Dissertators often have trouble formatting their documents to comply with the format and style requirements dictated by their institutions. Many dissertators fail to comply with the requirements of their style guides. Further, many dissertators don’t know how to use Word styles and waste valuable time formatting content (e.g., headings) individually instead of setting styles one time and applying with a click wherever they are needed. That means formats are applied inconsistently or incorrectly throughout their papers. Incorrect heading styles can derail your chances of getting approvals for your dissertation proposal or manuscript.

What is a style and why should we care?

In terms of fashion, style is one of those things we either have or we don’t (are you old enough to remember bellbottoms and hot pants?) In terms of academic style, though, style is available to anyone motivated enough to spend time with a style manual. A style manual is a book showing the formatting and writing requirements for specific disciplines. The two most common style guides in the humanities and social sciences are APA (American Psychological Association) and CMS (Chicago Manual of Style)/Turabian. The social sciences include psychology, business, and education.

American Psychological Association (APA)

Most social science dissertators are required to use the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (fondly known as APA). APA publishes this manual periodically to help academic authors write and format their documents. Currently, we are enjoying the sixth edition of this manual, published in 2010. When we talk about APA style, we are referring to the guidelines in the APA style manual. You can find information about the APA style manual on the APA website. [https://www.apa.org/] The manual can be purchased at most bookstores, and you can find used copies on Amazon and at your local library. APA maintains a helpful blog.

“When editors or teachers ask you to write in APA Style®, they are referring to the editorial style that many of the social and behavioral sciences have adopted to present written material in the field. APA Style was first developed in 1929 by a group of social scientists who wished to establish sound standards of communication. Since that time, it has been adopted by leaders in many fields and has been used by writers around the world.” (APA, n.d., para. 8)

What are APA Heading Levels?

Level 1: centered, bold, uppercase/lowercase (UC/LC)

Level 2: Flush left, bold, UC/LC

Level 3: Indented bold, LC, ending with a period (paragraph heading)

Level 4: Indented, bold, italic, LC, ending with period (paragraph heading)

Level 5: Indented, italic, LC, ending with period (paragraph heading)

Many institutions add a Level 0 to account for chapter title headings. That means the first APA heading level would be Level 1. Check with your institution’s guidelines before you format your paper with a Level 0 heading style.

See APA 6th ed., section3.03, p. 62 for examples.

Here’s something you may not realize: The APA manual (6th ed.) applies to journal articles, not to long documents like dissertation proposals and manuscripts. This means that institutions, departments, Committees, and Chairs interpret (and revise) APA style guidelines for long documents, leading to style inconsistencies.

As an editor, I see many adaptations of APA style. No matter what is indicated in the APA style manual, always follow your institution’s guidelines. The style guide takes precedence only in the absence of other direction. Your institution’s handbook, departmental templates, and personal preferences of your Committee and your Chair take precedence over the style guide. Many institutions have very specific formatting requirements. If you fail to comply, approval of your proposal may be delayed.

Applying APA style using Word styles

Whether we use Mac or PC versions, most of us use Microsoft Word to write our papers. Word is a software program produced by Microsoft. Microsoft is not affiliated with the American Psychological Association. When we talk about Word styles, we are referring to the commands we can apply to format (or style) elements of our document.

Using Word, we format our headings to comply with APA style or the style our institution requires us to use. It would be nice if we could just click Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on, to format our headings. Unfortunately, as you probably know, the built-in heading styles that come with Word do not comply with APA heading styles.

However, we can modify existing Word styles and add new styles to meet our needs. The most effective method of formatting headings in Word is to use Word styles to format headings to comply with APA heading styles. That is what I’ve done in these templates. You can purchase a preformatted Word template for only $0.99.

Suggestions

Get a copy of the most recently published style manual for your institution and program.
Read the style manual carefully. Compare it to your institution’s handbook and dissertation template. Note discrepancies.
When the style manual conflicts with your institution’s handbook, follow your institution’s handbook.
Download a template to avoid wasting time struggling with Word and APA style.

