Dr.

[Committee Chair], Thesis Committee Chair

Dr. [Advisor #1], Thesis Committee Advisor

Dr. [Advisor #2], Thesis Committee Advisor

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

Introduction
This is a template for a thesis proposal. It includes figure num ering logic and functions. It also demonstrates the use of !t"les and contains other tips for #riting $ ut not content%related stuff&. In your actual introduction, you would describe the problem that you will be trying to solve, including why the problem is worth solving.

Styles
This template uses the !t"les functions of '! (ord. )ou should, too, not onl" for the headings, ut also for the te*t. !t"les provide "ou a num er of clear advantages+ $1& It ,eeps "our st"les consistent throughout the document, #ith onl" a little effort- $2& It allo#s document% #ide alteration of a st"le- $.& It ma,es using the outline mode and document map eas", oth of #hich are great- and $/& If "ou use !t"les in a smart #a", '! (ord #ill ma,e "our Ta le of Contents for "ou, 0uic,l" and easil" $this applies to "our thesis, not "our proposal, ut it1s est to start earl"2& !t"les #ill save "ou a great deal of effort and hassle later on. (hen "ou change a st"le, it should automaticall" change all instances of that st"le $ e sure "ou can vie# st"les in the formatting palette or a tool ar&. If it doesn1t, then highlight the paragraph #hose st"le "ou changed, go to the st"le in the st"les list, and clic, the menu and select 34pdate to 'atch !election5 Try this now+ 6et1s sa" "ou #ant a different font for each of the main headings in the document. 7ighlight the #hole 3Introduction5 at the top of this page $including the paragraph return at the end of the line&, and go to 8ormat 9 8ont. Change the font color to red. :o# page through the document, and note that all the 7eadings #ill have a red font color. Tr" undoing #hat "ou did, and notice that no# onl" the Introduction is red. 4ndo again, and the red is gone. I have tried to create a unch of useful st"les for "ou, ut "ou might need to ma,e some ne# ones for "ourself. 7ere are some useful ones+ An e0uation li,e ;<m c2 $1& might need a st"le, and the follo#ing paragraph $this one& needs a separate st"le ecause it should not e indented, since it is not actuall" a ne# paragraph content%#ise, nor even a ne# sentence. :ote that "ou can set ta stops for a st"le, so "ou don1t need a unch of ,ludg" ta s to place things correctl" $see Tips section elo#&.

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

Dynamic Figure Numbering

The asic idea is that "ou can use '! (ord1s 3field codes5 $little calculations& to ,eep num ers in se0uence on a non%printed page of the document, and then have the actual references in the document use field codes to refer to these se0uenced num ers. This allo#s "ou to ver" 0uic,l" reorder, add, or remove figures, and all the figure num ers in the document #ill automaticall" ad=ust including citations to those figures in the te*t. The ne*t sections descri e ho# to do this from scratch, to give "ou a good idea of ho# it #or,s, ut this document alread" has the s"stem set up > "ou need onl" to adapt it to "our actual figure list.

MAKE A LIST OF FIGURES

This #ould not e "our figure list that goes in the front of the thesis, ut a non% printing page at the end of the document. 7ere "ou ma,e a list of figures, one per line, #ith a rief description $not the #hole caption generall", although "ou could if "ou #ish&. 7o#ever, instead of t"ping an actual num er, "ou put in a field code $Insert 9 8ield...& #ith the contents ?!;@ 8igs? $"ou can put an"thing "ou li,e in for the ?8igs? part&. The !;@ code =ust means a se0uence, so ever" time it is found in the document, it increments the num er. )ou can have multiple se0uences =ust " changing the tag $the ?8igs? part&. !o "ou could have a separate se0uence for Ta les, and "et another for e0uations or chemical reactions for e*ample. :ote that the last page of this document has such a list alread" set up for testing.

