overview of thesis submission process at California State University Long Beach

1. How to Build a
Manuscript
Sandwich
Constructing a Thesis from the Bottom Up
Using the University Guidelines Manual

3. The Chef Staff

4. Grad. Studies, ES, Dept., Comm., IRB, TDO, and
the Elusive College Designee
• Graduate Studies oversees all activities of CSULB graduate students
• Enrollment Services will not release grades until all requirements for your
manuscript are complete
• The graduate advisor in your department should be familiar with
manuscript requirements of your department
• Your committee chair plays the most important role during the thesis
process. Choose carefully
• Institutional Review Board must be consulted if your research involves
working with people or animals
• The Thesis and Dissertation Office helps with formatting rules (fine
tuning). Content and composition should be taken care of by the time you
work with us
• The college designee signs the final signature on your signature page. Be
sure you know his or her identity before it’s time to capture that precious
final signature

6. NEW!

7. The Cookbooks

8. Print and Online Formatting Resources
• Thesis and Dissertation Office website, particularly Format Guide
web page, has University Guidelines Manual, mini-manuscript,
PowerPoints, and other formatting aids. The easiest way to access
this page is through the University Library homepage—look for a
link on the list at the left side of the page
• APA Manual, 6th edition, particularly Chapter 7, has examples of
citations
• Cite Right, by Charles Lipson (2011), has easy-to-follow
explanations of APA style with lots of examples
• Form and Style, by Carole Slade and Robert Perrin (2009), covers
writing, documenting and formatting for theses and project reports
• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL; http://owl.english.purdue.edu/)
has a major section on APA formatting as well as well-structured
advice on the process of writing

9. The Appliances

10. Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Databases
and More
• Microsoft Word—Get familiar with techniques like positioning page
numbers, setting page breaks, and adjusting line spacing
• Microsoft Excel—If you use this program to create tables, be sure the
font is set to match the font used in your text
• Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)—Good for
manipulating data in surveys to create tables, but requires tutorial to
understand
• RefWorks—Citation generator available free through the homepage of
University Library, which also offers workshops on how to use it
• Evernote or OneNote—Programs to help organize notes and chapters
• Never underestimate the power of battery-free technology—Use a
small notebook or 3 x 5 index cards for jotting down inspirations or
experimenting with arrangement of sections

11. The Recipe

12. Typical Features of a Thesis
Remember that your manuscript is not typical. Use these parameters
as a springboard. Do not let them limit you.
• Number of pages (abstract to final guard sheet)—from 48 to 171;
average page count = 106
• Number of pages in references list—from 3 to 9
• Number of tables—from 0 to 22
• Number of figures—from 0 to 4
• 5 Chapters—Introduction or Overview, Literature Review,
Methodology, Results, Discussion or Conclusions
• About three fourths of students include an acknowledgements
page

13. The Outer Layers

14. Bottom Layer—References List
• Selecting the best sources for your references list is part of the process; a shorter
list is easier to format and obscure in-text citation rules are less likely to come
into play with a shorter references list
• Citation generators are most effective if you input sources directly from other
databases, but citation generators are not 100% accurate. Be sure to proofread
your references list
• When creating a citation, answer these questions: Who created the work? When
was it created? What is its title? How can it be accessed?
• All sources cited in your text must be listed in the references list
• Use hanging indent format for each citation: first line begins at left margin and
all other lines are indented
• Use single line spacing within each citation and leave one blank line between
citation
• Check the last citation on each page to be sure it is not split onto two pages.
Move the part at the bottom of the page to the top of the next page if needed
• Use a title page before the first page of the references list with REFERENCES
(all caps) centered on the page and a page number. The page number of this title
page is the page number used in the table of contents

