How to Format a Thesis

Thesis formatting requirements are set by your university and often by your specific department, so there's no single universal standard, only common conventions. This is a general overview of what most programs require, not a substitute for your program's official formatting guide, which always takes precedence over anything general.

This is for graduate students preparing a thesis or dissertation for submission, and for anyone checking a draft against common formatting conventions before consulting their department's specific requirements document.

Page-level formatting

• Font: commonly Times New Roman or a similar serif font, though some programs allow Arial or Calibri.
• Font size: typically 11 or 12pt for body text, sometimes slightly smaller for footnotes.
• Line spacing: usually double-spaced, sometimes 1.5 for footnotes or block quotes.
• Margins: often 1 inch on all sides, sometimes wider (1.5 inch) on the binding edge for printed copies, a detail that matters for bound submissions but is often skipped for electronic-only theses.

Structural elements

Most theses require, in order: a title page, an abstract, a table of contents, the main chapters, a reference list, and appendices if applicable. Some programs also require a list of figures and a list of tables if your thesis includes several of each, and some require a separate acknowledgments page, which is typically not counted toward any word limit even when other front matter is.

Headings and numbering

Heading levels (Chapter, Section, Subsection) should be visually distinct and consistent throughout, often using a numbering system like 1, 1.1, 1.1.1. Page numbers typically start after the title page, sometimes using roman numerals for front matter (abstract, table of contents) before switching to arabic numerals for the main text starting at Chapter 1. Using your word processor's built-in heading styles, rather than manually bolding and sizing text to look like a heading, makes this numbering and an automatic table of contents far easier to keep consistent across a document that's often 100 pages or more.

Figures, tables, and captions

Figures and tables are usually numbered sequentially, either by chapter (Figure 3.1, Figure 3.2 for the first two figures in Chapter 3) or straight through the whole document (Figure 1, Figure 2). Captions typically appear below figures and above tables, a convention that predates word processors and persists mostly because it's now expected, not because either placement is inherently clearer. Check whether your program wants a specific caption format, since this is one of the details a formatting check catches most often.

Common formatting mistakes

• Inconsistent heading styles between chapters, often from copying formatting between sections written at different times.
• Page numbering that doesn't restart or switch numeral style correctly between front matter and the main text.
• Citation style drift, mixing two styles' punctuation or ordering conventions after switching reference managers partway through writing.
• Margins that meet the general convention but not your specific program's stated requirement, which is common since margin rules vary more than people expect.

Always check your program's official guide

These conventions are common but not universal. Departmental formatting guides can specify different margins, different citation styles, or additional required sections, and graduate schools often run a separate formatting review before final approval, independent of your committee's review of the content. Treat your program's guide as the final authority, and use this as a starting checklist rather than a finished one.

Compare your own settings against a custom checklist with the thesis formatting checker.