Sources

APA (American Psychological Association). (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association Washington, DC: Author. More information

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Books and resources from Love Your Dissertation

Resources

Eguides (free)

Worksheets (free)

Word Templates ($0.99 each)

Books

Applying Theory

Dissertators often struggle to choose and apply a theoretical framework to their research projects. In this helpful guide, I offer suggestions from my own experience. In addition, I reveal how other dissertators have applied theory successfully and earned their doctorates. Written in a friendly, nonscholarly manner, I demystify the challenges of applying academic theory to a research project. You will learn that theory is nothing to fear—in fact, we all use theory all the time! With the help of this powerful little book, you will learn to master theory and achieve your dream of earning your Ph.D.

Print version $15.99
Kindle version $7.99

Coming in 2019

Aligning the Elements

In the second book of the Desperate Dissertator Series, I dig into a common problem dissertators face when preparing their proposals: aligning the elements of the dissertation. The elements of the dissertation usually include the problem statement, the purpose statement, the research questions, the theoretical framework, and the methodology and methods. Aligning these elements means ensuring they logically flow from one to the next. Lack of alignment is possibly the main reason proposals are not approved. In this book, I offer some tips to help you align the elements and show what other dissertators have done to succeed (it could be easier than you think).

Resubmit! 28 ½ Reasons Why You Can’t Get Your Dissertation Proposal Approved

This comprehensive book is the missing link for dissertators who have struggled to get their proposals approved. This indispensable book bulges with insights, suggestions, examples, diagrams, and practical tips, written especially for the online dissertator who may receive little support during the proposal process. I present solutions to address twenty-eight potential reasons why you might be struggling to get your proposal approved. For example, you will learn how to write a clear problem statement, devise research questions and hypotheses, and align the elements of the proposal to facilitate speedy approval. I unlock the mysteries of Word and Excel to show you specifically how to use these tools for your proposals. Over 200 tables and figures show you exactly what to do. As a bonus, you will learn how to design a web-based survey and make a plan for fielding and analyzing the data. In this book, I cover it all to help you overcome obstacles and finish your dissertation.

Free templates and worksheets are available here.

Print version $29.99
Kindle version $9.99

A table of contents is an essential element of your proposal. All long documents must have a table of contents. It is placed in the front matter of the paper, before that crucial section break that separates the front matter from the body of the paper. We (Microsoft Word and I) fondly call it the TOC.

Let me say right now, never type a TOC! Let Word do the work for you. Seriously! I’m not joking. I don’t care what your institutional guidelines say. You can break the links later and format it to meet the institutional standard, but first, let Word do the heavy lifting. Once you’ve set all your headings and subheadings with Word styles, it only takes a few seconds to generate the TOC. If you try to type it, it will be rife with errors as you continue to work on your paper. We are only human, after all, and Word is, well, Word is Word.

Before you insert a TOC, though, you must do one very important thing: set the Word styles for your headings and subheadings.

Step 1: Apply Word styles

Your TOC is based on Word styles. Word styles are rich, complex … and mysterious, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore them. We need Word styles. You need them, I need them, all academic writers need them. If you can bring yourself to learn the basics of Word styles, then maybe you won’t have to fork over $500 to get your dissertation formatted by a professional editor like me. I know learning Word styles doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun, but it might not be as bad as you fear.

In the upper right corner of your Word window, in the STYLES command group, look for a dinky barely visible arrow ( Figure 1). Click it.

Figure 1. Open Word’s Style task pane.

A task pane will open along the right side of your Word window. It might look similar to the one in Figure 2, although it might show more or fewer styles, depending on the number of styles in your document and how your task pane is configured.

Figure 2. Word’s Style task pane (yours may look different).

Some heading styles are “built-in” to Word, but you can modify them. Heading levels start with Heading 1 (the highest level in your TOC). I’m not sure how many heading levels you can have, but I guarantee, for a typical dissertation, you will probably need only four. Maybe three, depending on how your institution guidelines determine the heading levels.

