uni10 Common Thesis Formatting Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)
You’ve spent months — maybe years — researching and writing. The last thing you want is for your thesis to be rejected by the graduate office because of formatting errors.
It happens more often than students expect. Formatting requirements exist for a reason, and graduate offices enforce them strictly. The good news: most mistakes are entirely preventable if you know what to look for.
Here’s a checklist of the 10 most common thesis formatting mistakes, why they happen, and how to avoid them before you submit.
1. Inconsistent Heading Styles
What it is: Different chapters or sections use different fonts, sizes, spacing, or capitalization for headings — even when they should match.
Why it happens: Thesis documents are written over months. You copy-paste from notes, papers, or earlier drafts. Formatting drifts.
How to fix it: Use named styles consistently (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 in Word; defined commands in LaTeX). Never manually bold or resize heading text — change the style definition instead, and it updates everywhere.
2. Wrong Margin Sizes
What it is: Margins that don’t match the university’s required dimensions — often 1 inch all around, or 1.5 inches on the binding side.
Why it happens: Default software margins don’t always match institutional requirements. Students assume the default is correct.
How to fix it: Check your graduate school’s style guide before you start writing. Set margins once at the document level. Don’t adjust them section-by-section.
3. Page Numbering Errors
What it is: Page numbers that start on the wrong page, use the wrong format (roman vs arabic numerals), or appear in the wrong position (header vs footer, centered vs right-aligned).
Why it happens: Most graduate schools require preliminary pages (title page, abstract, table of contents) to use lowercase roman numerals (i, ii, iii) and body pages to use arabic numerals (1, 2, 3). The title page often has no visible number at all. This multi-section page numbering setup confuses many students.
How to fix it: Use section breaks in Word or the appropriate LaTeX commands to create independent page number sequences. Test this early — don’t leave it to the final week.
4. Missing or Malformed Table of Contents
What it is: A table of contents that’s incomplete, manually typed, doesn’t match actual page numbers, or isn’t formatted according to school requirements.
Why it happens: Students build the TOC by hand, then forget to update it after adding or rearranging content.
How to fix it: Generate the TOC automatically using your software’s built-in tools (Word’s “Table of Contents” feature or LaTeX’s \tableofcontents). Update it as a final step before submission — never manually type page numbers into a TOC.
5. Improper Citation Formatting
What it is: Citations that don’t conform to the required style (APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, etc.), mix styles inconsistently, or have missing fields (no publisher, no DOI, wrong date format).
Why it happens: Students switch citation managers mid-project, manually edit references, or don’t realize their department has a specific style requirement.
How to fix it: Confirm your citation style with your department and use a dedicated reference manager (Zotero, Mendeley, or BibTeX in LaTeX) from day one. Never manually type references — let the manager generate them. Do a final pass to verify every source.
6. Non-Standard Fonts or Font Sizes
What it is: Using fonts not approved by your graduate school, or mixing multiple fonts in the body text. Common violations: using 11pt instead of 12pt, or using a stylish font that seems professional but isn’t on the approved list.
Why it happens: Students want their thesis to look polished. Some assume any readable, professional-looking font is acceptable.
How to fix it: Your graduate school’s style guide specifies acceptable fonts explicitly. Common approved fonts include Times New Roman, Arial, and Garamond. Set your body font once at the document level. Use the same font throughout — do not mix body fonts.
7. Inconsistent Line Spacing Across Chapters
What it is: Some chapters use double spacing, others use 1.5 spacing. Or block quotes and footnotes aren’t formatted to the required spacing (often single-spaced even when the body is double-spaced).
Why it happens: Chapters written at different times inherit different templates or settings. Copy-pasted text often brings its own spacing.
How to fix it: Set line spacing at the document or paragraph style level — not manually for each section. When you paste text from another source, use “Paste and Match Formatting” to inherit your document’s styles, not the source’s.
8. Figures and Tables Not Properly Captioned or Listed
What it is: Figures or tables with no captions, captions in the wrong format, or figures that aren’t included in the List of Figures / List of Tables.
Why it happens: Students add figures quickly during drafting and forget to apply the correct caption style. The List of Figures is often an afterthought.
How to fix it: Apply the correct caption style immediately when you insert every figure and table. In Word, right-click → Insert Caption. In LaTeX, use \caption{} inside the float environment. Generate your List of Figures and List of Tables automatically — never manually.
9. Abstract Word Count Exceeded
What it is: An abstract that runs over the university’s maximum word count — typically 150–350 words depending on the institution and degree level.
Why it happens: Students draft a thorough abstract and don’t check the limit until late in the process. Abstract limits vary significantly by school.
How to fix it: Look up your institution’s abstract word limit early. Write the abstract last (when you know exactly what’s in the thesis), and count words before finalizing. A tight, well-edited abstract is better than a long one that gets flagged.
10. Ignoring University-Specific or Regional Requirements
What it is: Missing requirements that are unique to your institution, faculty, or region — and therefore easy to overlook in generic guides.
Why it happens: Students rely on general thesis writing advice online, which may not reflect their school’s specific rules.
Common examples:
- Québec universities (such as Université de Montréal, Université Laval, McGill, UQAM) often require a French-language abstract (résumé) in addition to an English one, even for English-language theses.
- Some faculties require a signed declaration page or supervisor approval form embedded in the document.
- Certain programs require specific front matter ordering (abstract before acknowledgements, or vice versa).
- Some schools specify paper size, binding type, or print resolution for figures.
How to fix it: Go directly to your graduate school’s official thesis submission guidelines — not department documentation, not a friend’s thesis. Read the complete requirements. Check whether your faculty has supplementary guidelines on top of the university’s general rules.
Catch These Mistakes Before Your Examiner Does
Working through this checklist manually is time-consuming — especially when you’re already exhausted from writing. The best approach is to start from a template that already meets your university’s requirements, so you don’t have to build compliance from scratch.
Uniformat provides professionally designed thesis templates for both Word and LaTeX, built to meet graduate school formatting standards. Uniformat’s AI-assisted compliance tools automatically flag common formatting errors — inconsistent styles, wrong margins, missing elements — before you submit.
Start with the right template. Submit with confidence.
Formatting your thesis shouldn’t be the hardest part of getting your degree. Uniformat helps Master’s and PhD students produce submission-ready theses — in both Word and LaTeX — without the formatting headaches. Visit uniformat.ca.