Preliminary pages of a

thesis
 Table of contents

• The Table of Contents (TOC) is an organized listing of the

chapters and major sections of your document.  Readers will
immediately be able to see how your manuscript is organized
and then skip down to sections that are most relevant to them. 
A clear, concise, and well formatted TOC is the first indicator of
a good research paper.
• To save yourself some time in making your Table of Contents,
be sure that you use font styles. 
https://
shsulibraryguides.org/thesisguide/tableofcontents#s-lg-box-102
16061
CHECKLIST FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Appropriately formatted
• Lists all main sections of the document starting with the
Dedication page.  If the Dedication page is not used, then starts
with the Abstract page.
• Lists the titles of each chapter, plus all Heading Level 2's -- these
are the main sections within each chapter.  Do not list any
subsections.
• All titles and headings match what appears in the text exactly.
• All page numbers are correct.
 List of tables and figures
• The purpose of tables and figures in documents is to enhance your
readers' understanding of the information in the document;
usually, large amounts of information can be communicated more
efficiently in tables or figures. Tables are any graphic that uses a
row and column structure to organize information, whereas
figures include any illustration or image other than a table.
• Visual material such as tables and figures can be used quickly and
efficiently to present a large amount of information to an
audience, but visuals must be used to assist communication, not to
use up space, or disguise marginally significant results behind a
screen of complicated statistics. 
 LIST OF TABLES
• Title of First Table in Headline Style Capitalization
• In Headline Style Caps, Capitalize All Significant Words (and First
Word)
• Capitalize All Significant Words in a Multiple-Word Hyphenated
Phrase
• Wording of Table Titles Should Match Exactly in Text and List of
Tables
• Leave One Blank Line Between Each Table Title in the List of
Tables
• If Table Title Is Longer than One Line, Use Single Line Spacing and
Indent Second Line More
https://www.csulb.edu/thesis-and-dissertation-office/list-of-tables-list-of-figures
 LIST OF FIGURES
• Caption of first figure in sentence style capitalization
• In sentence style caps, capitalize the first word and any word that
would be capitalized in a sentence (proper nouns or adjectives such as
California or American)
• Wording of figure captions should match exactly in text and list of
figures
• Leave one blank line between each figure caption in the list of figures
• In list of figures, include all words in the caption up to the first period
• If figure caption is longer than one line, use single line spacing and
indent second line further
https://www.csulb.edu/thesis-and-dissertation-office/list-of-tables-list-of-figures
 abstract
• It is composed of 250-300 words.
• it is likely the first substantive description of your work read by an external
examiner. You should view it as an opportunity to set accurate expectations.
• It presents all the major elements of your work in a highly condensed form.
• The primary function of your thesis (and by extension your abstract) is not to
tell readers what you did, it is to tell them what you discovered. Other
information, such as the account of your research methods, is needed mainly
to back the claims you make about your results.
• Approximately the last half of the abstract should be dedicated to
summarizing and interpreting your results.

https://www.sfu.ca/~jcnesbit/HowToWriteAbstract.htm