16. Top Layer—Title Page and Signature Page
• Take a break from your writing to create a title and format a title
page
• Templates for a title page and a signature page are available at the
Thesis and Dissertation Office web pages
• On title page, signature page, and abstract, the title of your thesis
must match exactly, not only word-for-word but also line-for-line
• Format the title with the longest line first followed by
progressively shorter lines (an inverted pyramid)
• Your name must also match on title page, signature page, and
abstract
• Use single line spacing for the names of committee members listed
on the title page
• The title page and the signature page have blocks of text arranged
between blank areas to fill the pages from the one inch top margin
to the one inch bottom margin and neither of these pages has a
page number

18. The Juicy Extras

19. Appendices
• Appendices are used for material that is difficult to conform to the many
University Guideline rules for text. Tables, figures, flyers, outlines,
curriculum guides, handbooks, survey questions, extended interviews, and
computer code are often included in appendices
• Material in appendices must fit within the standard margins—1 ½ inch left
margin and 1 inch top, right and bottom margins
• All pages in appendices must have page numbers in sequence following the
last page of the text
• Title pages are used to introduce appendices. The text on these title pages is
centered on the page and uses all uppercase letters and double line spacing.
Title pages have page numbers, and it is the page number of the title pages
that is listed in the table of contents
• If there is only one appendix, use the word APPENDIX as the first line and
then the title of the appendix on the next line
• For more than one appendix, begin with a separate APPENDICES title page
followed by the first appendix title page which contains the words
APPENDIX A, then a blank line and then the title of Appendix A on the next
line

20. The Meat

21. Formatting Essentials
 Submit manuscripts printed on 20 lb. (standard weight) printer paper in a
thesis box
 Only these 4 font styles allowed: Times Roman, Times New Roman, Courier,
or Courier New in 12 point font size
 Margins: 1 ½ INCH LEFT MARGIN IS USED THROUGHOUT THESIS;
one inch margin on top, right, and bottom except on the first page of every
major section where a two inch top margin is used
 Use TWO SPACES AFTER PERIODS and other punctuation ending
sentences and TWO SPACES AFTER ALL COLONS
 Center page numbers just ABOVE the one inch bottom margin (footer setting
between 0.7 and 0.9 inch for good placement) and match the font size and font
style of page numbers with text
 Use paragraph format with uniform double line-spacing (one empty line
between two lines of text) with no additional line space between paragraphs
and around chapter titles or subheads. Select text above and below wide blank
space and set line spacing to “0 pt.” to eliminate wide gaps

22. Chapter Format
1. Some important restrictions in the text: no bold font, only black
color font, no contractions, no outlines, no bullets, no right justification
2. Format enumerated items with the first line (including the
number) indented the same indentation as the first line of a paragraph
with all other lines beginning at the left margin
3. Chapters can be divided into sections by using first level
subheads and those sections can be divided into subsections by using
second and third level subheads. First level subheads are centered on a
line without text and underlined, and they use headline style
capitalization (first word and all significant words capitalized).
4. University Guidelines has many rules about the format of tables
and figures as well as the placement of tables and figures. Because of
these restrictions, it is a good idea to create the text chapter and then
decide on placement of tables and figures rather than attempting to force
the text to immediately precede the table or figure it describes

23. The Toppings

24. Table of Contents, List of Tables, List of Figures, Etc.
• Include all major sections, chapter titles and first level subheads in the table of contents.
Match the wording of chapter and subhead titles in table of contents with the wording of
titles in text; double check that page numbers match too. If you choose to include even
one second level subhead, then ALL second AND third level subheads must be included in
the table of contents
• Column of page numbers must be right aligned (set a right-aligned tab at 5.95”)
• Dot leaders end in alignment 3-4 spaces before the longest page number (set a right-
aligned tab at 5.6” with Leader set to 2)
• The Thesis and Dissertation Office Format Guide web page has instructions on setting
tabs for the table of contents, and links to the table of contents page template, and don’t
forget the example of a table of contents in the mini-manuscript. Seeing is believing!
• Subheads and multiple-lined chapter titles are single line spaced, but leave a blank line
before and after chapter titles and appendix titles as well as other elements using all
uppercase letters like ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and LIST OF TABLES
• Include headers—CHAPTER (on left margin) and Page (on right margin). On the first
page, they are located within the other elements. On all other pages, they are located at the
top of the page

