The University of New South Wales

School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

2010
BE THESIS HANDBOOK
This set of documents contains information relevant to
MMAN4010 Thesis A
and
MECH4004 or MMAN4020 Thesis B
and
BIOM5001 Thesis A and BIOM5002 Thesis B

BE Thesis Co-ordinator: Dr Mahiuddin Chowdhury

Room ME118
Telephone: 9385 4119
Email: m.chowdhury@unsw.edu.au

BE Thesis Administration website:

www.mech.unsw.edu.au/content/current_students/BE_Thesis.cfm?ss=3

February 2010
 CONTENTS
Page

SECTION A INTRODUCTION 1

SECTION B ESSENTIAL DATES 3

SECTION C IMPORTANT NOTES 4

SECTION D WRITING OF BE THESES 9

SECTION E PRODUCTION AND SUBMISSION SPECIFICATIONS 10

SECTION F PREPARATION HINTS 14

SECTION G THESIS PRESENTATION CHECKLIST 15

 - 1-

SECTION A

INTRODUCTION

BE Thesis is a major part of the undergraduate curriculum and it has a significant bearing
on the final grade of your BE degree.

The thesis comprises two parts: MMAN4010 Thesis A and MECH4004 or MMAN4020
Thesis B. Thesis A may be started either at the beginning of Semester 1 or at the beginning
of Semester 2.

MMAN4010 Thesis A is to be taken in the second-last semester required for the

completion of all requirements for the award of the degree. Students must have
successfully completed 138 UoC before they may enrol in Thesis A.

The available topics are displayed on the notice board outside Room L203 in Willis
Annexe, as well as on the School’s BE Thesis Administration website, in October (for
Semester 1 start) and mid-June (for Semester 2 start) each year. These topics are offered by
the members of the academic staff of the School who will act as supervisors. Students are
required to complete a Thesis Project Allocation Form indicating five choices in order of
preference. The topic finally allocated is decided by the supervisor, largely based on the
competence of the student for the particular project.

The School also encourages projects from industry in which case the mentor from industry
acts as one supervisor. However, in this case, one academic from the School must act as
co-supervisor. Some students prefer such industry-driven projects and normally those are
accepted. Alternatively, students may come up with their own idea for a thesis project.
For all projects outside of the topics displayed on the notice board and website, students
should attach a separate page to their Thesis Project Allocation Form giving the title of
the proposed thesis, the name of the supervisor(s) and a brief description of the project.
The School supervisor must sign this page saying they have agreed to supervise the student
on this topic. A topic number will be allocated later by the administrator.

After the allocation of a project the student should complete a BE Thesis Registration
Form.

MMAN4010 Thesis A, together with MECH4004 or MMAN4020 Thesis B, which is to be

taken in the following semester, requires each student to demonstrate managerial,
technical and professional skills in planning and executing an approved engineering
project within a stipulated time limit. Although each student is guided by a supervisor,
successfully planning, executing and reporting on the project is the sole responsibility of
the individual student.

On completion of MMAN4010 Thesis A, a Progress Report Form must be submitted to

the supervisor who will assess the report and grade the work as Satisfactory or Fail; and in
order to progress to MMAN4020 Thesis B the grade must be Satisfactory. It should be
noted that a Satisfactory grade in this course is provisional, pending successful completion
of MMAN4020 Thesis B during the next semester.
 - 2-

MECH4004 or MMAN4020 Thesis B is to be taken in the last semester required for the
completion of all requirements for the award of the degree, i.e. in the semester
immediately following that in which MMAN4010 Thesis A is taken. On completion of
MECH4004 or MMAN4020 the student is to submit their thesis in accordance with the
procedure shown in Section E, “Production and Submission Specifications”.

The final grade for all the work in Thesis (both A and B) is contained in the mark for
MECH4004 or MMAN4020 Thesis B. The thesis is marked independently by two
examiners, one being the supervisor, and an agreed mark is the final score.

Note that, if the final score in the thesis is below Pass mark, the student must repeat the
entire thesis work, i.e. both MECH4003 or MMAN4010 Thesis A and MECH4004 or
MMAN4020 Thesis B. For a repeating thesis both the supervisor and the topic are to be
changed.

The following sections of this Handbook give the details about essential dates, important
notes, thesis specifications and other relevant information regarding thesis.

