MASTER THESIS
Title of the master thesis
Author’s name
SUPERVISED BY
Director’s name
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Master in Aerospace Science & Technology
July 2009
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Title of the master thesis
BY
Author’s name
DIPLOMA THESIS FOR DEGREE
Master in Aerospace Science and Technology
AT
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
SUPERVISED BY:
Director’s name
Department of the director
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ABSTRACT
This document contains guidelines for writing your master thesis. It has been elaborated in order to provide an example of presentation for the master thesis.
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 1
Chapter 1. basics 3
1.1. Paper and impression 3
1.1.1. Paper 3
1.1.2. Impression 3
1.2. Margins 3
1.3. Typography 3
1.3.1. Font style 3
1.3.2. Interlineations 3
1.4. Titles Numeration 4
1.5. Headlines and number pages 4
1.6. Bookbinding 4
Chapter 2. project organization 5
2.1. Preliminary Pages 5
2.1.1. Cover 5
2.1.2. Abstract 5
2.1.3. Dedication 5
2.1.4. Table of contents 5
2.2. Body structure 6
2.2.1. Introduction 6
2.2.2. Chapters 6
2.2.3. Formulas, figures and tables 6
2.2.4. Environmental study 7
2.3. Bibliography 8
2.4. Annexes 8
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List of Figures
1.1 Figure 1 ...... 4
2.1 Example image ...... 7
2.2 Figure 3 ...... 8
2.3 Figure 4 ...... 9
3.1 Figure 5...... 13
3.2 Figure 6 ...... 13
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List of tables
1.1 Table 1...... 1
1.2 Table 2...... 2
2.1 Example of table ...... 8
4.1 Table 4 ...... 10
4.2 Table 5...... 12
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Introduction 1
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this document is to provide a guideline for the presentation of the master thesis. This document is also an example of presentation of this project.
The second chapter contains all the instructions related with the presentation format, which are for example the kind of font, paper, margins, titles, numeration and all the stuff related to the project
In the third chapter you will find the instructions related with the each part of the project; the abstract, table of contents, and body of the project.
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Basics 3
Chapter 1
BASICS
1.1. Paper and impression
1.1.1. Paper
It should be used the standard DIN A4 style paper, in vertical position (210 x 297 mm).
1.1.2. Impression
The impression of the document should be double side from the introduction till the end.
1.2. Margins
The margins used are the standard ones:
· Superior: 2.5 cm
· Inferior: 2.5 cm
· Right: 2.5 cm
· Left: 2.5 cm
1.3. Typography
1.3.1. Font style
· Base font: Arial 12
· Chapter fonts: Arial 18, bold, centered.
· Section font: Arial 14, bold, left aligned.
· Sub-section font: Arial 13, bold, left aligned.
· Headlines font: Arial 8, underlined.
· Number pages font: Arial 8, underlined.
1.3.2. Interlineations
· Simple in the body paragraph.
· Add a blank line between paragraphs.
· Add a blank line between the section title and the beginning of the text.
· Add two blank lines between the final of the text and the title of the next section.
1.4. Titles Numeration
· Numeration of the chapters: Arabic numeration.
· Numeration of the sections: the Arabic number of the chapter followed by a point and the Arabic number corresponding to the section followed by a point.
· Numeration of the sub-sections: the Arabic number of the chapter, followed by a point and the Arabic number corresponding to the section, followed by a point and the Arabic number of the sub-section followed by a point.
1.5. Headlines and number pages
The numeration of the pages starts at Chapter 1(Introduction) and ends at the end of the project. The number of the page should be included in the right margin of the headline in the case of odd pages and in the left margin in the case of even pages.
In the opposite margin, the chapter title should be included in case of odd pages and the title of the master thesis in case of even pages.
The entire headline should be underlined.
1.6. Bookbinding
The bookbinding must have a black spiral and transparent plastic caps.
The cover will be printed in white cardboard of DIN A4 dimension.
Project Organization 7
Chapter 2
PROJECT ORGANIZATION
2.1. Preliminary Pages
2.1.1. Cover
Everyone has to implement the cover with the title of the master thesis, the director name and the date of publication.
