A clear table of contents will give both a good impression and provide an accurate roadmap to make the examiner’s job easier and your argument more persuasive.įortunately, the days of manually writing a contents page are over. An unclear or sloppy table of contents may even have an adverse effect on your grade because the dissertation is difficult to follow.Įxaminers are readers, after all, and a dissertation is an exercise in producing an argument. The table of contents is not just an academic formality, it allows your examiner to quickly get a feel for your topic and understand how your dissertation will be presented.

Knowing how your chapters are going to be ordered and what topics or research questions are included in each will help immensely when it comes to your writing. Think of this as a form of “reverse engineering”. This allows you to formulate a structure and think through your topic and how you are going to research, answer and make your argument. Although it’s not necessary to include a reference to this front matter in your table of contents, different universities have different policies and guidelines.Īlthough the table of contents is best completed after you have finished your thesis, it’s a good idea to draw up a mock table of contents in the early stages of writing. As a rule of thumb, your table of contents will usually come after your title page, abstract, acknowledgement or preface. Whether you’re completing a Bachelor’s or a postgraduate degree, the table of contents is a requirement for dissertation submissions. In this guide, we look at the do’s and don’ts of a table of contents this will help you process and format your dissertation in a professional way.Ī table of contents is a crucial component of an academic thesis. Adding a table of contents is simple and it can be inserted easily after you have finished writing your paper.

It helps the reader navigate (like a map) through your argument and topic points. When adding the finishing touches to your dissertation, the table of contents is one of the most crucial elements. Although you can complete a table of contents manually, many word processing tools like Microsoft Word enable you to format your table of contents automatically. A good table of contents should be easy to read, accurately formatted and completed last so that it is 100% accurate. The table of contents should list all front matter, main content and back matter, including the headings and page numbers of all chapters and the bibliography. Readers should be able to look at your table of contents page and understand immediately how your paper is organized, enabling them to skip to any relevant section or sub-section. The table of contents is an organized listing of your document’s chapters, sections and, often, figures, clearly labelled by page number.

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