Comments on: A Graduate School reform we can all get behind: new thesis format requirements

By: GP

GP — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:29:26 +0000

I have just learned that the Graduate Faculty Executive Committee (GFEC) is responsible for things of this nature. I also learned that procedures for electronic submissions are already being put in place for Fall 2010. It appears that things like format requirements are being treated separately for paper and electronic submissions. With the GFEC being busy with the electronic procedures, paper procedures will apparently have to wait. My opinion is that if the format requirements for electronic submissions are sensible, then the paper requirements will quickly become irrelevant. I look forward to hearing what the electronic format requirement will be.

By: GP

GP — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:58:31 +0000

Update:

I contacted ProQuest, which is the outfit that microfilms/archives/distributes doctoral dissertations from UW-Madison. I wanted to know what technical constraints applied to things like margins etc. for documents they accepted. Also, I wanted to know how many universities still submit dissertations in paper form for scanning, as we still do here. Here is the response from one of their representatives:

“Yes, I think it would be safe to say that if your left/right margin requirements were 1″ that would allow binding to be created without cutting out any text.”

[This was in response to my question whether we could reduce margins to 3/4" on the non-binding edge while leaving it at 1" on the binding edge. -GP]

“Currently we have approximately half of our participating Universities submitting dissertations as PDF files. Having students submit PDF files creates a color archive which allows any print copies to be reproduced in color as well. We find that PDF submission is a much more efficient process in addition to the quality being much improved from paper scan.

“We have a wonderful electronic submission program called ETD. Please feel free to visit: http://www.etdadmin.com/cgi-bin/home for more information on this program!”

By: GP

GP — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:27:26 +0000

The two situations in which double-spaced makes sense are (1) when the document is being heavily edited by hand (space is needed for the markup), and (2) when someone is hand-keying the text from the paper manuscript into typesetting software (or, in the old days, setting movable lead type). Neither situation applies to a thesis or dissertation in final form, so it’s unclear what the historical basis is for double-spacing in that case. Universities overseas (e.g., Germany, Holland) have much more modern formatting requirements — dissertations often end up looking like polished tech reports or monographs with book-like formatting.

Incidentally, the link in the second paragraph gives a good example of single-column, single-spaced formatting that works well for 8.5 x 11. It helps that he uses a wider font than the default Times Roman that winds up in most documents.

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:08:59 +0000

Changing the requirements seems to make sense. I abhor double-spaced anything myself, so my sympathies really go out to thesis/dissertation readers.

What sorts of historical reasons are there for the current guidelines? Do they have something to do with typewriters – e.g. maybe that putting less text on a page meant that you’d have less to retype if you made a mistake? Or are there other reasons?

It seems like in addition to saving advisors’ time/eyesight and trees, the university would benefit by saving library space in storing the things.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:24:50 +0000

@Brunch Links: “TA”? “Term papers”??

By: Brunch Links « The Sconz

Brunch Links « The Sconz — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:51:58 +0000

[...] A UW-Madison TA tells of the torture of reading term papers. [...]