INSERT BOOKMARKS
:o#, in order to have the te*t e a le to access these se0uenced num ers, #e need to oo,mar, each one. !o select each num er $not the spaces or other te*t around it& and insert a oo,mar, $Insert9Aoo,mar,&. :ame it something descriptive li,e ?8igBCegional'ap? $no spaces are allo#ed in oo,mar, names&. Do not name it ?8igure.?, ecause the point is that "ou canDt rel" on #hat "ou no# consider to e figure . to remain figure .. ThatDs the #hole point of this2 )ou might decide to reorder things. :ote that these are alread" set up for the figures on the last page of this document.

INSERT TEXT REFERENCES

)ouDre nearl" done % no# #hen "ou #ant to insert a figure reference $or ta le or e0uation, etc.& instead of t"ping the figure num er itself, "ou insert a reference to the oo,mar,. To do this, "ou insert a field $Insert 9 8ield...& and t"pe ?C;8 8igBCegional'ap? $or #hatever the oo,mar, name "ou chose for that figure #as&. If "ou forget, "ou can t"pe ?C;8 ? and then hit the options utton, and "ou #ill have access to a list of all the oo,mar,s in "our document. Dou le clic, one and it #ill e inserted into the o* after the ?C;8 ?.

SAMPLE TEXT FOR DEMONSTRATION

This is some te*t that refers to a regional map $8ig. ;rror+ Ceference source not found&. The num er in the preceding figure reference is given " the field code 3C;8 8igBCegional'ap5. That #a", if "ou change the order in the 8igure list page at the end, this num er #ill ad=ust to match that order. .

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

This is some te*t that refers to a local map $8ig. ;rror+ Ceference source not found&. This is some te*t that refers to a photomicrograph of sample ECF2. $8ig. ;rror+ Ceference source not found&.

CHECK FIGURE NUMBERING

)our references to figures must occur in numerical order. That is the first reference to figure num er / should e prior to the first reference to figure num er G, and "ou should not s,ip an" figure num ers. I have included in this document a script that #ill chec, this for "ou. In the special tool ar that should open #ith this document, there is a utton $ & that creates a report highlighting errors in the order of figure citation. Clic, that utton no# to get a figure citation report. :o#, tr" s#itching the order of the references to 8igures 2 and . in the section =ust a ove and run the report again to see #hat happens #hen "ou1ve made an error.

Tips from Dave

7ere are some general tips for using the communication tools that #ill help "ou #rite etter. Hust as "ou ma,e an effort to learn the tools of geolog" to do "our research effectivel", "ou should ma,e an effort to learn the tools of #riting to do "our communication effectivel".

ENDNOTE
Dealing #ith references is a huge hassle. The tric," part is that the hassle doesn1t reall" happen as "ou1re #riting. (hile "ou are #riting it1s fairl" eas" to stic, in references, especiall" if "ou are reall" thoroughl" familiar #ith the literature. The pro lem is that the hassle happens at the crunch time, #hen "ou are tr"ing to get the paper reall" finall" finished at 2+.I in the morning, and "ou have to go through ever" single reference to chec, and see if "ou remem ered to put it in the Ceferences Cited list, or to ma,e sure "ou1ve put the references in the correct order in each of "our citations. To avoid that, it1s est to use a program li,e ;nd:ote, #hich #ill ,eep a li rar" of references for "ou, and deal #ith all aspects of the citation st"le and the reference list. It1s hard to overstate ho# useful ;nd:ote is in scientific #riting. )ou can even ma,e notes on each paper to remind "ourself a out its content.

FIGURES ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR

Ado e Illustrator is the est program out there for doing figures. An" vector% ased graphics program #ill do prett" #ell, though. :ote that Jhotoshop and programs li,e it are not vector% ased, and are not good choices for doing figures- the" #ill produce huge files that are difficult to edit. The est strateg" is to have a separate file for each figure, and have each figure e on its o#n page in "our document. In "our thesis, these should e interleaved #ith the te*tin "our proposal, it1s simplest to put them all at the end. ;ach page should have a

