2018-2019 Student Catalog | Doctor of Ministry Program | Academic Program | Dissertation

Formatting

General Requirements
(Adapted from Turabian, Eighth Edition)

  • Margins. Since the dissertation will be bound double-sided, it needs one and a half inch margin on both the left and right side. Keep one inch margin on the top and bottom.
  • Typeface. Use Times New Roman, 12 font throughout the main text. The footnotes should be font 10.
  • Spacing. Except for the following items, the dissertation should be double-spaced: block quotations, lists in appendixes, Abstract, Acknowledgements. The following items should be single-spaced internally with a blank line between items: table of contents, lists of figures or tables, footnotes, bibliography. Put only one space following the terminal punctuation (period) of a sentence.
  • Pagination. Front matter needs to be numbered separately, using lowercase roman nemerals (i, ii, iii, iv, etc.) centered in the footer. However, do not number the title page. The rest of the text, including back matter is numbered consecutively with arabic numerals, starting with 1.
  • Placement. All front matter, pages in the text, and back matter that bears titles (such as the first page of a chapte) should have a page number in the footer, centered. All other pages in the text and back matter (that is, all subsequent pages in a chapter) appear flush right in the header.

Front Matter

  • Title Page. Use the same typeface (New Times Roman). Do not capitalize every letter but put the title of the dissertation and your name in boldface. See the sample pages in the hardcopy version of Dissertation Guidelines.
  • Copyright Page. Include the copyright notice as shown in sample pages near the bottom of the page following the title page.
  • Abstract.  Put a single-spaced abstract of one page after the introductory matters as shown in the sample pages in the hardcopy version of Dissertation Guidelines.
  • Acknowledgements. The acknowledgements should be single-spaced.
  • Table of contents. Begin with the items following the table of contents. List in order the chapters and other parts, including the back matter. However, list only first two levels of headings (chapters and subheads). Be sure that the style, wording, capitalization, numbers, and punctuation match exactly those in the dissertation. Give page nubmers only for the first page of each item. Chapters and subheads appear flush left, and page numbers flush right.

Text

  • Chapters. Unless agreed otherwise with your faculty advisor, use the layout of chapters suggested in this guideline.  Use arabic numerals for pagination. The first page of each chapter should have a page number centered in the footer. All subsequent pages in a chapter appear flush right in the header.
  • Headings and subheadings. Do not capitalize every letter in any headline. However, use the headline style capitalization (Turabian 22.3.1). Put two blank lines before the headlines and one line after the headline. Follow these styles for heading and subheadings:
    • First level. Centered, boldface, headline-style capitalization
    • Second level. Centered, regular type headline-style capitalization
    • Third level. Flush left, boldface, headline style capitalization
    • Fourth level. Flush left, regular type, headline-style capitalization
  • Paragraphs. First lines of all paragraphs should be indented. The rest of the text is flush left. Do not put a line between individual paragraphs.
  • Block quotations. Quotations of four lines or more should be indented and single-spaced.
  • Footnotes. The typeface should be New Times Roman, font 10. The footnotes should be numbered with arabic numerals, indented like other paragraphs. They should be single-spaced within the footnote but have a blank line dividing individual footnotes. The numbers should be consecutive, but each chapter should restart the numbering with note 1. Do not use superscripts for numbers in the footnotes but as regular text. Put a period and a space between the number and the text. Put a short rule between the last line of text and the first footnote on each page.
  • Citation style. Northeastern Seminary D.Min. Dissertations follow the notes-bibliography style as presented in Turabian 16 and 17. For formatting the citations in the footnotes, follow the examples labeled N. For repeated citations, use shortened notes. To shorten a citation to a work cited in the immediately preceding note, you may use ibid. For the titles of journals, omit The. For journal articles and encyclopedia entries, give the full scope of pages in the first citation. If you cite a specific page, add "esp. xx."

Back matter

  • Appendix. All the charts, tables, or questionnaires that would unnecessarily interrupt the text of the dissertation should be placed in the appendix. For their formatting, follow the requirements suggested for the chapters.
  • Bibliography. List all resources cited in the footnotes. Use a hanging indentation: the first line is flush left, and all following lines are indented like a paragraph. The bibliography entries are single-spaced within with a line dividing individual entries. List the resources alphabetically by the last name of the author or editor. If you have more than one resource by the same author, arrange the entries alphabetically by the title. For all entries after the first, replace the author's name with a long dash, called a 3-m dash (see Turabian 21.7.3).