25. 1 inch top margin
for second and
subsequent pages

26. The Finishing Touches

27. Abstract and Order of Elements
• If an abstract is one page, do NOT include a page number
• If an abstract is more than one page, use Arabic numerals (1, 2) for page
numbers
• A word count of 150 words is recommended for abstracts by Master’s degree
candidates because ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database uses the text of
each candidate’s abstract as the abstract used in the item record of the database.
Because of the design of the database item record screen, each abstract is cut
off at about 150 words in the database
• Use uniform double line spacing between introductory lines and within text.
The introductory lines are centered and arranged in this order: (a) the word
ABSTRACT in all uppercase letters, (b) the title of the thesis in all uppercase
letters and inverted pyramid format, (c) the word By with an uppercase B, (d)
your name, and (e) the date line indicating the last month of the semester in
which you submitted the thesis and the year
• Once you’ve assembled all the elements, be sure they are in the right order

28. Order of Elements
Abstract—If only one page, do NOT use page number, otherwise use
Arabic numerals (1, 2) for page numbers; 2 inch top margin for first page
Title Page
Copyright Page (optional)
Acknowledgements (optional)—Use lowercase Roman numerals (iii)
for page numbers; 2 inch top margin for first page
Table of Contents—Use lowercase Roman numerals (use iii if there is
no acknowledgements page); 2 inch top margin for first page
List of Tables, List of Figures, List of Works, and so on (as needed)—
Use lowercase Roman numerals; 2 inch top margin for first page of each
Chapters—Use Arabic numerals for page numbers from here to the end
of the manuscript (Chapter 1 starts with page 1); 2 inch top margin for
first page of each chapter
Appendices (optional)—Each one begins with a title page; if there is
more than one appendix, begin with a title page with APPENDICES
centered on the page followed by title page for APPENDIX A
Reference List or Bibliography—Begins with a title page with
REFERENCES or BIBLIOGRAPHY centered on page; 2 inch top margin
for first page

29. The Delivery

30. Submission Process
• Have your signature page fully signed with all signatures.
• Have your manuscript formatted to the best of your ability and
complete in one PDF file.
• Deliver you signature page to the Thesis Office by 5 p.m. of
deadline date.
• Thesis Office will email you with a link to the database
website to use to upload your PDF manuscript.
• You must upload your PDF within a week of the date that the
email is sent.
• A fee of $95 is required for Open Access Publishing at the
time of the upload.
• Make a note of your User Name and Password so you can
access PDFs for revisions.

31. Evaluation Process
• Formatters read through PDFs on a first come, first served basis as they are uploaded.
Corrections are added to the PDF. The student is emailed when the read-through is
complete and the PDF with correction notes is available for the student to download from
the database website.
• Using a version of the manuscript that’s easy to revise (usually Microsoft Word version),
the student makes revisions based on the annotated PDF. After making a PDF of the
revised manuscript, the student uploads it to the database website. Setting a 2 week
turnaround time for this initial revision ensures completing the submission process within
the term deadline..
• Formatters read through revised PDF and contact the student within a week. There are
three possible outcomes: (1) Second corrections—Another PDF is uploaded with notes
about corrections needed, (2) Cleared pending—Email is sent with a list of a few (15 or
less) corrections still needed, (3) Cleared—No further corrections needed.
• Once formatting of a student’s PDF manuscript is cleared, meaning there are no more
corrections needed, the Thesis Office releases the PDF for publication on the ProQuest
database. The student will receive an email “clearance letter” from the Thesis Office to
confirm that the submission process is complete. A copy of the email is also sent to the
student’s committee chair, the department graduate advisor, and Enrollment Services.