All forms are available from the General Office (Room ME108) and from the School’s BE
Thesis Administration website. The completed forms and the thesis volumes are to be
submitted to the General Office.

BIOM5001 Thesis A and BIOM5002 Thesis B will also be governed by the same rules and
regulations as described in this Handbook for MMAN4010 Thesis A and MECH4004 or
MMAN4020 Thesis B respectively. However, BIOMED thesis students deal with:

 their supervisor in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering if

their thesis is supervised exclusively by academic staff in this school; or
 the General Office of the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering if their
thesis is supervised by an academic staff member of that school.
 - 3-

SECTION B

ESSENTIAL DATES

All items must be submitted to the General Office (Room 108)

(1) BE THESES COMMENCED IN S1, 2010

Progress Report due between 31 May to 4 June 2010

As a general rule the submission deadline of the Progress Report is always the
last week of the semester of commencement.
The supervisor will grade your Progress Report. Your results will be issued in
your S1 2010 examination results. In the following semester, enrolment in
MECH4004 or MMAN4020 Thesis B or BIOM5002 Thesis B is permitted only if
a 'SY' (Satisfactory) is obtained in MMAN4010 Thesis A or BIOM5001 Thesis A
respectively.

Bound Thesis Volumes and CD Friday 22 October 2010

The final thesis submission is always by 1600 hours on the last day of
Semester 2 of the same year. See Section E for submission details.

(2) BE THESES COMMENCED IN S2, 2010

Progress Report due between 18 October to 22 October 2010

The submission deadline of the Progress Report is always the last week of the
semester of commencement.
After receiving your Progress Report your supervisor will grade it and the results
will be issued in your S2 2010 examination results. In the following semester,
enrolment in MMAN4020 Thesis B or BIOM5002 Thesis B is permitted only if
a 'SY' (Satisfactory) is obtained in MMAN4010 Thesis A or BIOM5001 Thesis A
respectively.

Bound Thesis Volumes and CD Friday 3 June 2011

The final thesis submission is always by 1600 hours on the last day of
Semester 1 of the following year. See Section E for submission details.

(3) THESIS CONFERENCE

Usually late September or early October

Dates will be announced by the Lecturer-in-Charge of MMAN4000
Professional Engineering, but are usually Thursday and Friday of Week 9 in
Semester 2.
 - 4-

SECTION C

IMPORTANT NOTES

Introduction
These notes are intended to provide information which you will need to ensure that your
thesis fulfils the administrative requirements. Failure to meet these requirements could
result in a reduced mark or even a failure.

The thesis (MMAN4010 Thesis A or BIOM5001 Thesis A and MECH4004 or MMAN4020

Thesis B or BIOM5002 Thesis B) is unique to your degree in that you are responsible for it
on an individual basis. Meeting the deadlines is your responsibility.

Progress Report
Your performance in MMAN4010 Thesis A or BIOM5001 Thesis A will be assessed from a
formal progress report, which should convince the reader that you have made effective
use of the 150–180 hours that a 6 unit-of-credit course implies. The report should be no
greater than ten pages. Details will depend upon the nature of your project, but the report
will typically contain:

1. Initial description of the project (as discussed with your supervisor).

2. Context of the problem — including, for example, a summarised literature search,
and comments on the significance of the project.
3. Progress to date, including difficulties encountered and your responses to those.
4. Proposed plan for future work with Gantt chart.

The report should tell the reader in a straightforward, direct but formal style, what the
project is, what you have done, and what you propose to do. It should be produced in
accordance with the requirements of the Standard Specification for the Presentation of
Student Written Assignments, available on the School’s BE Thesis Administration
website. In particular, it should demonstrate proper referencing techniques, and be spiral
bound or stapled like a booklet.

Through producing the report you will have early experience of some of the requirements
for producing a formal thesis, and receive feedback. Also, some of the report can be a first
draft for sections of your final thesis document.

The first page of this report, available on School’s BE Thesis Administration website,
should be stapled to the report. The report should be concise but explicit, and include a
Gantt chart showing the plan for the whole project. The report should allow the reader to
determine:

 what the project is about,

 what you have done already,
 what you plan to do, and
 how you plan to complete your work within available time and resources.
 - 5-

The report gives your supervisor the chance to appraise the progress you have made, and
give you feedback. You and your supervisor should agree on what needs to be done in
the next stages.

