Body of the Disquisition

The body of your disquisition refers to your chapters and, if present, appendices. Content in the disquisition body should adhere to the same general requirements as the rest of the disquisition, including font type, font size, and margin size. The body of a disquisition is made primarily of paragraphs and frequently contains:

The disquisition body begins on first page of the first chapter, which should be designated as page 1. Page numbers in the disquisition body should use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, and so on), in contrast to the Roman numerals used in the prefatory pages.

On this page, you will find links to the guidelines for non-text items, including tables, figures, and listings, as well as equations and reference lists.

Chapters

Your chapters contain the main content of your disquisition. While the order of prefatory sections is set by the Graduate School, the organization of your chapters is left entirely to your discretion. Chapters are primarily composed of paragraphs, tables, and images; use the style manual of your discipline to construct a disquisition that meets the expectations of your peers.

See the entries in our knowledge base for our full guidelines on the types of content that may appear in chapters.

Tables, Figures, Schemes, Etc.

Tables, figures, schemes, and other non-text items should be integrated into the text of your disquisition rather than grouped at the end of a chapter. Generally, non-text items should be inserted at the first natural break point (between paragraphs or at the top or bottom of the page) after the first in-text reference; ideally, a non-text item should appear on the same page with its first in-text reference, but often this isn't possible. All tables, figures, schemes, and other non-text items should have a label, number, and title, fit within the page margins, and have consistent styling across all items of that type in the disquisition.

See the entry in our knowledge base for our full guidelines on tables, figures, and other non-text items, including special considerations for multipage tables or figures and tips on making alt-text for images.

Listings and Code

You are encouraged to include relevant code snippets within the body of your disquisition, but we recommend placing large amounts of code in a public repository and including a link in your disquisition. You may also place your code in one or more appendices. Listings (code blocks) generally follow the same guidelines as other non-text items, with some exceptions.

See the entry on our knowledge base for our full guidelines on listings, including special considerations for multipage listings and tips on making borders around listings.

Knowledge Base

Equations

Equations should be integrated into the text of your disquisition and not grouped at the end of a chapter. Equations should be placed on their own line and centered on the page; these types of equations are called "display equations". In-line equations can be included in paragraph text (or elsewhere) as long as they don't interfere with line spacing. In-line equations, variables, symbols, or functions outside of display equations must use Unicode characters.

See the entry on our knowledge base for our full guidelines on equations, including special considerations for equation accessibility requirements and tips on using Unicode characters in equations.

Knowledge Base

References/Works Cited

Whenever you use information from another source, or reference data that you did not create or discover, you must cite the original source of the data. This includes, but is not limited to, text, tables, figures, and other forms of data.

See the entry on our knowledge base for our full guidelines on references and citations, including special considerations for copyrighted material and tips on using reliable sources.

Center for Writers

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