To apply a heading style, click anywhere in a line of text (or select the text) and click the heading level you want in the Style task pane. If you see some but not all the heading levels you want, click the Options button in the lower right corner of the Styles task pane and choose “Show next heading when previous level is used.” Word will always show you one level higher than the last level you applied.

Figure 3 shows a sample page of heading levels.

Figure 3. A sample page of Word heading levels

After you have applied your heading levels (Heading 1, 2, 3, and so on), Word can generate an accurate TOC. Open the Navigation pane (Click “Find” or Control+F). The Search pane has three tabs: Navigation is the tab on the left. You should see an outline view of all your main headings and subheadings (usually levels 1 and 2; see Figure 4). This is a preview of your TOC!

Figure 4. The Navigation pane shows main heading levels

Now finally, you are ready to insert your Table of Contents!

Step 2: Insert the Table of Contents

Before you insert your Table of Contents, note this: Wherever your cursor is, that is where your Table of Contents will appear, so make sure you insert it on the right page.

Find the TABLE OF CONTENTS button over on the left side of the REFERENCES RIBBON (Figure 5). You can just click it, but for most dissertations, that won’t be good enough (incorrect formatting).

Figure 5. Inserting the TOC—step 1

Click the DROP-DOWN ARROW and choose INSERT TABLE OF CONTENTS (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Inserting the TOC—step 2

The Table of Contents dialog box appears. Unless you have special formatting requirements, leave everything checked (show page numbers, right-align page number, show tab leader dots, from template, show three levels, and use hyperlinks instead of page numbers). If you set the heading styles correctly, you won’t need to click the OPTIONS button. Instead, choose MODIFY (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Inserting the TOC—step 3

Figure 8 shows a cascade of dialog boxes. Don’t freak out. This is the process we use to set the formats for each TOC level, one at a time.

The box at the far right is the original box shown in Figure 7. When you click MODIFY, the box in the middle comes up. This is where you choose what level you want to modify, starting with TOC 1. Click MODIFY.

The box on the left should be familiar if you have ever formatted a paragraph in Word. This is the place where you modify styles—line spacing, alignment, paragraph spacing—all that good stuff.

Your institution will have specific line spacing guidelines. This is where you can set double-spacing or single-spacing with a set amount of paragraph spacing before or after. Follow your institution’s guidelines.

Figure 8. Inserting the TOC—step 4

Figure 9 shows a typical format for TOC level 1.

Figure 9. Inserting the TOC—step 5

Now you are ready to format TOC level 2. When you click OK, you are returned to the middle box from Figure 7. Choose TOC 2. Click MODIFY (Figure 10). Set the indent for the second level of your TOC. Many institutions require a half-inch indent for each level. Some only require a quarter inch. Follow your institution’s guidelines.

Figure 10. Inserting the TOC—step 6

Remember, wherever your cursor is, that is where your Table of Contents will appear, so make sure you insert it in the right place. If you aren’t happy with it, follow the steps from Step 1 (insert Table of Contents) and go through the process again. Word will ask you if you want to replace the existing TOC. Say yes, otherwise you’ll end up with two. Figure 11 shows a finished TOC, with nonprinting characters showing so you can see how Word automatically inserted leader dot tabs and right-aligned all the numbers.

Figure 11. The finished Table of Contents (with nonprinting characters showing)

If you are feeling confident with styles, to save some time, you can choose TOC 1, TOC 2, TOC 3, etc. (one at a time) in the Styles task pane, right click on the style, and choose MODIFY to modify the formatting of each level. Formatting changes are immediate.

To update your Table of Contents

Pagination happens. To update your TOC to reflect revisions to your headings and page numbers, click anywhere in your TOC and press F9 (or right-click, choose UPDATE FIELD). Update often, and don’t forget to update the TOC before you submit your paper.

To delete your Table of Contents

Select the entire TOC and press the DELETE button.

You can find more information about using Word to format your dissertation in my book.

print: http://amzn.to/2emI0A1

kindle: http://amzn.to/2jeqpIZ

Category: Word styles

Get your dissertation done faster with an APA-formatted Word template