By Dr. Noelle Sterne

Q: How can I be sure I’m formatting my dissertation the right way?

— Befuddled by Formatting

A: First, if you’re looking for guidance on the contents of your dissertation, that is, the requisite chapter titles and what they must contain, this is not the right place. The answers here pertain to what your school requires for your completed manuscript. However, some of the resources below do contain content information.

So, to Befuddled’s question: Formatting your dissertation can be almost as important as the content (not that I think it should be). You’re graded on the proper format as well as what you’ve written. How can you be sure you’re doing it correctly?

Well, the first thing, no matter how much you’re tempted, is not to follow other students’ dissertations, even very recent ones. Why? They may not have followed the correct format for today. (I always check for updated versions.) They may have followed formats of previous students, and those students may have followed much older versions or students . . . .

Their chair may not have cared what they followed.

Go to the Source

Not Your Chair. Your chair is not the most reliable source. She may not care or know about formats as she contemplates that ever-growing stack of other doctoral students’ dissertations obstructing the view from her office of budding trees. Your chair also may say, “Look at Kelsey’s dissertation from last year.” Don’t. Again, the requirements may have changed. And Kelsey might not have followed them anyway.

One exception: If your school doesn’t have a reliable formatting guide (see below), ask your chair for a very recent dissertation she/he supervised. At least you’ll be able to get an idea of the requisite chapters and content.

Headquarters. The most reliable source for formatting, though, is your school’s Office of Doctoral Research, which can also be called the Dissertation Office, Graduate School Office, Office of Graduate Studies, Degree Completion Services, Dissertation Coordinator, or Office of Doctoral Confusion. The kindly souls in this office should refer you to the current booklet of the rules and regs, which sometimes does include content requirements, including templates of preliminary pages, chapter heads, and references. These booklets may be headed by any combination of the following: Guide/Manual/Handbook/Guidelines/Outline/Style Guide/Doctoral Study/Graduate Degrees/Incomprehensible Dissertation Rules.

Website. Some schools post the formatting information on a website. For each of the different graduate degrees, look under Dissertation Resources, Format Guidelines, Requirements, and Templates. Other schools keep the guidelines in the library (and on its site): one school has Library Guides, another Library Research Guides, another Academic Guides.

Your Department. If you’re completely bewildered by now, ask the administrative assistants in your department. They are very knowledgeable and should guide you to the right place.

Writing Centers. If you didn’t know about the one at your university, you may think its title promises the solution to all your formatting problems. Not quite . . . Most universities have (free) writing centers on campus to help students at all stages. You make appointments, usually in person, and more often now online also. The centers are generally headed by a PhD director and are staffed by English instructors, some with master’s degrees, and undergraduate and graduate students as tutors. All appointments are one-to-one.

Here’s a good explanation of writing centers from the University of Washington, Tacoma, website: “[W]riting centers are places for all writers to seek feedback on their writing at any point in their process. Writing centers help writers improve their writing, knowledge of disciplinary conventions, and confidence through advising students on the writing tasks at hand”.

Note “knowledge of disciplinary conventions.” Yes, the tutor can help you decipher the formatting requirements. For your appointment, bring a hard copy of your nascent manuscript, questions, doctoral handbook and template, and be ready for feedback.

Your tutor can help, but keep in mind some drawbacks I’ve heard from students:

1.    The tutor may or may not be familiar with the dissertation formatting guides. So, have your questions and booklet ready.

2.    The tutor doesn’t line-edit the work (or, as one student said, “fix my paper”) but sometimes will cite an example of a clearer sentence. Your tutor also points out adherence to templates and deficiencies in organization, critical thinking, grammar, spelling, and reference style for you to fix.

3.    The writing centers are often woefully understaffed. Demand is high, and students must sometimes wait weeks or months for an appointment. These may not coincide with your deadline for submitting your dissertation.

4.    Appointments are limited in frequency, e.g., once a week, twice a month. Each appointment is from 30 to 60 minutes– you may not be able to do much in those timeframes.

5.    Because of the time constraints, tutors tend to speed through their critiques and rattle off remedies like disclaimers in drug commercials. You may not catch all of them and leave more disheartened than before (one student said he recorded the sessions on his phone—don’t know if that’s legal).

When All Else Fails

If you can’t locate the proper guidelines, have no head for formatting, are still trying valiantly to come to some conclusion about that mass of data you’ve collected, or are too consumed with your 80-hour-a-week job and three kids, seek out an editor (independent and fee-paid). Many schools keep lists of dissertation editors, often on the school website or available from the administrative assistant. Ask friends who have graduated or are about to for their recommendations. Some chairs also know reliable editors. (Disclosure: I am one.)

Formatting Conquest

With these suggestions, you now have the resources to format your dissertation according to your school’s requirements. As you do, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you did it right, and your dissertation will (finally) be accepted! When colleagues struggling with their formats wail to you, you’ll be able to console them by referring them generously to these resources.

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If you have a burning academic question you’d like Dr. Noelle Sterne to answer, go here to send it to us. This column relies on question submissions, and we would love to hear yours. Dr. Noelle will answer one question on the 15th of each month. You can read this article for more information.

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Dissertation coach, nurturer, bolsterer, handholder, and editor; scholarly and mainstream writing consultant; authorof writing craft, spiritual, and academic articles; and spiritual and motivational counselor, Noelle Sterne has published many pieces in print and online venues, including Author Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Children’s Book Insider, Graduate Schools Magazine, GradShare, InnerSelf, Inspire Me Today, Transformation Magazine, Unity Magazine, Women in Higher Education, Women on Writing, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer. With a Ph.D. from Columbia University, Noelle has for 30 years helped doctoral candidates wrestle their dissertations to completion (finally). Based on her practice, her Challenges in Writing Your Dissertation: Coping with the Emotional, Interpersonal, and Spiritual Struggles (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2015) addresses students’ often overlooked or ignored but crucial nonacademic difficulties that can seriously prolong their agony. See the PowerPoint teaser here. In Noelle`s Trust Your Life: Forgive Yourself and Go After Your Dreams (Unity Books, 2011), she draws examples from her academic consulting and other aspects of life to help readers release regrets and reach lifelong yearnings. Following one of her own, she is currently working on her third novel. Visit Noelle at www.trustyourlifenow.com