Failure to submit a progress report for MMAN4010 Thesis A or BIOM5001 Thesis A will
exclude you from continuing in MECH4004 or MMAN4020 Thesis B or BIOM5002 Thesis
B.

A student repeating the BE thesis must not choose the same topic which was allocated
previously. A similar topic will not be admissible. The repeating student must also
change supervisor. If there is any possibility of a misunderstanding or other difficulty, the
student should consult the Thesis Co-ordinator before a thesis topic is allocated.

Conference Presentation
A presentation based on your thesis project will be assessed as part of MMAN4000
Professional Engineering. In preparing your presentation, you should take the opportunity
to appraise the progress you have made and to prepare a strategy for the final stage of the
work. The thesis conference is an annual event and students commencing their thesis in
either Semester 1 or Semester 2 are to participate.

Submission
Theses are to be submitted by 1600 hours on the following dates. See Section E for
submission details.
Friday 22 October 2010 for students commencing Thesis B in S2, 2010
Friday 3 June 2011 for students commencing Thesis B in S1, 2011
The quality of the presented work is very important and great care must be taken with the
typing and presentation of graphs and diagrams; drawings should be to standard
engineering practice. Drawings submitted to the Workshop must be approved by the
officer-in-charge of the relevant laboratory. The English should be clear and grammatically
correct with a high standard of spelling and punctuation. Section G contains a useful list
of items you may wish to check before submitting your thesis.

There is no minimum length for a thesis, nor is there a maximum length. As a guide, most
theses are between 50 and 150 pages of text, plus appendixes. Marks will be deducted for
the inclusion of irrelevant material. This particularly applies to computer printout and
experimental recordings. The appendixes must be brief and should contain only material
which is indispensable but at the same time cannot be included in the text.

Deadlines are vital in all engineering activities and this is reflected in the marking system.
The conditions are listed below:
 1 to 4 weeks late after submission due date:
Deduction of marks at the fixed rate of 2 marks per day or part thereof (a
penalty may not be imposed during examination period or the weekends).
 Beyond 4 weeks but not exceeding 6 weeks late after submission due date:
Grade limited to 'Pass'.
 Beyond 6 weeks late after submission due date:
'Fail' unless ‘Withheld’ is granted beforehand.
 - 6-

As the preparation of your thesis always takes longer than expected, great care needs to be
taken to ensure it is ready on time. While the deduction of 2 marks per day may, in
exceptional cases, be reduced (see below), allowances may not be made for production
delays.

Circumstances Beyond Your Control

If you feel that a submission delay in your thesis (MECH4004 or MMAN4020 Thesis B) is
beyond your control, then you should contact the Thesis Co-ordinator in the first instance.
Depending on the seriousness and the validity of your situation, some action may be
supported.

The procedure is briefly outlined below.

1. Requests for consideration of circumstances that occurred during and before

Week 10 should be submitted by the end of Week 10. They can then be assessed
in good time and the student can adjust if extension is not granted.
2. Requests based on personal/medical claims are also to be submitted at the same
time to the UNSW system.
3. Requests are to be accompanied by specified documentation, guided by a
Request for Extension of BE Thesis Submission Deadline, available from the
School’s BE Thesis Administration website.
4. Requests will be promptly assessed by a panel of three, and determinations
reported by Wednesday of Week 11. It is the responsibility of the student to find
the outcome of his/her application and act accordingly.
5. Requests for consideration of circumstances that occurred during and before
Week 10 will not be accepted after the end of Week 10.
6. Requests for consideration of circumstances that occurred after Week 10 (and any
appeals) will be handled at the thesis meeting, after a similar application process.

The above procedure is primarily intended for a delay of up to a maximum of six weeks. If
you are unlikely to be able to submit within six weeks after the submission deadline,
which normally would result in an automatic failure, your application may be considered
for the status of ‘Withheld for Late Submission’. However, this status can only be granted
by the Thesis Review Meeting convened in November.

Unsatisfactory Original Submission

If your thesis is submitted on time but fails to meet the required standard, the Thesis
Review Meeting will either:
 grade your thesis ‘FAIL’, or
 grant you a ‘Withheld for Re-submission’.

