Preparation of thesis

Guidelines

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 1

 Overview
• General guidelines
• Structure
• Abstract
• Acknowledgement
• Methodology
• Chapters
• Conclusions
• References

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 2

 General guidelines
• Use Times New Roman of size 13 for general text
• Use sentence case only
• Do not use colon for titles and subtitles
• Use technical language
– Eg. Won’t  Would not 
• Give attention to the auto-correct tool
– Eg. Trail  Trial 

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 3

 General guidelines
• Do not leave too much empty space in a page
• Do not finish the page with a figure or a table
• A page should not contain only images
• The title for a table should be given at the top of the table
• The title for a figure should be given at the bottom of the
figure
• Do not mark the dimensions on photos

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 4

 Structure of thesis
1. Cover Page and Title 8. List of symbols and
page abbreviations
2. Certificate 9. Chapters
3. Abstract 10. Appendices
4. Acknowledgement 11. References
5. Table of Contents 12. List of publications
6. List of tables
7. List of figures
Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 5
 Abstract
• Outline the problem, methodology and summary of the
findings in a concise form
• One and half line spacing to be used

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 6

 Acknowledgement
• Should not exceed one page
• One and half line spacing
• Scholar’s signature – bottom right corner – above
scholar’s name in capitals

(Signature)
SCHOLAR NAME

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 7

 Literature survey
• Include only the literature relevant to the current work
• Consolidate the major findings from the literature survey
• Gaps in the literature survey must be presented
• Refer to the latest publications

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 8

 Objective and methodology
• Objective should be concise and not more than 2 points
• Methodology should be presented in the form of a flow
chart
• Explanation on each step in the flow chart has to be
presented in detail

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 9

 Organization of chapters
• For a title, do not have more than two sub-titles
Example
1. Mechanics of Vibratory conveying 
1.2 Mechanics of part motion 
1.2.1 Assumptions 
1.2.1.1 

• Ensure continuity between a chapter and its successor –

Link the summary of a chapter with the introduction of its
succeeding chapter
• Keep the number of chapters to a maximum of 5
Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 10
 Construction of chapter
• Chapter titles should be complete by themselves.
Example
– Effect of temperature 
– Effect of temperature on deformation of spindle
• All the schematic sketches should be self drawn and not
be scanned or copied.
• Equations must be typed and inserted using the ‘Insert
equation’ option
Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 11
 Construction of chapter…
• Equations should be numbered
Example

• All figures and tables have to be cited and explained.

Captions of tables and figures
• Temperature vs. Time 
• Transient variation of temperature 

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 12

 Construction of chapter…
• Sample data sets have to be included if a large number
of experiments were performed

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 13

 References - Format
• Journal article with more than two authors
– Alishahi, K, Marvasti, F, Aref, VA & Pad, P 2009, ‘Bounds on the
sum capacity of synchronous binary CDMA channels’, Journal of
Chemical Education, vol. 55, no.8, pp. 3577-3593.
• Book
– Holt, DH 1997, Management Principles and Practices, Prentice-
Hall, Sydney.
• Patent
– Cookson, AH 1985, Particle trap for compressed gas insulated
transmission systems, US Patent 4554399.

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 14

 References…
• Ensure completeness of references by giving all the
necessary details ( volume no., page no. etc)
• All references must be cited in the appropriate chapters
• Include recent references (for the past 5 to 10 years)
with minimum references beyond 10 years
• Cite and brief on references in a chronological order
(Ex: Starting from the year 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018..)

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 15

 References
• Website
– Australian Securities Exchange 2009, Market Information.
Available from:
<http://www.asx.com.au/professionals/market_information/index.
htm>. [5 July 2009].
• Examples of citation
– Conley & Galeson (1998) have dealt at length this principle.
– The problem of mechanical manipulators has been studied by
Alishahi et al (2009)

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 16

Thank you

Dept of Mechanical Engg, PSGCT 17