2.1.2. Abstract
The abstract will be a brief summary of the master thesis. It has to contain the objectives of the project, the methodology used and the results obtained. The extension has to be of 1500 characters minimum and 3000 maximum, single spaced.
2.1.3. Dedication
If you want to dedicate the master thesis to someone, you have to include the dedication in an extra paper, between the abstract and the table of contents.
The text has to be placed in the upper right margin and the font used must be Arial 12.
2.1.4. Table of contents
The table of contents must contain all the chapters, the sections and the subsections of the project with the same numeration, the same name and the corresponding pages.
In order to simplify the confection of the table of contents, some text processors have the possibility to automatize this process.
It is useful to include a list of figures and a list of tables, in order to simplify its location. The confection of these lists must be done using the same format as in the table of contents.
2.2. Body structure
2.2.1. Introduction
Chapter 1 must be the introduction. In this chapter you have to explain the purpose of the project, the methods used and also the principal conclusions that you have found during the elaboration of the project. It can be considered as an extended version of the abstract.
You have to explain the distribution of the project with the corresponding justification, because you must do it following a logic organization.
Moreover, it is necessary to include the key terms and its definition, and the abbreviations and basic formula necessaries for the understanding of the global text.
It is important that the introduction does not extents very long, so the readers can make a quick view and understand the contents or remember it whenever it is necessary.
2.2.2. Chapters
It is recommended that all the chapters should have more or less the same extension.
The longer ones can be divided into sections or move some parts to the annexes.
2.2.3. Formulas, figures and tables
2.2.3.1. Formulas
Formulas must be written using a formula editor or similar. A blank line must be left between the previous paragraph and the formula and two blank lines must be left between the formula and the next paragraph. They have to be centered and numerated using the number of the chapter followed by a point and the number of the formula. The numeration should be in bold, between parentheses and right aligned.
b = 2p (2.1)
2.2.3.2. Figures
For the figures, there must be two blank lines between the figure and the previous paragraph and a blank line between the figure and the figure note.
The figure note must be written in Arial 11 and the numeration will be formed by the number of the chapter followed by point and the number of the figure all in bold.
Two blank lines should be between the figure note and the next paragraph.
Fig. 2.1 Example image
2.2.3.3. Tables
You should leave two blank lines between the table title and the previous paragraph. Between the table title and the table a blank line must be left and between the table and the next paragraph two blank lines must be left. The title must be placed at the top of the table and referenced as the figure note
Table 2.1. Example of table
Column 1 / Column 2 / Column 3 / Column 4 / Column 51 / A / 101 / Z / a
2 / B / 102 / Y / b
3 / C / 103 / X / c
4 / D / 104 / W / d
2.2.4. Environmental study
The environmental study can be included in the introduction or in the conclusion of the project, except for the projects that have environmental consequences so important; in that case, a specific chapter is needed.
2.3. Bibliography
Must contain a list of the works consulted. For example books, articles, web pages …
The books or articles must be listed together following the next format:
· Books: Author/s (surname and name initials), books title (in cursive), editor, city and publication year.
When you want to mention a specific chapter of a book, you must write the title of the chapter between quotation marks (“..”) and the title of the book in cursive followed by the pages.
Example:
[1] Hall, J.A., “Imaging tubes”, Cap. 13 en The Infrared handbook, Wolfe, W.W., Zissis, G.J., Eds., pp. 132-176, ERIM, Ann Aror, MI (1978).
· Articles: Author/s (surname and name initials), article’s title (between quotation marks), magazine (in cursive), volume and number, followed by the pages consulted and the publication year.
Example:
[2] Bluzer, N. and Jensen, A.S., “Current readout of infrared detectors”, Opt. Eng. 23 (3), 241-248 (1987).
For the bibliographic references inside the body text you must use the numeric references of the bibliography.
Example:
The development of this theory has been done by hall in 1978 (see [1]).
2.4. Annexes
In general, it has to be included in the annexes all the data and documents that can make the lecture of the project a little bit hard. You should find a middle point between this and the continued reference to the annexes in the body of the master thesis.
They can contain diagrams, statistical data, tables of results and some complementary theoretical developments.
If the project and the annexes have an extension larger than 100 pages, you must bind the annexes independently and following the same format guidelines applied to the project.