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Dissertation Formatting Checklist for Word — Before You Submit

Formatting errors are one of the most common reasons dissertation submissions are returned by graduate schools. Use this checklist to verify your Word document before the final submission deadline.

Or, if you'd rather fix everything in 60 seconds: use the free AI dissertation formatter.

✅ Page Setup

Margins: 1.25″ left and right, 1″ top and bottom (or confirm your institution's spec — some require 1.5″ left for binding)
Paper size: US Letter (8.5″ × 11″) for US institutions; A4 (210 × 297mm) for UK/EU/AU
Page orientation: Portrait throughout (landscape only for wide tables/figures, if permitted)
No extra blank pages between chapters

✅ Fonts and Typography

Body font: Times New Roman 12pt, Calibri 11pt, or Arial 11pt (confirm your style guide)
No mixed fonts — all body text uses the same typeface and size
Headings: Larger or bold, but within the same font family unless your style guide specifies otherwise
No decorative or sans-serif body fonts unless permitted

✅ Line Spacing

Double-spacing throughout the body (2.0 line spacing in Word)
Double-spacing in the reference list (APA 7, MLA) or single-spacing (Chicago footnote style — confirm)
Spacing before/after paragraphs set to 0pt (extra space between paragraphs is added by line spacing only)
Block quotations: Indented 0.5″ from left margin, double-spaced, no quotation marks

✅ Paragraph Formatting

First-line indent: 0.5″ for all body paragraphs (APA 7 / MLA) or no indent with blank line between paragraphs (some Chicago style)
Left alignment (not justified) for most academic styles; justified if permitted by your institution
No hanging spaces at the end of lines (check with ¶ marks visible)

✅ Headings

Heading 1: Chapter titles — consistent size, font, and position (often centered, bold)
Heading 2: Section headings — consistent formatting, different from Heading 1
Heading 3: Subsection headings — visually distinct from Heading 2
No manual bold/italic for headings — use Word's built-in Heading styles so TOC updates correctly
No heading at the bottom of a page with no body text following it (orphan headings)

✅ Page Numbers

Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3…) from the introduction or first chapter
Roman numerals (i, ii, iii…) for front matter (abstract, acknowledgements, TOC) if required
Consistent position: bottom center or top right on every page
No page number on title page (usually)
No page number on full-page figures (if your style guide requires this)

✅ Table of Contents

Generated from Heading styles (Insert → Table of Contents in Word) — not typed manually
Updated to reflect the final page numbers (right-click → Update Field → Update entire table)
Correct depth: Shows Heading 1, 2, and 3 (and possibly 4) but not lower-level styles
Matches actual chapter/section titles exactly — including capitalization

✅ Figures and Tables

Numbered consecutively: Figure 1, Figure 2… or Figure 1.1, Figure 1.2… per chapter
Caption below figures, caption above tables (APA 7 standard)
Referenced in text before they appear ("see Figure 3" or "Table 2 shows…")
List of Figures / List of Tables included after TOC if your institution requires it
Resolution: At least 300 dpi for print submission

✅ Reference List / Bibliography

Correct citation style applied consistently throughout (APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, IEEE, Harvard)
Hanging indents (0.5″) in reference list (APA 7 / MLA)
Alphabetical order by first author's last name (APA, MLA, Harvard) or numbered (IEEE, Chicago footnotes)
All in-text citations have a corresponding reference list entry
All reference list entries have a corresponding in-text citation
DOIs formatted correctly: https://doi.org/... (not dx.doi.org for APA 7)
No "Retrieved from" before URLs in APA 7 (unless content changes frequently)

✅ Front Matter

Title page: Dissertation title, your name, degree, department, institution, year
Abstract: On a separate page, within the word/character limit specified by your institution
Acknowledgements: Optional but common before the TOC
Declaration / Originality statement: Required by most universities

✅ Final Check

Spell-check run with correct language setting (US English / UK English)
All tracked changes accepted (Review → Accept All Changes)
All comments deleted (Review → Delete All Comments)
File saved as .docx (not .doc) for compatibility
PDF generated from the final .docx and reviewed for any layout issues

Fix Everything Automatically

If you've gone through this checklist and found issues — or if you'd rather just fix everything in one pass — the AI dissertation formatter handles most of it automatically:

Upload your .docx
Select Academic style
Choose your citation style (APA 7, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, Harvard)
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The AI normalizes headings, enforces double-spacing, corrects margins, regenerates the Table of Contents, and reformats the bibliography. Review the before/after diff to accept or reject individual changes before downloading.

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Dissertation Formatting Checklist for Word (2026) — Before You Submit