Submission of 'Withheld' Theses

For both categories of 'Withheld' you will then be permitted to submit/re-submit within 12
weeks of the 'bound thesis' submission date. Any thesis that is not submitted by this last
date will be graded 'FAIL' and no allowances will be made. No thesis for a student
granted a 'Withheld' status will be eligible for a grade higher than 'PASS'.
 - 7-

Assessment
There are three aspects of your thesis taken into account when assessing its quality:

1. Organisation: How well you organise the project, how much meaningful
work you do, and how well rounded is the final product.
2. Quality: The quality of the thesis content, and the originality and
initiative involved.
3. Presentation: How well you present the material in the thesis.

Supervisor
The supervisor's role is to offer any reasonable guidance which you may require to
complete your thesis. The responsibility for the progress of the work and the content is
yours, not that of the supervisor. You should not expect your supervisor to carry out any
work for you. You should attempt to build a good working relationship with your
supervisor and meet regularly. Maximise the advantage you can gain from the supervisor's
experience.

Academic Staff
Academic staff are prepared to assist you in aspects of your thesis with which they are
familiar. You should take advantage of this pool of expertise. If you are taking advice
from a member of academic staff other than your supervisor then you should, as a
common courtesy, keep your supervisor informed.

Laboratory Staff
The laboratories are the responsibility of the staff-in-charge and you must operate within
the accepted practices of the laboratory concerned. You should not expect laboratory
staff to take responsibility for your thesis or carry out work for you. The laboratory staff
are competent and helpful; take full advantage of their experience.

If your project involves laboratory work, contact the officer-in-charge (OIC) of the
laboratory in which you will be working as soon as possible to discuss your requirements.
They will issue you with a Laboratory Access Approval (LAA) form which you must
complete and return to the OIC.

Before you start work in a laboratory or undertake any activity which might be considered
hazardous in any way, you must read and understand the practices and procedures
described in the Safe Working Manual, available on the “OHS & Security” section of the
School’s website.

Workshop
All student activities requiring manufacture in the Workshop should be discussed with the
Workshop personnel at the inception of the work. The Workshop personnel must have
the opportunity to advise and influence the design to help minimise assembly,
manufacture or functional problems.

The Workshop is usually in high demand. If you require the Workshop to manufacture
equipment essential to your thesis, then make sure that you discuss your requirements as
early as possible with the Workshop/Laboratory Manager. You should provide
 - 8-

engineering drawings which are firstly approved by the laboratory officer-in-charge. You
should make every effort to minimise the Workshop load by modifying existing equipment
rather than building from new, and by keeping your designs simple.

Laboratory Safety
All Year 4 undergraduate students working in the School’s laboratory building must
complete the Laboratory Safety Awareness course which is presented each semester.
Course dates for the year are placed outside each laboratory at the beginning of
Semester 1 and are also listed on the following Human Resources website. Register online
via:
www.hr.unsw.edu.au/ohswc/ohs/ohs_training_courses.html
 - 9-

SECTION D

WRITING OF BE THESES

The actual writing of a thesis depends on the topic and the activities undertaken during
the two semesters of work. However, as thesis is a formal document it must be written
according to a standard format.

One such format has been prepared for the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing
Engineering by The Learning Centre, UNSW. Each student must obtain a copy of the
following document:

Introduction to Thesis Writing — Structures and Processes

by
Pam Mort
The Learning Centre, UNSW (2002)

This document can be downloaded from the School’s BE Thesis Administration website.
 -10-

SECTION E

PRODUCTION AND SUBMISSION SPECIFICATIONS

1. All BE thesis students are required to submit copies of their thesis in the formats
shown below. Students who do not submit in all required formats will be denied
graduation until the requirements have been met.

CONFIDENTIAL THESES
If your thesis contains confidential information, in order to restrict it from viewing for two
years you must complete a Confidentiality Statement, available from the School’s BE
Thesis Administration website, and submit this statement with your thesis. Confidential
theses should not be uploaded to the database but should be submitted in all other
required formats. Clearly label the disc and/or its case as ‘CONFIDENTIAL’.

A. One spiral-bound copy

This copy will be returned to the author. The spine should be labelled with the
author’s initials and family name (a sticky label is sufficient). Students may
collect this copy from the General Office after the MECH4004 or MMAN4020
Thesis B results have been released. Copies not collected by the end of Week 1
in the following semester will be destroyed.

