Preparing and Submitting Your Thesis: Information Resources

This guide will help you find library and campus resources for the preparation and submission of your thesis, extended essay or project.

Note: "Thesis" also includes projects and extended essays, as publication standards are the same for all these types of graduate degree work.

Quick Links

Online Submission Service - register your coming submission of a thesis/project of extended essays here
Top Ten Things You Need to Know Early
Labour-Saving Tricks in MSWord
Your department's specialized Liaison Librarian
Student Learning Commons: Assistance for graduate students
Thesis Defence Room FAQs
For more help, scroll down.

Reviewing, completing and submitting your thesis, extended essays or project

Always obtain the newest editions for the current academic term.

Deadlines 2009-2010. Library deadlines only. New and important changes in 2009-2010 academic year. For earlier, department-based deadlines, consult the Graduate Assistant in your department.
Review guidelines and checklist
Last Steps
Reviewing Your Own (7663 K)
- PDF too large for a quick download? Trouble opening on your computer? Try these:
- Part 1 General guidelines, added documents and preliminary pages - 2676 K
- Part 2 Main body pages - Chapters 1-5 - General set-up and headings - 2125 K
- Part 3 Main body pages - Chapters 6-11 - Paragraph, line spacing, fonts, tables, graphics, colour, paper, printing, and more, plus Endnotes and Bibliography 1605 K
- Part 4 Appendices and further details: Summary checklist of requirements, inclusion of documents with signatures, landscaped pages, placement of landscaped pages, frontispiece, CD/DVD appendix, etc. - 1844 K
Thesis Checklist for LaTex Users. Quick guide to the few issues specific to preparing SFU theses in LaTeX
Debugging Differential Page Numbering. Correcting that disastrous MSWord glitch if it occurs
Final Tidying. Cleaning up those formatting glitches and frustrations
Problems printing from PDFs. Shrinking, scaling and A4 paper defaults in PDFs (LaTeX and MSWord)
Keywords. How to select the best search terms for library catalogue and internet searches
Saving your document as a PDF. Several quick ways to access a PDFmaker to create a PDF of your thesis.
Extra copies of your thesis. For personal, supervisor, departmental use. Library no longer handling "discretionary" copies
Dean of Graduate Studies. Regulations governing completing a thesis, including use of an editor.
More help below.

Contact Information

For further assistance with thesis format and submission questions, contact Penny Simpson, Assistant for Theses, email to thesis_assistant@sfu.ca. Tel: 778.782-4747 (cannot return long distance calls).
To find the Thesis Office, click here. To find Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby campus map, click here.

Topics:

Early Assistance in the Thesis Process (click here)

Resources at the Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies
Research, library, and other skills
Writing and editing skills
Using a template from the start for any paper can save 1/3 the labour of writing
Bibliographies, reference lists and citation styles
Early considerations in using copyrighted materials
Access to databank of freely publishable images

Official Regulations, Forms and Licences (click here)

Deadlines
Regulations
Copyright
Approval pages, guidelines, and their variations
Licences required for submission of theses, projects, extended essays
Postponement of publication / Withhohlding from the Online Institutional Repository: information and forms

Help with Formatting Skills in MSWord (click here)

What MSWord formatting skills do you need to have?
Youtube video: Why you need added skills and a template for graduate paper/thesis production. W
MSWord formatting skills
Strategies for figures and tables
Applying a template to an existing document
Changing over to MSWord 2007
Online MSWord help beyond SFU Library
For Mac users

Helpsheets by Topic (click here)