The Title: Type or paste the title here [Cntrl+Enter for next line; this style is called Title_case]

By [style: title-page-author]

Fathimath Mohamed [Firstname Lastname]

B.Sc. (USP, 1992), M.Sc, (ANU, 2004)
[title-page-text-style, Previous degree, institution, YEAR]

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment
of the requirements of the degree of [Style: award-style]

Doctor of Philosophy [Master of Engineering,etc.]

© Fathimath Mohamed [copyright-style Firstname Lastname. No Uni logo]

Faculty of Education [Department Name if suitable]

The Maldives National University, Male’ [Campus]

2020 [Term YEAR]

APPROVAL

I certify that I have read this thesis and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Signature
Supervisor 1 Name, role, affiliation

I certify that I have read this thesis and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Signature
Supervisor 2 Name, role, affiliation

I certify that I have read this thesis and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Signature
Supervisor 3 Name, role, affiliation

ABSTRACT

The first paragraph should use abstract-initial style. Subsequent paragraphs should be abstract-subsequent style. Note that unlike the thesis proper, the abstract is single-spaced. Abstract must fit into a maximum of two pages. You should, however, write the essential abstract in just 350 words as some indexing services tend to truncate anything longer than 350 for a doctorate thesis. For masters’ theses, this limit is 150.

You may include up to six keywords or phrases that describe the content of your thesis. Keywords should be separated with semicolons.

Keywords:	thesis template; Microsoft Word; keywords; APA

DECLARATION

I, Fathimath Mohamed [student name, delete square brackets], declare that the PhD thesis entitled [“title of thesis”] is no more than 80,000 words in length including quotes and exclusive of tables, figures, appendices, bibliography, references and footnotes. This thesis contains no material that has been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic degree or diploma. Except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is my own work.

Signature	Date
Fathimath Mohamed [student name]	Date

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This is not required but many students include an acknowledgement page. Additionally, a few students include a DEDICATION page just before the acknowledgement page.

Acknowledgement page expresses a note of gratitude for those who were significant in the research process: supervisors, those who provided statistical or computer support, etc. The page is formatted in abstract-initial and abstract-subsequent style.

.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[This is a required section. It needs to list all the front and back matter after your thesis proper. The table of contents is automatically generated. This is quite easy if you follow the styles panel in Microsoft Word.

If the thesis was formatted using styles, to insert the table of contents, click “References > Table of Contents > Insert Table of Contents.” This action opens a window which gives six different ways you can format your Table of Contents. Most students choose ‘Formal.’ You can also define your own style and the levels of headings that the table may include. Some students include only two levels of headings as increasing the levels will lengthen the table. In this template, a custom style has not been included. It is up to you to style it the way you want but remember to change the format to Times New Roman font. This is done by clicking the button “Modify” or you may format it manually or from the Styles panel on the menu bar, as you would any other section.

After every major revision or before you make the final printing you will need to update the table of contents. This is done by right clicking in the table and selecting Update Field. If a window pops up, select Update entire table and click OK]

APPROVAL	ii

ABSTRACT	iii

DECLARATION	iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS	iii

List of Tables	iii

List of Figures	iii

List of Acronyms	iii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION	3

Levels of Headings	3

Level 1 Heading	3

Tables	3

References	3

APPENDICES	3

Appendix A: Participant Consent Form	3

PAGE LAYOUTS AND BINDING	3

List of Tables

[The List of Tables is generated automatically if you have applied “styles” when writing the thesis. This is a required section of the thesis. The title of a Table or Figure is called a caption, and remember to apply the appropriate caption style from Styles menu suitably.

To generate the List of Tables click the following sequence: References > Insert Table of Figures > then select from Caption label dropdown box Table > OK. You can develop your own styles for your captions using the Modify button.

The List of Tables can be updated as you revise the thesis by using the right side button of your mouse. For more information, read the section on inserting captions in the body of this template.]

Table1.1 How to Create a Table and Format it	3

Table 1.2 Steps in Setting a Table	3

List of Figures

[After the Table of Contents and the List of Tables, the next list in the front matter of the thesis is the List of Figures. This order must be maintained. All graphs, pictures, charts, etc. (other than tables) are called figures. The List of Figures is produced similarly as the List of Tables; it is generated automatically if you have used caption style from the Style Menu. This is a required section of the thesis.