B. One hard-bound copy

This copy will be retained by the supervisor. The binding must be a permanent
hard cover of any colour as produced by bookbinders. Loose-leaf systems and
soft covers are not acceptable. It should be permanently lettered on the spine in
a durable material, giving the author’s name, the degree for which the thesis is
submitted, the year in which submitted and the letters ‘UNSW’. In addition, the
title of the thesis (or a shortened version of it) may be given. With the thesis in an
upright position as shelved, the lettering on the spine should either be upright or
oriented to appear so, when the viewer’s head is tilted to the left.

C. One PDF copy on a Compact Disc or DVD in a CD case*

(* ≈140mm × 125mm hard CD case)
This disc will be stored in the School’s archives. The disc should contain an
Adobe PDF copy of the thesis, including all appendixes, as one file. Name this
file “z1234567_Thesis”, with “1234567” being your student ID number. Any
auxiliary files may be included on the disc in different folders with a document
giving information about each of the folders. Make sure the file and/or disc
are not password protected. Label the disc as follows:
BE Thesis 20xx (submission year – see 6b on page 11)
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
UNSW
Initials and Family Name of author
Student ID number
Note that all computers in rooms ME206 and ME306 have a print queue
PDFCreator which you may use to create your PDF file. Send your Word file to
this printer queue and instead of being printed it will ask you where you want to
save your PDF document.
 -11-

D. One PDF copy uploaded to the School’s online database

After approval, this Adobe PDF copy will be made available online to UNSW
staff and students through the School’s BE Thesis Database. The file you upload
should have the same filename as that on your disc, i.e. z1234567_Thesis.
Make sure the file is not password protected and keep the final file size as
small as possible (see item 5b below).

o How to upload your thesis to the BE Thesis Database

1. Navigate to the following URL using your favourite web browser:
www.mech.unsw.edu.au/content/research_publications/BE_Thesis_Database.cfm?ss=6
2. Select the Student Upload option from the menu on the left.
3. Log on to the site using your student number (z1234567) and Unipass. Only students enrolled in
MECH4004 or MMAN4020 will be able to proceed past this point.
4. Read the instructions on the right-hand side of the screen before uploading the thesis file.
5. To upload the file, click on the “Browse” adjacent to the displayed form field and navigate to
your local computer to select your file, i.e. z1234567_Thesis (see section C on previous page).
Once you have selected the file, click on the “Upload” button to start the upload. Note that:
a. The system will ONLY accept a file in Adobe PDF format.
b. The file should NOT be a scanned document; rather, it should be created in a text editing or
word processing software and then converted or exported to a PDF document. Any images
contained in the document should be sized in an image package (e.g. Microsoft Paint) and
compressed into, for example, PNG format prior to PDF creation to keep the final file size
as small as possible.
c. Please combine all your thesis files into one PDF document before uploading to the
database, including sections such as the title page, acknowledgments, table of contents,
appendixes, etc.
6. Having uploaded the thesis file, you will be presented with a thesis information form to
complete. Please supply information in ALL of the fields and confirm that the uploaded file is the
correct file — if it is not then please click “Delete Thesis” and undertake the upload process over
again. When you have entered all of the information requested, select “Publish Thesis”.
When entering information into the fields:
a. Enter the Thesis Title in sentence case (upper-case on first letter of first word only). DO
NOT USE ALL UPPER-CASE! The title will appear in the database exactly as you entered it
and cannot be changed once submitted. If copying-and-pasting from the PDF document,
check that all lines of the title have pasted into the field, as often only one line at a time will
transfer. Note that hyphens in a thesis title sometimes cause the upload to fail if copied-
and-pasted; it is therefore recommended that these titles be keyed in instead.
b. Year and Session are the year and semester in which you are submitting your thesis. If you
are granted an extension to submit within 12 weeks from the 'bound thesis' submission date
and this results in you submitting early the next year or semester, select the year and
semester that you would have submitted your thesis had you not required an extension.
c. Select the Course Code in which you are enrolled: either MECH4004 or MMAN4020.
d. Select your main Supervisor from the drop-down menu. If your supervisor is not listed then
it will not be possible for you to upload your thesis. If this occurs, then please contact the
General Office and ask them to arrange for your supervisor’s name to be added.
7. Provided that all the information has been supplied and is valid you should receive a “Success”
message. Your selected supervisor will then receive email notification that you have submitted
your thesis.
8. Once you have successfully uploaded your thesis it will not be possible for you to upload it
again, so be sure that the file you upload is the final version. If, for any reason, you need to
replace the uploaded file, submit a new labelled disc to the General Office with a short note
attached explaining why the thesis file on the database needs to be replaced. Name the new
PDF thesis file “z1234567_Thesis_revised”. Include on the new disc any auxiliary files which
were on the original disc.
 -12-

