Master's Thesis Formatting Guidelines

Hello, and welcome Graduate Students!

This guide is designed to help you understand the process of formatting review.

A key part of completing your thesis focuses on ensuring it is compliant with the standards of your academic department and the University.

Before submitting your thesis for a formatting review, you must carefully read and follow the guidelines in all three required PDFs. These documents contain the rules and steps necessary to ensure your paper meets university formatting standards.

If it is clear that you have not followed the guidelines, your submission will be declined without feedback.

Please make sure your thesis fully complies with the instructions in the PDFs before contacting our office.

Required Formatting Guides:
Please review all of the following documents before submitting your thesis:

1. Thesis Formatting Checklist (PDF)
2. Thesis Sequence of Parts (PDF)
3. Thesis Sample Guide (PDF)
4. Steps To Completing Your Project/Thesis

Once you have reviewed the resources above and have successfully formatted your thesis, please email formatreview@cpp.edu for final approval.

Need Additional Help?

The four PDFs above contain everything you need to format your thesis correctly. However, if you need further assistance or more detailed guidance, we’ve developed additional resources to support you.

Please keep reading below for tutorials, examples, and troubleshooting tips.

Tips: How to make sure your paper is meeting the requirements? In Microsoft Word, please have your final paper and the sample guide side-by-side and compare them page by page. This will help you understand how the formatting of your paper should look.

Warning: Please do not use Google Docs and/or Microsoft 365 to format your paper. Please download Microsoft 365 to your computer. Please contact IT if you need assistance with this.

1. Make sure you know your deadlines.
2. Complete the final version of your paper. Once you have successfully defended and formatted your paper, and you are ready to submit it, please email the format review team formatreview@cpp.edu to have your paper reviewed.
3. Attach your paper in a PDF file. Your paper must meet the Formatting Review Policies mentioned above. If we find that your paper does not meet the requirements, we will decline the review of your paper until you have corrected your formatting.
4. REMEMBER this is your final paper. It should be ready to submit on that day, so please be sure to go over your thesis before emailing it to our office.
5. Final reviews are done by email.
6. Once you receive your confirmation email that the review team has approved the formatting of your thesis, please proceed with your submission to Bronco ScholarWorks.

For those who are using LaTex please visit the link below from the Math department, you can obtain the template.

Word Doc. Formatting Tutorials

Workshop Presentation Slides

• Thesis Formatting Workshop Presentation (pdf)
• Bronco Scholarworks Workshop Presentation (pdf)

Workshop Videos

 Creating Accessible Course Materials. This resource by CPP's eLearning Department is focused on helping professors tag PDFs for accessible course materials, however, many of the screenshots may be relevant for students tagging theses.

The below information is the required Departmental Style Manual or Journal Method by your department. Unless your chair committee specifies a different style guide.

1. Q. My professor wants me to electronically submit my thesis, but he also wants a book, can I do both?
   A. If you want to bind your thesis/project, please check your local print shops where they can bind books. CPP no longer does binding.
2. Q. When can I email the format review team for the final review?
   A. Once you have defended your thesis, and you have completed it. (For those who don't defend or present, your professor will let you know that you are ready to submit).
   Prior to this please make sure your paper meets the formatting guidelines above. Our office will NOT review your paper if it is evident that you have not reviewed the Formatting Review Policies.
3. Q. Why Isn't the reviewer checking citations?
   A. The formatting reviewer is not responsible for checking citations. It is yours, and your committee chair’s responsibility to go over your paper. Please contact your subject librarian if you need help with your citations.
4. Q. Can I submit through Bronco ScholarWorks before I receive email confirmation that my formatting has been approved?
   A. No, you need to receive formatting approval before you submit your paper to Bronco ScholarWorks.
5. Q. I'm doing my thesis with a teammate or with a group. How will that work?
   A. All procedures remain the same, one person will email the formatting review team and copy all the group members into the email to request a format review. Please make it clear in your email that you are working as a group.
6. Q. I don't think I will be able to meet my deadline, what can I do?
   A. Extensions are only approved under excruciating circumstances. Otherwise, your graduation application will be moved to the next term. Please contact Graduate studies office for more information: gradstudies@cpp.edu
7. Q. Do you prefer to email you my paper in PDF or WORD doc. for final review?
   A. PDF
8. Q. Why does my WORD doc. look different when I download from google docs?
   A. Google docs is not a reliable program to format your paper. The only solution we have seen is to make sure when you are done that you save your paper in PDF and go over your PDF file to make sure your formatting has not changed. We advise you to use WORD doc. from a PC or MAC computer.
9. Q. Do I submit to Bronco ScholarWorks my PDF file after my signatures from Adobe Sign have been approved?
   A. Please do not submit the same exact PDF file from Adobe Sign. Please submit the PDF file that your library reviewer has approved.
10. Q. Do I have to wait for my committee members to sign my Adobe Sign before I submit to Bronco ScholarWorks?
    A. Yes, you must have all your signatures from your committee members and your library format reviewer done, before you submit to Bronco ScholarWorks.
11. Q. My chair committee told me to get my paper formatting approved first before obtaining their signatures through Adobe Sign. What should I do since there are no longer preliminary formatting review.
    A. Many committee members will have students request to be reviewed first by the library reviewer. In this case, please make sure your whole committee members have approved your content. Once it has been approved by verbal or email, you can proceed by emailing us and requesting an appointment. Follow the steps on the timeline of this guide.
12. Q. My request for thesis approval has been denied because my formatting is still not meeting the requirements. What should I do?
    A. Your paper will continue to be denied if you are not following the Formatting Review Policies mentioned above.
    It is expected that prior to emailing the format review team, you have gone over the Thesis Formatting Checklist (PDF), Thesis Sequence of Parts (PDF), Thesis Sample Guide (PDF) and the Steps To Completing Your Project/Thesis.
13. Q. Why doesn't my reviewer tell me what is wrong with my paper so I can correct it, to have it approved?
    A. It is your responsibility to go over the Formatting Review Policies. If you need more resources, check out the tabs on this guide for our tutorials and workshop videos where we go step by step on what the reviewer expects from your paper.
    TIPS: Reviewers glance at the first few pages, and if you have more than 5 errors in your paper, the reviewer will decline your immediately and will not tell you what is wrong.
14. Q. I do not know how to use Microsoft Word document.
    A. We recommend that you watch the LinkedIn MS word tutorials. Please take a look at the Formatting Guidelines & Templates tab on this page for more video tutorials.

• Who To Contact - Master's Thesis Project
• CPP Avoiding Plagiarism
• Deadlines-Master's Thesis/Project

Contact:

Writing Center

Writing assistance is available from the LRC University Writing Center

If you want to make an appointment:

• Email at lrcscheduling@cpp.edu
• Use CPP Connect.
• Front Desk: (909) 869-3502

Need help with your citations?
The University Library has a Subject Librarian that can help you if you have any questions.