How to Use a Dissertation Style Guide
This blog is a repost. It was originally published on the APU Writing Center blog. This version has been modified for a more general dissertation-writing audience.
Doctoral students often come into the writing center with questions about formatting their dissertations. Most of them know how to navigate their discipline’s formatting and style guide, but they do not always know that they are required to follow their university’s style guide or their program’s dissertation style guide as well. Even when students know to use both, they might not know how to resolve potential conflicts between them.
This blog both explains how a discipline’s style guide works with a dissertation style guide and outlines some of the advice I’ve given in writing center appointments with doctoral students for using these two guides together. While I refer only to dissertation style guides in this text, these principles can also apply to formatting master’s theses as well.
Why a dissertation formatting guide?
You’re probably wondering why you’re required to use your program’s style guide in addition to your discipline’s style guide. Why not just use one all-inclusive guide and call it a day?
The dissertation is a genre unto itself: The dissertation includes components not present in other genres, so your discipline’s style guide may not address how to format those items. Like any guide, dissertation style guides help ensure both a uniform format and streamlined communication with readers.
There is no master dissertation style guide: Dissertations are their own kind of writing; however, each institution sets their own guidelines for what dissertations from their institute should look like. There is no master dissertation formatting or style guide. For this reason, some dissertation components are the same across institutions while others differ—even if they’re produced by people in the same discipline.
Formatting has to allow for physical printing: Most discipline style guides require you to format your paper’s margins at 1-inch. However, many dissertation style guides requires you to format your dissertation with 1.5-inch margins on the left and 1-inch margins on the other sides. That extra half-inch allows for binding if you decide to order hard copies of your dissertation. Dissertations are printed on one side of the paper only, so only the left margin needs to be formatted in this way.
This exercise preps you for publishing life: This situation—using two style guides, or using a modified version of a style—is not unusual. Every publishing house has its own house style. If you go on to publish, then you will be required to follow house specifications. Even if they use APA, MLA, CMOS, or another standard style, they may also list a number of “style quirks,” or deviations. As such, you need to learn flexibility as well as how to be detail oriented.
So, now that you understand why dissertation formatting guides exist, here are some steps that you can take to ease combining your program’s dissertation style guide and your discipline’s style guide.
Possible Steps
Take the time to read your program’s dissertation guide: The dissertation style guide is not that long. It will likely answer many of your formatting and style questions. Set aside thirty minutes to read over the most updated version of the guide in its entirety.
Look at other program dissertations alongside the guide: You should not use another person’s dissertation as a template for your own because dissertation formatting changes over time. This practice can therefore cause errors. Or even worse, you may end up copying someone else’s formatting mistakes! However, looking at someone else’s dissertation from your same program in conjunction with its guide can be helpful. That way, you can see examples of what things are supposed to look like.
Consult your program’s dissertation style guide first: Your program’s guide covers formatting requirements, or how your dissertation is supposed to look (e.g., front matter order, page number location, and margin size). When you have a formatting question, look first to your program’s guide for answers.
Consult your discipline’s style guide next: If you can’t find answers to your formatting question in your program’s dissertation style guide, then consult your discipline’s style guide. For example, while your program’s style guide probably has a few instructions for formatting tables and figures, it does not have details about how best to construct them. So for example, if you’re in clinical psychology and want more guidance on the best way to organize your data in a table, then consult the most recent edition of the APA Manual. Additionally, your program’s style guide is not exhaustive. It most likely does not have exhaustive instructions about writing style, choosing sources, or appropriate use of first person. For style considerations like these ones, follow the style appropriate to your discipline.
When the guides conflict: Some of your program’s dissertation style requirements may differ from those of your discipline. When these guides conflict, the program’s guide wins. For example, CMOS does not explicitly dictate how to format level headings. Instead, writers are encouraged to format headings and subheadings in a way that works for their particular document. However, some dissertation style guides explicitly say to follow the rules for APA level headings. Consequently, if you decide to organize chapter content using level headings, then you’ll follow APA’s rules—even if you’re in a discipline that uses CMOS. Similarly, your program’s dissertation style guide may some requirements for tables and figures that differ from APA’s requirements. For example, while APA does not have rules about whether to single space or double space your table titles or figure captions, your program’s dissertation style guide may require that these items be double-spaced. Familiarize yourself with areas where your program’s dissertations style guide and your discipline’s style guide conflict, and then modify your dissertation’s formatting according to your program’s guide.
Don’t procrastinate: It may be tempting to just deal with all the formatting stuff at the end of your writing process. But formatting can be very time consuming. It will take you even more time if you’re not familiar with your word processor’s formatting functions! Instead, format your dissertation as you write it. That way, your writing will start to look like a dissertation from the beginning, which may also motivate you to keep writing.
Ask for help: If you encounter a dissertation formatting issue that you’re unsure about, ask the staff member in charge of graduate student publications at your university—usually, this is the person who will make sure your dissertation is formatted correctly and ready to be uploaded to ProQuest. You can also make an appointment with one of the doctoral writing coaches at your university’s writing center. Sometimes your dissertation’s topic requires you to use unusual sources that don’t come with instructions for citing or formatting! To cite or format such sources, ask your advisor—especially if they recommended or required you to use it in the first place. Remember, we all want your dissertation to be as readable and professional as possible.
Happy dissertating!