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

caption, ideall" in the same font as the main document. )ou should suppl" "our figures to "our advisor and committee as a single JD8, and this is #here Illustrator is especiall" great. Ado e Acro at Jrofessional can import a director" of figure files in Illustrator format, and com ine them into a single JD8 document. !uppl"ing the figures as a JD8 is useful ecause the committee can ma,e comments in the JD8 itself if the" #ish, and the file siKe is smaller than a set of individual files, particularl" if "ou LptimiKe the JD8 in Acro at Jrofessional after ma,ing it $loo, in the menus for 3JD8 LptimiKer5&. ;ducational copies of Illustrator are availa le for students1 personal computers at su stantiall" reduced cost, and in a pinch, .I%da" full%featured demo versions can e do#nloaded from Ado e.com. Figure Caption umbering !elp The d"namic figure num ering s"stem I1ve created for this document and descri ed a ove ma,es it ver" eas" to re%order, add, or delete figures from the standpoint of the te*t, ut #hat a out the captions that are in the figure documents themselvesM If "ou do as I suggest and use Ado e Illustrator, "ou can ta,e advantage of another script I #rote. Information a out this is posted here+ http+NNalmandine.geol.##u.eduNOdaveNotherNho#toBAIBfigureCaptions.shtml

VIEW INVISIBLES
In the tool ar there is a paragraph mar, $ &. Clic,ing it #ill toggle the visi ilit" of spaces, ta s, paragraph ends, page rea,s, etc. )ou should al#a"s leave this on as "ou #rite, so "ou can see the structure of "our document. If "ou don1t, "ou are lia le to muc, things up and ma,e it difficult to get the document loo,ing the #a" "ou #ant it to loo,.

IF YOU HAVE MULTIPLE TABS OR PARAGRAPH RETURNS, YOURE DOING

SOMETHING WRONG

A rule of thum that I use to ,eep m"self organiKed, is that if "ou find "ourself t"ping more than t#o spaces or one ta or one paragraph rea, in a ro#, then "ou are not using the !t"les effectivel". !paces and ta s can e condensed into a single ta $8ormat 9 Ta s&- multiple paragraphs to ma,e spaces can e replaced " either a single paragraph #ith appropriate spacing efore or after $good&, or =ust changing the efore spacing of the paragraph that follo#s the space "ou are tr"ing to create. In either case, ho#ever, e sure "ou are not altering a st"le that "ou have used else#here $unless that is "our goal&.

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

Background
There must be enough detail here that the problem is understandable to geologists outside the specialty, such as the second and third members o" the committee. In addition, you must include enough background to show that a# you are "amiliar with the work that has already been done in the area and on the topic b# you understand that work$ and c# that you know how your proposed research "its in with the e%isting body o" work.

Problem / Hypotheses
This is a more detailed discussion o" the problem, in particular stating hypotheses to e%plain the problem, which o" them you propose to test, and the general research approach you will take to that testing &but not the detailed methods#. 'ou should speci"y what the possible test outcomes will say about the hypotheses( which outcome would re"ute a hypothesis and which would support it. ote that not all pro)ects are hypothesis*testing. 'ou might e%plore a previously une%plored region and describe the geology. 'ou might develop a new analytical method. +r you might describe the structure o" a new mineral, "or e%ample. !owever, most pro)ects are "ocused on the testing o" one or more hypotheses.

Study Area
,ive a description o" the study area, and why that area was chosen to test the particular hypotheses.

Methods
'ou should describe the methods you will use in su""icient detail to show that you have a "irm grasp o" them, and that you have care"ully considered how you will go "rom "ieldwork through data collection and data analysis to get results that will test your hypotheses.

Expected Results and Potential

i!!iculties

!ere is a section to come back to your hypotheses, describe the data you e%pect to collect, and reiterate how it will support or re"ute one or more hypotheses. 'ou should also describe any

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

roadblocks you can "oresee in the pro)ect, and how you will work through or around them.

Pro"ect #imeline
This should be a table o" when you e%pect to achieve each milestone on your way to completion. Include work that you have already completed as well.

Re!erences $ited
-very re"erence must be cited, and every cited re"erence must be in this list, including re"erences only mentioned in "igure captions. I" you use -nd ote, this task will be made much, much easier.

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

This page does not get printed, but must be in the document. It exists to support Daves Dynamic Figure Numbering System. Do not delete this paragraph, either.