Thesis Management

1. Thesis Management

2. Putting up with the reader • Who is this person bugging me about ampersands? • Why is this person bugging me about ampersands? • Where can I get the info to keep this person from bugging me? • How can I save time/money/agony? • Common reasons the reader bugs people.

3. What the reader does. • The reader works for the Office of Graduate Studies. • The reader is NOT an editor. • The reader makes sure papers are in align with your chosen style guide, CSUF, and CSU standards. • The reader is a human being who doesn’t hate you but doesn’t have time to coddle you.

4. What kinds of errors does the reader care about? • Formatting: margins, font size, table layout, figure captions, spacing, commas, etc. • Style: references, APA convention. • Glaring grammatical errors. • “Jane hates the the reader.” • “This was just one point of data.” • “Language is learned through subconscious processes.” More likely to catch Less likely to catch

5. What does the reader NOT do? • Edit for content. • Edit for clarity (much). • Edit for research-quality. • Answer every question. • Proofreed. • Work with hired editors. • Work exclusively for you. You are an individual. Your paper is one of one hundred.

6. When does the reader come into play? • Right now! • But no, really. Right now! • Send in a draft. Shoot for front matter, first three chapters, and References. • Send in questions the FIRST time they come up. • It is always easier to deal with me earlier than later.

7. Where do I learn the requirements? http://www.fullerton.edu/graduate/currentstudents/thesis.php

8. What Is the Submission Process Like? • Write thesis • Submit Draft (optional but encouraged) • Create ProQuest account (https://proquest.com) • Submit thesis materials to Office of Graduate Studies • Submit Thesis Verification Form (by hand!) • Email .docx to thesisdisshelpdesk@fullerton.edu • Eliot reads over all papers in the order they are submitted • If revisions are necessary, I will ask you to make them and resubmit directly to me • If no revisions are necessary, I will let you know that your paper is good, and pending your approval I will finalize it on ProQuest, completing your paper.

9. How will the paper look? • Title Page • Abstract • Table of Contents • List of Tables • List of Figures • Acknowledgments • Body • Appendices • References Front Matter Back Matter

10. Title page • Spell names correctly! • Spell your title correctly! • Get that spacing down!

11. Table of Contents • Formatting conveys meaning! • UPPERCASE for section titles • “Title case” for subsections • Indent subsections • Dot leaders are not periods! • Page numbers • Column alignment • Spacing

12. Writing in the digital age. • Precision and communication. • Ctrl + F & Ctrl + H • Documentation style, convention, taste, and community.

13. Format conveys meaning. • What do you mean there are different hyphens? • - vs. – vs.— • … or . . . ? • Numbering and you. 100 vs. one hundred. 2 vs. two. • Operational signs (> < = + - ± ≥ ≤ ≠) receive spaces between figures. • n = 1 • 1 < 2 • >2

14. Picky Punctuation • “Periods and commas come inside of the quotes.” • Even if you are only quoting one individual “word.” • “Words at the beginning of quotes are capitalized most of the time.” • One time when they are not is when quotes are the continuation of “an individual clause or idea.” • “John told me to use single quotes ‘when they are embedded in another quote,’ and to follow the same rules as above for comma and period placement.” • “The three most important things are capitalization, comma placement, and the Oxford (serial) comma.” • “I asked Sloan. She said it’s abbreviated ‘M.A.D.D.,’” Mike said

15. Be careful with abbreviations • Only going to use a term one or two times? Don’t abbreviate. • Have a source that is not abbreviated in your references? Don’t abbreviate. • Term has a standard abbreviation? Use it, don’t make up your own (cm, not centi.) • If a word is a proper abbreviation/initialism be sure to capitalize (NASA, ZIP Code, NAACP, etc.)

16. Latin phrases, standardized abbreviations, etc. • Latin names of plants and animals are Italicized and the first letter of the first word is capitalized. • Many standardized (especially statistical) abbreviations are italicized and/or capitalized: SD, M, p, etc. Check APA/Chicago manual for full instructions. • Be careful of dash-length in operations: -6 is a value, 6-10 is a range, 10 – 6 = 4.

17. Headings • Headings are tricky, but follow a regular pattern. • Chapter Headings are centered and all in caps. • Level 1 Sub-Headings are underlined and centered, but they are not in caps. • Level 2 Sub-Headings are underlined, but are aligned left and are not in caps. They appear on their own line above the text. • Level 3 Sub-Headings are underlined, aligned left, not in caps, and are followed on the same line by the beginning of that section’s text. • You should never have just one Level 3 (or Level 2 or Level 1) sub-section. There should be at least two Level 3s in a Level 2, two Level 2s in a Level 1, two 1s in a Chapter, etc. Avoid Russian-doll-style headings.

