Chapter 6: Guide to thesis formatting

 The objective of this Guide to Thesis Formatting is to provide quick and general reference for postgraduate students of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in preparing their theses. The actual format, style and abbreviations should be decided by the Graduate Division in accordance with normal practice adopted by journals or other publications commonly used in the field.

Order of contents

A thesis should contain the following parts in the order shown:

i) Title page

A title page should contain the following information:

  • the thesis title
  • the name of the student, to be identical with that shown on the HKID card or passport
  • the degree for which the thesis is submitted
  • the name of the programme
  • the name of the University
  • the month and year of submission

(Sample title pages are given in Figures 1 and 2 below)

ii) Abstract

A short abstract, in both Chinese and English, should be included in each copy of a thesis submitted.

For Master’s theses, the length of the abstract should be 200-500 words.

For doctoral theses, the abstract shall not exceed 800 characters in Chinese or 500 words in English. The abstracts of doctoral theses will be recorded by ProQuest Information and Learning Company and its editors will shorten any abstract which exceeds 350 words.

The heading of the abstract should be as follows:

001

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

iii) Acknowledgements (if any)

iv) Table of contents, paginated

Where applicable, a list of tables, figures, symbols or abbreviations may be included.

v) Text

vi) Appendices, if any

vii) Bibliography

Format

i) Paper size

The thesis, whether in Chinese or in English, should be typewritten on international A4 size paper (210 mm x 297 mm). Either traditional Chinese or simplified Chinese is acceptable.

ii) Margins

The margin at the binding edge should at least be 1.5”, and the margin at the outer edge, 1”. If binding is not required (e.g. online submission), then set the left and right margin to be 1.25", and 1” for the top and bottom margin.

iii) Spacing

Double or one-and-a-half line spacing should be used, except for quotations, footnotes, references and captions, which may be single-spaced.

iv) Pagination

All pages, except the title page, should be numbered.

Small Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, ...) are used for the preliminaries (e.g. abstract, acknowledgements, table of contents).

Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, ...) are used for the text, appendices and bibliography.

v) Loose material

For easy identification all loose material which cannot be bound in the text (such as slides and tapes) should be marked with the student’s name and degree for which the work is submitted.

Sample title page

Figure 1: Sample title page in English

Figure 2: Sample title page in Chinese