BINDURA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION
FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
GUIDELINES FOR WRITING RESEARCH PROJECTS/DISSERTATIONS FOR
UNDERGRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS
Length of Thesis
The length of a dissertation should on average be between 15 000 and 25 000 words (about 30 to 50
pages). This does not include footnotes, references, or appendices nor does it include equations,
tables, diagrams and other illustrations.
Preparation of Thesis
The thesis is not to contain any work that has been presented for any degree at any other institution
except with the supervisor’s written approval.
Typing
Typing and binding of the thesis is the responsibility of the candidate. For the main text, the line
spacing should be 1.5 and the font size should be 12, of type Times New Romans.
The thesis must be typed on A4 paper and only one side of the paper may be used.
Margins must be 2.5 centimetres on the binding edge and 2 centimetres on the outer edges to allow
for binding and trimming.
The thesis must be written in English (UK).
Use of the first person should always be avoided, that is, use of words such as “I” and “We”.
Use standard international (SI) units where applicable.
Binding
Thesis for marking must be spirally bound, and copies for the library should be executive bound.
Layout
Layout refers to the presentation format that the dissertation or thesis should follow.
The thesis should incorporate the following:
Title page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Table of contents
List of figures
List of tables
List of acronyms and abbreviations
Main text
References
Appendices
Title Page
The title should consist of:
o Name of the institution (Bold Caps, Font Size of 16 and of type Times New Roman).
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o Name of department (Bold Caps, Font Size of 14 and of type Times New Roman).
o Title of dissertation (Bold Caps, Font Size of 12 and of type Times New Roman).
o The university logo.
o Student name and registration number.
o The following clause “A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of
the Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Environmental Science and academic unit”.
o Date of submission
o NB: Everything is centred and evenly spaced to fill the whole page.
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BINDURA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT
TITLE OF DISSERTATION/THESIS
STUDENT NAME
(REGISTRATION NUMBER)
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
OF THE BACHELOR OF (DEGREE PROGRAMME)
(ACADEMIC UNIT)
Date: mm/yyyy
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Abstract
The abstract must not be more than one single spaced page.
Table of Contents
The heading must be of font 16, caps, bold and centred. Headings should be up to three stages and
computer generated. The general presentation must be as follows:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENT PAGE
CHAPTER # PAGE
Main Text
The main text should consist of six chapters namely
o Chapter 1 – Introduction
o Chapter 2 – Literature review
o Chapter 3 – Methodology
o Chapter 4 – Results
o Chapter 5 – Discussion
o Chapter 6 – Conclusions and Recommendations
Numbering System
The title page should not be numbered.
All the sections from dedication to the list of acronyms and abbreviations should be numbered in
roman numerals and those from the main text to the appendices are numbered in Arabic and should
be centred at the bottom of the page.
Figures and tables should be numbered in reference to their respective chapters, e.g the first table in
Chapters 1 is numbered Table 1.1.
Headings
All headings should be of type Times New Roman, bold, caps and of size 16. Subheadings such as
Introduction, Literature Review, etc should be of size 14, font type Times New Roman, bold and in
caps. Any other titles should be of font size 12, bold and in caps.
References
References for textbooks should be listed as follows:
Name of Author, Initial. (Year) “Title”, Edition, Publishing House, City, Page Numbers.
When citing a reference in the main text, the name of the author and year should be specified e.g
Surname (Year).
References for journals should be listed as follows:
Name of Author, Initial. (Year) “Title”, Name of Journal (italics), Volume, Page Numbers.
When citing a journal in the main text, the name of the author and year should be specified e.g
Surname (Year).
References for websites should be listed as follows:
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Name of Author, Initial. (Year) “Title”, Website address, e.g Author(s), Initial(s) (Year) “Title”,
Website address.
When citing a website in the main text, the name of the author and the date it was accessed should
be specified.
Direct quotes should include name of author, year of publication and page number as follows:
(Author, Year: page number).