Errors:
If the information provided in the thesis information form is incomplete or invalid, then the user will
see the following response from the Thesis Management System:
a. A failure message will be displayed.
b. The fields which are deemed to be invalid will be highlighted in yellow. Errors in any of
these highlighted fields will need to be rectified before the thesis is accepted by the system
for publication.
Remember:
 Student ID must have the preceding ‘z’ prefix and only ‘z’ prefixes will be accepted through
the student interface.
 Students must currently be enrolled in MECH4004 or MMAN4020 at the time of upload.
Searching the database:
Search of the BE Thesis Database is currently open to all members of the UNSW community but NOT
to the general public. If you wish to search the database, go to
www.mech.unsw.edu.au/content/research_publications/BE_Thesis_Database.cfm?ss=6
on the School’s website and select the “Search” link from the left hand menu. Log on to the site using
your student number (z1234567) and Unipass. There are two types of search available:
(1) “Keyword” search — Please enter the text that you wish to search for and then press the “Search”
button. The system will return all approved theses with those keywords in the search results
section of the page.
(2) “List” search — You may choose to list all published theses either by Date, Subject (MECH4004
or MMAN4020) or Student (author). Simply select the listing method and then click the “List”
button.

2. Paper must be ISO size A4 (210 x 297mm).

3. The thesis must be typed or printed using a letter-quality printer.

4. Typing must be double-spaced on one side of the sheet only.

5. Margins must be not less than 40 mm at the left edge (before binding), 30 mm at the
upper edge, 20 mm at the right edge and 20 mm at the lower edge (these are
standard UNSW theses specifications).

6. The thesis must include a title sheet headed:

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL AND MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING
(The above are not to be abbreviated. Do not insert the UNSW crest — this is not
an official UNSW publication, and so is not entitled to use the crest.)
Title of Thesis
Name of Author
Student ID
Bachelor of Engineering (or other degree for which the thesis is submitted)
Date of submission (Month and Year)
Supervisor’s name

7. All sheets must be numbered. The main body of the thesis must be numbered
consecutively from beginning to end in Arabic numerals. The preliminary pages
(Abstract, List of Contents, List of Figures, List of Symbols) should be numbered using
lower-case Roman numerals, commencing with the title page (but not shown on the
title page). Pages in appendixes may be numbered consecutively from the main text,
or may have their own numbering system.
 -13-

8. Graphs, diagrams and photographs should be inserted as close as possible to their

first reference in the text and must be on the front face of sheets as is the typed text.
An alternative and acceptable arrangement is to have all graphs, etc, grouped
together in a special section at the end of the text. Graphs and tables which are
printed in landscape format should be readable from the right hand side of the book.

9. Photographs must be permanently attached to sheets at least along the left edge (of
photos). Stamp hinges, photo corners and similar are not permitted. It is permissible
to use double-sided adhesive tape to mount photographs. Where photographs are
printed on A4 size lightweight paper, these may be bound directly into the thesis.

10. Computer programs and prints of engineering drawings may be bound into the thesis
in such a way that they unfold easily for reference, or they may be enclosed in a
pocket at the rear of the thesis, in which case an itemised list of the contents of the
pocket should also be bound into the thesis. Each loose item must be identified by
the name of the author, the degree for which the thesis is submitted, and the year in
which the thesis is submitted.

11. All quoted sources must be clearly referenced either at the end of the thesis with a
key or on the page quoted.

12. The author of the thesis is responsible for proofreading the typescript and making
corrections as necessary.

13. Some current approved bookbinders are:

All States Bookbinding Allbook Bindery
18-22 Murray Street 91 Ryedale Road
Marrickville West Ryde
Tel: 9565 5010 Tel: 9807 6026
Email: Info@allstatesbinding.com.au Email: allbookbindery@bigpond.com
Web: www.allstatesbinding.com.au/thesis.html Web: www.allbookbindery.com.au

Balos AAA Bookbinding Sussex Bookbinding

U1 / 87-89 Lakemba St 3 Jupiter Street
Belmore Winston Hills
Tel: 9759 1883 Tel: 9639 3647

EZ Printing
(a new thesis submission service where you can
have your thesis printed and bound online)
Tel: 0404 343 105
Email: info@ezprinting.com.au
Web: www.ezprinting.com.au
 -14-

SECTION F

PREPARATION HINTS

Planning time is never wasted

Before you start, work out a plan with your deadlines and make sure you stick to
them. This plan can be modified as you proceed. A bar chart is often the easiest
method.

