JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY, HYDERABAD

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

GUIDELINES FOR THE PREPARATION OF M.TECH THESIS PROJECT
REPORT
Introduction:
The guidelines given below apply to M.Tech. dissertation project reports
and are meant to enforce uniformity and style in the preparation and
production of these documents. Being a minimum set of instructions, they
should be scrupulously followed. In drafting these instructions it is assumed
that students have access to word-processors and are using them rather
than manual typewriters, which go a long way in ensuring quality of
presentation.
The instructions given are, for the

most part, compliant in nature. A conscious attempt has however been

made to identify errors frequently committed by students, knowingly or
unknowingly, and in order to prevent the recurrence of such mistakes and
wrong practices, instructions of a preventive nature are also included, often
in the Explanations which supplement many of the Instructions.
1. The thesis/project report should be produced to the standard A4 size
(210mm x 297mm) except for minor trimming, if necessary.
A suitable text grid for A4 size paper would be 165mm x 250mm, with
margins of 30mm and 25mm at the left and top, respectively.
2. The title of the thesis should be precise and should not exceed 3 lines.
Different letter size may be used for each line depending upon the
relative importance of the parts of the title.
3. The practice of putting the name of the Guide/s below that of the
author is explicitly prohibited.
4. The name of the Institute must be correctly and completely stated at
the foot of the cover page as:
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
HYDERABAD 500085 (A.P.)
5. All entries on the cover page must be center-justified i.e., placed
symmetrically about the center.
6. The text material should be one and half (1 1/2) spaced except for
References, Tables, Figure titles, etc. for which single space can be
used. The paragraphs should be separated by an additional half space,
if the length of the last line of the previous paragraph exceeds half the
full line width. The same also applies to References.
7. In hyphenated words there should be no empty space on either side of
the hyphen. On the other hand, a dash ( - ) to separate a matter from
the body, there should be an empty space on either side of the dash.
8. Every page of the thesis must be numbered expressed in most
cases and implied in the case of the inner cover page (which is a
replica of the outer cover) first pages of chapters, etc. The matter up to
the end of the preliminary material (Certificate, Acknowledgements,
Contents, Abstract, Notations, etc.) should be in lower case Roman
numerals (I, ii, iii,-----) placed at the bottom, and that from the text
proper in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, -----) placed at the top.
Photographs may be treated as figures and as such may be numbered
serially with the other figures. It will however be convenient to
sequence the photographs in such a way that they can be pasted
together on sheets thicker than those used for the rest of the text.
Such sheets should be serially numbered with the rest of the sheets.
9. The text material under a chapter should be divided into Sections and
Subsections and the same should be numbered with extended decimal
fractions starting with the chapter number. While the titles of Sections
should be fully in upper case letters, that of Subsections will have only
the first letters of each word (conjunctions such as and , excluded) in
upper case. A further subdivision, if necessary, can be given with the
first letter of the first word alone in upper case.
NOTE: The body of thesis should not contain any matter, text or tables
reproduced directly taken from text books, publications, internets etc.
Figures/Tables/graphs if taken from literature should be suitably referenced
and properly acknowledged.

10.
Mathematical equations should be removed from the running
text and placed in separate lines with centre-justification (this does not
mean that the symbol = will coincide with the centre of the text grid.)
like text sections, figures and tables, they should be numbered serially
within each chapter, starting with the chapter number. (like, for
example, 3.2 where 3 is the chapter number and 2, the serial
number of the item concerned). The equation number alone should be
entered within brackets and placed on the same line as that of the
equation, merging with the right hand margin. The above items should
be cited in the text, for example, as, Sec.2.1, Fig.3.2, Table 4.5 and Eq.
(1.7).
11.
While the Figure number and Title must be placed below the
Figure, the Table number and the Title of the Table must appear above
the Table.
12.
Figures and Tables should preferably be inserted in the text close
to where they are first cited in the text but without breaking
paragraphs for this purpose or else, collected at the end of the
chapter, with Tables preceding Figures.
13.
Figures and Tables which on account of their proportion need to
be placed lengthwise, must face outwards and not inwards as
frequently seen.
14.
SI units alone should be used, with the correct symbol. The use
of British and even MKS units should be avoided; if, however, the
occasion strongly demands, the latter may be entered within
parenthesis after the SI unit.
15.
Reference must start with the surname of the author followed by
the other names (first and middle) in initials. This is immediately
followed by the year of publication put in parenthesis. In the case of a
Journal paper this is followed by the title of the paper, the name of the
journal, volume and number of the issue and ended with the pages
(pp. for pages) within which the same appears. In the case of a Book,
the name of the author (as above) and the year of publication in
parenthesis are followed by the title of the book, edition (if second or
later) name of the publisher, place of publication and the total number
of the pages, or the sequence of pages referred to, whichever applies.
The first letters of the titles underlined (preferably italicized). (Note:
Underlining in a manuscript in manual typing is an instruction to the
printer to put the matter in italics). In the case of the title of the paper,
which may be put within inverted commas, the first latter of the first
word alone need be in upper case.
16.
References are to be listed alphabetically without serially
numbering them. The surname of the author without the initials but
with the year in parenthesis following it is to be used for citing the
reference in the text.
17.
Where the number of authors exceeds two, the name of the first,
author may be fallowed by et al. in place of the second and
subsequent authors, both in References and citations.
18.
British spelling of words alone is to be recommended for use in
the thesis. Attention is drawn to the fact that use of American spell
check programs leads to errors in spelling such as color (for
colour), labor (for labour), behavior (for behaviour), center ( for
centre), etc.
19.
The contents of a thesis which may not have been published can
be quoted as a reference in another thesis, like any other references.
2