To generate the List of Figures click the following sequence: References > Insert Table of Figures > then select from Caption label dropdown box Figure > OK. You can develop your own styles for your captions using the Modify button. You will need to use a separate style for the notes, otherwise, Word will take the notes as part of the caption and these will appear in the List of Figures.

The List of Figures can be updated as you revise the thesis by using the right [side] button of your mouse. For more information, read the section on inserting captions in the body of this template.]

Figure 1. An example of a table from APA Manual (6th Edition).	3

Figure 2. Note that the caption below the figure is written in sentence form.	3

Figure 3. APA Manual requires a running head, but may be left out.	3

List of Acronyms

[The List of Abbreviations or Acronyms is an optional list which may be included after the List of Figures if you have used a large number of acronyms in the thesis. Use of acronyms will make the text less readable so acronyms must be used sparingly and only when the acronyms are used in a number of chapters. Use a table to list the acronyms and their long forms. Using one table row for each item will allow you to sort the table. Use the style Para_Nospace for individual items.

Depending on the nature of the subject, students may include a Glossary of Terms. If this is included it follows the List of Acronyms. This list is optional.]

UN	United Nations
UNESCO	United National Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

The most important aspect of using a template is knowing how to attach a Word template to an existing Word document and apply styles. To attach a template to a document do the following:

File > Options > Add-Ins. At the bottom of the window that opens there is a drop-down box labeled Manage. Choose Templates and click Go.

Browse for the template file (APA_thesis_template.dotx) using Attach… and then press OK.

Individual styles are attached to paragraphs using the Styles panel on the right of the default menu bar.

The chapter titles are in a defined style called “Heading 1 Chapter Title.” To get to the second line you should press SHIFT and then press ENTER. Otherwise, you may get a lot of space between the two lines. Note that Control+Enter will start your chapters on new pages. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association specifies that Chapter subheadings ought not to have numbers. It states, further, that in the Manual it had been done for indexing purposes.

Unless there is a subheading, the body of the chapter starts after the heading. After headings and subheadings, the first paragraph is not indented if an elegant style is to be followed. However, it is a stylistic feature and left to the student to decide. The paragraphs may be justified or left-justified. For some readers, a ragged margin on the right is easier to read. The initial paragraph style is called “1_Paragraph_intial”. The other paragraph style is called “1_Paragraph.”

For quotations, use 2_BlockQuote style from the Styles menu. An example from APA Manual (APA, 2010a) is given below:

For in block quotations (any quotations of 40 or more words). Do not use quotation marks to enclose block quotations. Do use double quotation marks to enclose any quoted material within a block quotation…

With other punctuation. Place periods and commas within closing single or double quotation marks. Place other punctuation marks inside quotation marks only when they are part of the quoted material. (p. 92)

Note that there is no period after the parenthesis enclosing the page number.

There are two types of lists used in a thesis: (1) numbered lists and (b) un-numbered lists, or ordered lists and unordered lists, respectively. Ordered lists are used when you want to give the reader a sense of order or hierarchy or priority in a list. If this connotation or implication is not intended you should use unordered lists using some kind of “bullet” to start items of the list. APA Manual notes that numbering must be Arabic with a period after the number. Both lists are indented and a specific style (hanging paragraph style) is used. An ordered list is shown below. The style applied is 1_ List Paragraph Ordered.

For ordered lists, use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.).

If there lists within a list, use a., b., c., etc.).

If there are three levels of nested ordered lists, use i., ii., iii., etc.

For lists with bullets, 1_ List Paragraph Unordered is used. An example list from an APA journal article (on the dangers of watching screens) is shown below.

attention: continuous partial attention and attention deficit trait

cognition: digital fog and techno-brain burnout

overload: data smog and frazzing (frantic ineffectual multitasking)

addiction: screen sucking and on-line compulsive disorder

Where there are nested bulleted lists, you can change the symbol of bullet from the paragraph menu.

Levels of Headings

Within a chapter, there are subheadings. The Manual recommends only five levels of headings. Here is the relevant table from the Manual.

Level 1 Heading

Level 2 Heading

Level 3 Heading.

Level 4 heading. In level 4 and level 5 headings, the body text starts immediately after the period or full stop.

Level 5 heading. This is the lowest level heading according to APA. You need to follow the hierarchy in the levels of headings, but any particular one may be left. After a chapter heading, do not start a section with “Introduction” as a subheading. Read the image below:

You will need to control “widows” and “orphans” within a chapter. If you do not know what these mean, please read about them.

Tables

The details of Table layout are in APA Manual. Here is a sample from the book:

Figure 1. An example of a table from APA Manual (6th Edition).

