three times! If you add extra space prior to a heading by

hitting the Enter key (when double-spacing), make sure you change this extra line to single-

spacing. Do not add additional space after the heading.

CHAPTER HEADING (thesis/project) or New page, centered, bold, ALL CAPS

MAJOR SECTION (proposal, two-paper option) Centered, bold, ALL CAPS

First-Level Heading Centered, bold, Heading Caps

Second Level Heading Flush Left, italics, bold, Heading Caps

Third level heading Indent with paragraph, end with a period, italics, bold, Sentence caps

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 PAPER SIZE

The size of the paper to be used is 8 ½ x 11 inches. The original copy of the thesis must

be typewritten on white acid-free paper (also called "ph neutral" or "archival quality"). This

paper must be minimum 20-pound weight. This acid-free paper is available in the University

Union Bookstore and Chapman’s Book and Office Supply. If you have difficulty finding suitable

paper, contact the Archives for additional information, such as brand names, etc.

TYPE (FONT)

Times New Roman typeface is preferred. For running text, you should not use a sans serif

typeface – i.e., do not use Arial or Calibri, the default font in Word.

A thesis should be typed on an electric typewriter or printed from a computer. Whichever

method is used for printing, the original copy must be of letter-quality with an evenly dense and

dark print line. Laser printers are preferred, however, other printers are acceptable as long as the

print produced is an even line density. If in doubt, bring an example to the Archives prior to the

final printing. Print composed of uneven line density reproduces poorly and is not acceptable.

Whether typed with a typewriter or a computer, the original must be on the paper specified above

and not on regular computer paper.

MARGINS

Leave a 1 ½ inch margin on the left side and a 1 inch margin at the right side, the top and

the bottom. The following pages should have a 2 inch margin at the top of the page:

 Table of Contents (first page only)

 List of Figures (first page only)
 List of Tables (first page only)
 Acknowledgements
 The first page of each thesis chapter

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 TABLES

Place the label above the table. Tables that are not as wide as the paragraphs should be

centered horizontally in the document. The table label should be centered with lines above and

below the column headers and at the bottom of the table (the table label and title should not have

a line above the text). All tables are to be labeled with the word Table followed by a sequential

Arabic number (start with 1). The word Table and the number should be in bold followed by a

period, a space. Place one line of space between the table title and the line above the column

headers. Columns can be center justified but the following justifications are recommended: the

leftmost column is left-justified, text in columns is left-justified, and numerical values are right-

justified.

Table 1. Development in the I-99 Corridor, Square Feet

Year Residential Commercial Office Total

1960 311,624 329,436 26,351 667,411

1970 1,214,088 956,435 693,841 2,864,364

1980 3,346,967 8,455,377 4,860,087 16,662,431

1990 4,339,900 12,745,003 10,684,039 27,768,942

FOLDED PAGES

Folded pages are discouraged, however, maps, drawings, and tables may be folded if they

cannot be presented on regular-size pages. Approval for this must be obtained from the

Departmental Graduate Chairperson. Students planning to include folded pages are reminded that

the bindery trims the edges of pages as part of the binding process. The creased edge of the

folded page must lie at least 1/4 inch short of the outside margin of the regular thesis page. The

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end of the folded page must not extend more than 1 inch short of the binding edge of the thesis

page.

NUMBER OF COPIES

Students are required to provide the University Archives with the original copy of their

thesis with the approval page signed and dated by the members of the thesis committee. Prior to

accepting the thesis, the Archives personnel will check the thesis for compliance with these

instructions. Additional copies of the thesis can be photocopied by the Archives at the student’s

expense. Provisions for such additional copies and binding can be made with the Archives. The

original copy is always placed in the collection of the Archives Department. One additional copy

of the abstract is required. This copy is forwarded by the Archives Department to the Office of

Graduate Studies upon receipt of payment for the processing of the thesis.

PREPARATION OF ABSTRACT

The major purpose of the abstract is to give information which will enable the scholar to

decide whether to read the complete work. The following information is generally included:

 A brief description of the problem

 A description of the methods, techniques, and data used
 The major finding of the study
 The abstract should not exceed 600 words. The word "Abstract" should appear at the
beginning of the abstract text.

CHECKING THE MANUSCRIPT

The content, research quality, grammatical style, and spelling of the thesis are the

responsibility of the department. The Archives, however, reserves the right to reject original

copies of the thesis which contain gross examples of the following problems:

 Missing pages or appendices

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  Misnumbered pages, or pages without numbers
 Strikeovers
 Text widows and orphans
 Smeared or soiled pages
 Margins narrower than specified herein
 Paper other than specified on page 6 of this document
 WIU theses reflect on the student, the department and the University. They circulate
throughout the United States, via interlibrary loan. It is in all our interests that they
are of the highest quality and format.

CAPITALIZATION & TOPYNYMS

Note: the following material comes from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/). The

capitalization of topynyms (place names) in English text generally depends on whether the

author perceives the term as a proper noun, in which case it is capitalized, or as a combination of

an established proper noun with a normal adjective or noun, in which case the latter are not

capitalized. There are no universally agreed lists of which English geographic terms are

considered proper nouns but the following are examples of rules that some publishers have

established in style guides for their authors:

 In general, the first letter is capitalized for well-defined places (Central Asia)
 This general rule also applies to zones of the Earth’s surface (North Temperate Zone, the
Equator)
 In general, do not capitalize the points of the compass (north China, southeast London) or
any adjectives (western Arizona, central New Mexico, upper Yangtze, lower Rio Grande)
 Capitalize generic geographic terms that are part of a proper noun (Atlantic Ocean, Mt.
Muztagata)
 Do not capitalize a generic term that follows a capitalized generic term (Yangtze River
valley)
 Use lower case for plurals (Gobi and Taklamakan deserts)
 Only capitalize ‘the’ if it is part of the formal place name (The Bahamas and The Gambia
vs. the Netherlands and the Philippines)

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