Borrowing material from another thesis without acknowledging the

source as a reference amounts to plagiarism which is criminal act. One
may notice in this context that every thesis carries a certificate and an
undertaking by student that the thesis is a record of bonafide work
carried out by the student concerned and that the contents of the
same have not been submitted for the award of any other degree or
diploma.
20.
Two copies of Thesis/Project Report should be submitted for
evaluation. The total number of copies including the students copy
and the copy/copies for the guide/s can be accordingly decided.
21.
Students are advised to note that violation of the above
provisions will result in the non-acceptance of the Thesis/Project
Report.
Cover color: Blue.
1. Binding:
The Dissertation / thesis shall be properly bound, using hard cover. The bound front
cover should indicate in Gold Embossed letter with the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.

(Title) Times New Roman 18 font

M.Tech in Structural Engineering 14 font
(Name of the candidate) 14 font
Bottom
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF

ENGINEERING
HYDERABAD 500 085, A.P., INDIA
Month, Year
Two plain blank papers should be provided at the beginning and at the
end.
2. Third page:
Third page should contain the following:
1. .(Title)
2. Thesis / Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the award of the degree of M.Tech on
.
BY
..
(Name of the candidate)
3. Bottom
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF
ENGINEERING HYDERABAD,
HYDERABAD 500 085, A.P., INDIA
3

Month, Year

3. Fourth page:
The fourth page should contain a certificate signed by the Supervisor in the following
format.
CERTIFICATE
This

is

to

certify

that

the

thesis

dissertation

entitled

.
....that is being submitted by Sri / Smt. /
Ms. in partial fulfillment for the award of M.Tech
in ...., to the Department of Civil Engineering,
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University College of Engineering Hyderabad, is
a record of bonafide work carried out by him / her under our guidance and
supervision.
The results embodied in this thesis have not been submitted to any other
University or Institute for the award of any degree or diploma.

Signature of Head,
Signature of Supervisor
Department of Civil Engineering
Name and Designation
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological College of Engineering Hyderabad,
Hyderabad 85
4. Undertaking from the Student:

D E C LAR AT I O N
by the P.G. (M.Tech) Student
I hereby declare that the Report of the P.G. Project Work entitled which
is being submitted to the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad, in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Master of Technology in
., Department of Civil Engineering, is a bonafide report of the work
carried out by me. The material contained in this Report has not been submitted to any
University or Institution for the award of any degree or diploma.

(Register Number, Name, Signature of the Student, Phone No. & E-mail I.D)
4

Department of Civil Engineering

Place: JNTUCEH, Hyderabad

Date:

5. Sixth page:
The sixth page may include the Acknowledgement.

6. Seventh page:
The seventh page may contain an abstract of the Dissertation / Thesis. The
candidate may emphasize here his contributions.

7. Pages 8TH, 9TH :

In these pages the candidate must provide a table of contents, list of tables,
list of figures, and photographs and notation.
NOTE:

All the above pages are to be numbered in Roman numerals of

lower case and the rest of the thesis should have Arabic numerical
numbers.

8. Number of pages:
In case the number of pages in the thesis (excluding the initial pages)
exceeds 250, the candidate should get it printed on both sides of paper.
9. Arrangement of Chapters:
The following is suggested format for arranging the Dissertation / Thesis
matter into various chapters. However this arrangement can be changed to suit
the particular Research work.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Introduction
Literature Survey
Theoretical Analysis
Experimental Investigations/Numerical Analysis
Experimental/Analysis Results
Discussion of Results
Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations
Reference / bibliography
Appendices (if any)

10. The arrangement of paragraph in a Chapter:

Each topic Title in a chapter should be properly numbered for example: 2.1,
2.2. etc., (Bold and Upper case) where, the first digit represents the Chapter
number, and second digit, the topic Title number.
Sub- topic titles, if any, may be indicated as 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.13, etc., (Bold and
title case)
i.e., the first digit representing the chapter, the second representing
the topic title and the third representing the sub - topic title.

11. Photographs and Tables:

The photographs and tables occurring in a chapter may be serially numbered

as Fig: 1.1, 1.2 etc., where the first digit represents the chapter, the second digit
represents figure number.
The photograph may be represented as: plate 1.1, 1.2 etc., the first digit
representing chapter and the second representing the photograph number.

12. Graphs:
The graph should clearly indicate the points which are used for drawing the curve or
curves.

13. Bibliography or References:

The following format may be used for the Bibliography / References:
Note: *Printout taken from Internet are prohibited to be incorporated in thesis*.
14. For Book:
Sl. No

Author (s)

Book

Publisher

Year

Pages (PP)

Example:
1. Srinivasulu, P., and Vaidyanathan, C.V., Hand Book of Machine Foundations, Tata
McGraw-Hill,
New Delhi, Feb.1976, pp. 220 246.
15. For Journal / Proceedings:
Sl. No

Author (s)

Paper

Journal

Vol. No,

Year

Pages (PP)

Example:
1. Hognestead, E., Hanson, N.W., and McHenry, D., Concrete stress distribution in
ultimate strength
design, ACIJ, Vol.52, No.4, Dec.1955, pp. 455 480.
Note: They must be presented in the alphabetical order.