Note that the table number is left justified and the font style is normal. The table title is in italics, left justified and the key words are capitalised. The title does not end with a full stop. There is a thick line that separates the table title from the table body. The column headings are centred and the first letter is capitalised. Thin lines are used to separate column headings. The table text ends with a thick line. Explanatory notes are at the end. The word “Note” ends with a period and is italicised. Each note ends with a period or full stop. The notes are written single spaced.

Although in the above table, the table number is X (a Roman numeral), Arabic numerals such as 1, 2, 3, etc. should be used to number tables. For theses, the body of the table text can be smaller than 12 points and single- or double-space may be used. However, be consistent. The body of tables in APA journals are usually two points smaller and single-spaced. Tables must fit a single page and no overflows to the following pages are allowed.

Table titles may be numbered from the beginning of the chapter in one consecutive order or with the chapter number. The former has the disadvantage that inserting or deleting a table will mean that you have to go through all and renumber them in all sentences where the table is referenced. However, if you have used the table styles this updating will be automatic, that is, if you have referenced the table from text properly. See the example below:

Table1.1
How to Create a Table and Format it

[The table title is called table caption. The way you enter it is by clicking the following: Insert > Reference > Caption > Table. The table title is inserted in the window once Table is chosen. To format the table you will need to choose “Table-title” from the styles. To create two lines, after Table 1.1, press Control+Enter. You will need to manually make the italicised Table number normal. There are other ways of doing this, but this is probably the easiest for those not used to using many styles. You may be able to Autoformat a table in APA style. Double click the table anchor and see the table options]

Table 1.2
Steps in Setting a Table

Step	Instruction
Create table caption	Insert, reference, caption, table
Format the caption	Style “3_TableHead”. Make sure that the table number font is normal and the table title is in italics
Create table	Table, insert…
Format the table	The formatting of the table can vary, including use of single space as appropriate. Most journals require that tables are formatted using table style “3_TableData” format.
Reference the table from the text	With the cursor at the location you want to cite the table: insert, reference, cross reference, table, label and number only.

In the text, you can refer to the table using a “cross-reference”. Word will remember the cited references and you can update field by double clicking the inserted table reference. To insert the cross-reference, see the last row of the table above (Table 1.2).

Figures

Unlike the table captions, figure captions are at the bottom. Here is an image from the APA manual on figures.

Figure 2. Note that the caption below the figure is written in sentence form.

Note that, unlike table captions, figure captions are at the bottom. Figures include all charts, photos, etc. other than tables. The figure title is italicized and the caption is written in sentence case with the initial letter capitalized and it ends with a period. The figure title is left justified. Explanatory notes are added often giving the source of the figure. A useful way to remember is that way captions are written for tables and figures are opposite of each other. Table captions are at the top whereas figure captions are the bottom. What are italicized in Tables are normal in figures and vice versa.

There are other considerations you need to be aware of when including figures in theses. Figures are usually black and white with distinct contrasts. If the figure has solid blocks of colour, use a vector-style compression to reduce the size of the figures. Otherwise, a resolution of 300 dots per inch would be required for clear reproduction making the file size large. Figures must be captioned using Styles, otherwise, the List of Tables [Figures] cannot be generated automatically.

Headers and Footers

As you have noted from this Template, there is no running head on the first page of a chapter. Instead, the page number is written in the footer. On other pages of a chapter, there is running head with the page number and the short-form title of the chapter. This type of formatting is usually present in very elegantly laid out books. Apart from the page number, these presentation details may be left out although APA Manual requires it (Figure 3).

Figure 3. APA Manual requires a running head, but may be left out.

The Manual is intended for journal articles and for theses, you will need to create a separate running head for each section except, perhaps, for the front matter and back matter.

To use a separate running head for each chapter, you will need to define every chapter as a new section. New sections are created from Page Layout > Break > [Section Breaks] Next page.

References

The references-style does not format in-text citations and end-references in APA style. You can use specific computer applications intended for this purpose to format the citations and end-references. However, the use of such software tends to de-skill research students; therefore, you are strongly urged to purchase and study the APA Publication Manual and follow it closely. Using software to correct spelling, grammar or referencing is not a substitute for not knowing how to do these manually, just as you should not use statistical packages such as R, SAS, etc., without knowing statistics.

