Because dissertations are so important in the lives of postgraduates, it’s a great idea to make them perfect from the very beginning. It’s very likely that when you are through with writing and doing your research, you will have no more time to rewrite it and make the text match certain formatting demands. So let’s see which requirements must be observed when you get down to formatting your project.
There are several popular formatting styles that can be used in your dissertation. If you are not given a precise style by your supervisor, choose the one you like best. You can easily find manual guides and samples of each style online .
Make sure that you have access to a printer capable of high quality printing, especially if you attach tables, graphics, illustrations, etc., to your project.
A good test is to check whether 10pt characters are legible in the font that you have chosen for your work. As a rule, most types look quite good in 11-12pt, so these are used in academic papers more often.
Margins in a dissertation should be 1.5 inches on the sides, and 1.25 inches at the top and bottom. Bigger margins are normal for title pages only. The text should be left aligned.
The entire text should be double-spaced, with the exception of quotations, notes to schemes, tables, the bibliography, headings, and any other elements that are normally mentioned in manuals as having a certain formatting style.
Make sure that all quotes seen in your text are formatted in the proper way. If you use them as a source of reference information (in a paraphrased form), mention the name of the author and the publishing year in brackets beside the text. If you give a direct quote, also mention the page in which this quote can be found.
There’s no need to provide a title page for each appendix that you add to your text. Still, sometimes if the appendix is too big for one page, it may be necessary to provide title pages for each appendix. If you can though, try to avoid such situations.
All the reference sources that you have used need to be listed in the proper way and attached to the dissertation. This is how you will avoid plagiarism charges, and show the depth of your research.