18. Headings THIS IS THE TITLE OF MY CHAPTER IT IS IN CAPS AND CENTERED This Is the Title of My Level-One Sub-Section: It Is Underlined but not in Caps This Is the Title of My Level-Two Sub-Section: It Is Underlined and Left-Aligned Underneath it is some nice body-text. Notice how the body-text is indented, but the sub-section title is not. This is the title of my level-three sub-section. Did you see how it is bolded, indented, and separated from the body of the text with only a period? Please note that you may never have only one of a given sub-section within another sub-section. That is, if you have a passage with a level three sub-section then there must be at least two of them.

19. Common Formatting Issues • Make a backup of your paper! Backup the backup! Backup that backup! • Left margin must be set 1.5 inches on everypage, including appendices (the only exception is for landscape pages). • Use left alignment, with a ragged right edge, not block style (“justified”), throughout. • Margins for tables, figures, and graphs are the same as for text. • Be consistent in heading and subheading format; do not mix and match. • Check your email!

20. Common Formatting Issues • Dashes should look like this—with no space between the dash and the word. • Ellipsis dots take a space before and after, like this: . . . , not like this: …. You can set this correctly in Tools, AutoCorrect, before you begin, or find and replace when you are done. • Use Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) for 10 and above unless it is the start of a sentence. Use words for numbers nine and below, and at the start of sentences. Exceptions to this include specific references (e.g., “Chapter 1,” not “Chapter One,” or “Test 1,” not “Test One”). • “Commas and periods,” it is cautioned, “always go inside quotation marks.” This includes quotes of single “words.” • Single quotes “stay ‘inside’ double” quotations. • Parenthetical statements start with (curved parentheses [but can have square brackets inside of them]). • Parenthetical statements at the end of sentences with citations should receive separate parentheses (like this) (Citation, Year).

21. Common Formatting Issues • Preliminary page “dot leaders” as used in the Table of Contents, List of Tables, and List of Tables, must not enter the page column. Dots are not periods; use tab and the template will automatically insert them. • Ensure that all equal, greater than, and less than signs have a space before and after in equations in text and in tables. • When using statistical variables, be sure to use italics appropriately (p value, t test, M, SD, R2, etc.) • Use the Oxford, or serial, comma when listing three or more items. • When a sentence has multiple citations, they should be listed in alphabetical or chronological order, as listed in your selected style guide. • If you are not sure, ask! It is always easier to get it right from the beginning than to correct it.

22. Is there ever leeway? • References list must be perfect. Forgot to turn off italics on every entry following the issue number? I’ll send it back. • Tables and figure formatting should be perfect unto itself. Consistency and readability are the name of the game. • Direct quotes from sources should be EXACTLY what was written. • Appendices containing data involving participants should be as close as humanly possible to what participants saw/received.

23. When Will You Hear from Me? • Good or bad you’ll hear from me after your paper is submitted. • Papers will be read in the order in which they’re received. • 15% or 100% • Okay: “Hi Eliot, I emailed you my corrections a few days ago and haven’t heard back. I just wanted to make sure you got them.” • Not okay: “Where are my corrections? My friend got his. Where are mine?” • Best case scenario: “Hi Yuki, I read through your paper and just fixed a couple of typos. I have no further notes and am ready to sign off. I’ve attached your paper with comments about what I fixed. Please read through it, let me know if you are happy and we’ll get you on your way!”

24. Common Issues that Cause Delay • Ignoring corrections I sent you • Ignoring explicit instructions in the thesis template/manual, APA manual, Chicago manual, etc. • Asking questions that are answered elsewhere. • Emails that read: “Here.” • “Well my editor says…” • “When’s my paper going to be done?” • “Why do I have to change this?” (asked philosophically, not practically) • Sending a paper that you have not thoroughly proofread. Three strikes and I send it back.

25. Questions I don’t mind • “I’m having trouble with my cell margins. I tried everything I could, but do you mind adjusting them for me?” • “I saw you changed that abbreviation. It’s a field-specific abbreviation and is always written that way in the literature. Is it okay if I change it back?” • “I understood your edit but I don’t care for the wording. Can I change it?” • “Hey, I think you botched my chart. Could you take another look at it?”

26. Final Tips • Use the template. Do not create a new Word .doc and try to get it as close as you can. Do not copy your text into the body of another student’s paper. This most often breaks formatting. • Consider writing without much formatting and copying it all in later. • Check your Table of Contents page numbers before sending revisions back to me. • Consult the template/manual/me if you have a question the first time you have it. • Send me a draft (or even just portions) as soon as you feel comfortable. • Make all changes I ask for in one go. Every time you send your paper back to me count on it taking a few days before it comes up in my list. Minimize this by doing bulk-corrections.

27. Questions & Final Comments • Online source for APA and Chicago: OWL @ Purdue • Office of Graduate Studies – MH112 • thesisdisshelpdesk@fullerton.edu • https://Fullerton.edu/graduate/currentstudents/thesis.php