The most popular reference managers are RefWorks, EndNote and Mendeley. Many of these applications tend to store referenced articles in a location overseas or on your own computer. Microsoft Word has its own reference manager which is more than adequate for a doctorate thesis. Please note that Bibliography refers to articles and other documents relevant to your thesis. References are what are actually cited in your thesis. You should have a references list not a Bibliography in the thesis. The references list is also called “Works Cited.”

Instructions for using Microsoft Word Reference Manager

Most reference managers, including the one integrated into Microsoft Word, work by building a database of the articles, books, etc. you cite. To build the database you have to select the References tab from the menu bar, and then select APA from Style from the many choices available. The database can be built earlier or as you need to reference an item.

To cite an item from the reference list you can place the cursor at the point where the citation is to be and the press Insert Citation from the References tab. This will open up two choices: Add New Source or Add New Placeholder. If you select Add New Source, it will open a window where you can add all required details and cite the source or insert a placeholder and then fill the details later.

The References list is built automatically upon selecting References > Bibiliography > Works Cited. You can rename Works Cited as References. The list can be formatted using the References-style from Styles. There are detailed tutorials for using Word Reference Manager on WWW.

As noted earlier, you will need to manually verify automatically generated references list as you may have made errors in creating the database. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is cited as (APA, 2010a). A useful book for thesis writers by APA is Concise Rules of APA Style (APA, 2010b).

APA. (2010a). The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

APA. (2010b). Concise Rules of APA Style (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

APPENDICES

Material that supplements the thesis and would be distracting to the reader are included in the Appendix. Typically, interview questions, raw data, supplementary tables, participant consent forms, derivation of equations, tests, etc. are included as appendices. Computer programs, software, musical or voice items may be included in a CD fixed to a jacket at the back. Documents that may be sourced from other sources are usually not included. The main criteria for inclusion should be whether the document is necessary for a full understanding of the thesis argument.

Appendices are numbered Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, etc. each starting from a new page. Figures and tables contained in the appendices are not included in the List of Figures and List of Tables at the beginning of the thesis. However, the contents of the appendices are included in the Table of Contents as if they were items of a normal chapter of the thesis. For list of appendices to appear in the Contents you have to use second level heading style to format appendix headings. An example is shown in the next page.

Appendix A: Participant Consent Form

[Include documents here. You may use a separate page for each appendix.]

PAGE LAYOUT AND BINDING

The page size of a thesis must be A4. In exceptional circumstances, outsized sheets may be included folded in the thesis. Students must endeavour to avoid the inclusion of outsized sheets because they will make reproduction and binding difficult.

For electronic copies such as pdf versions, the margins on the left may be 1.25 inches and 1 inch on all the other edges.

Many universities do not require bound paper copies of theses any longer but the ones in the Maldives still do. Binding requires different margins. As the papers are trimmed (cut) to make edges even before binding, an allowance of 0.25 inches (6 mm) must be left on all edges. Paper cutting guillotines require some minimum width for trimming and 0.25 inches is acceptable. For this reason it is best to set the margins as follows:

Left side: 1.5 inches (38 mm)

All the other sides: 1.25 inches (32 mm)

Theses are often heavy, and many students print on both sides of the paper for ease of handling. If this is the case, the margins are mirrored before printing [Page Layout > Margins > Custom Margins > from Multiple pages select mirror margins]. This selection ensures that even and odd pages have a wider edge on the bound side on printing.

Bound copies of theses are usually printed on acid-free paper (minimum one percent alkaline reserve) otherwise the paper will turn yellow and blotches will appear after a few years. The paper weight is usually 80 grams per square metre. If printed on both sides, you may increase the weight up to 100 grams per square metre but no more.

Binding

Theses for examinations are usually printed single-sided and bound loosely using ring (spiral or coil) binding. Once the examinations are over and corrections have been made, theses are hard (or case) bound (usually sewn and glued). Some may use adhesives for binding.

Hard bound theses use Buckram cloth which is water resistant and hard wearing. Doctorate theses may be bound in black coloured Buckram, and masterate theses may use royal blue or peacock (dark blue) Buckram. The title of the thesis and the author’s name are printed on the cover using hot foil (or letterpress printing) in gold colour. The spine carries the short title, name and year of submission.

The University Library will require only one bound copy. It is not cheap to bind theses professionally and students are advised to get them done from overseas binders. Many overseas binders advertise on the Internet and would be willing to print, bind and courier the copies upon receiving a pdf document and if payment has been made in advance by credit or debit card.

Note: If you do find any errors in the template or suggestions for improvement, leave a comment so that I can address the matter.