Keep a logbook
Get yourself a fixed leaf book and write in it anything you will need at the write-up
time. A great deal of time can be wasted looking for the crucial reference you are
sure you wrote on the back of an envelope and put under the clock.

Keep in regular contact with your supervisor

This does not mean plague the life out of your supervisor. It means keep your
supervisor informed and discuss crucial results as soon as possible.

Get help quickly if things go wrong

If you feel things are going wrong, do not wait until a crisis develops; get early help.
You can approach your supervisor or any member of staff, all of whom will advise
and help you.

Get started and work steadily

Your thesis is too big an exercise to be left to the last minute. Start in the first week of
semester and work steadily to your plan.

Don’t push your luck with the final deadline

All engineering projects are hard to stop. That extra experimental or computer run
carried out after your deadline for writing up is not usually worth it. Construct a
realistic plan and keep to it.

Dr M. Chowdhury
February 2010
 -15-

SECTION G

THESIS PRESENTATION CHECKLIST

The following is a checklist of dos and don’ts for you to read before starting the writing
up of your thesis, and to check before editing the final draft. The list includes errors
which are commonly made, and it will help if you don’t make them. To that end, you
should also give a copy of this checklist to your editor/proofreader before they start
work.

Title Page
Don’t use the UNSW crest; a thesis is not a UNSW official publication, and you are not
entitled to use it.

Prelims
The order of pages in the prelims (all pages before Page 1 of Chapter 1) should be as
follows: title page, certificate of originality, abstract, acknowledgements, table of
contents, list of figures, list of tables, nomenclature.

Table of Contents
The table of contents lists the contents which follow, not those which precede.

Pagination
The prelims are numbered with lower-case Roman numerals. The title page is
numbered “i”, but this does not appear on the title page; the number appears on
subsequent pages (unless in a running header, see below).

The first page of the first chapter is Page 1, with all following pages numbered in
sequence.

Numbering of appendix pages should simply follow on from the text pages.

Running Headers and Footers

A running header (if you are using one) should not appear on the first page of a new
chapter. This will require a section break in MS Word to achieve.

A running footer may appear on the first page of a new chapter.

Figures and Tables

Captions are placed below figures and above tables.

Each figure or table must be referred to from the text, as the figure or table cannot say
for itself why it is there, e.g. “as shown in Figure 3.5” or “The results are given in Table
3.3.”

Lists
Use either a bulleted list or (a), (b), (c) etc. for referring to points in a list. If another list
within this list is required then use (i), (ii), (iii) etc.

Precede lists with a colon.

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If each of the points of a list contain incomplete sentences, remember that:

 the first word of each point should start with a lower case letter;
 each point should end with a semicolon; and
 the penultimate point should follow the semicolon with the word ‘and’ (but
sometimes ‘or’).

Numbers and Units

In general, spell out numbers up to ten, and use digits thereafter e.g. “nine aircraft”, or
“33 robots”. However, it helps to differentiate if you have two numbers occurring
together, e.g. “33 four-wheeled vehicles”.

Always use metric (SI) units where practicable. For items designed and built using
imperial units, the imperial measurement may be included in parentheses following the
metric measurement, for example 18.29 m (60 ft).

AS/NZS 1376 — 1996 (pages 23–30) gives an alphabetical list of units and symbols.

Symbols for units of measurement are the same, singular and plural, and are not
punctuated, for example m (not ms or m.), kg (not kgs or kg.) and t (not ts or t.)

Separate the quantity and the unit of measurement, for example 12 m (not 12m), 60 t
(not 60t). Exceptions to this rule are the symbols for degree (for example 180°, minute
(for example 125), second (for example 15) and degree Celsius (for example 20°C). In
fact, the number and its unit should be separated by a non-printable non-breakable
space (Control-Shift-Space in MS Word), e.g. 12 m, where the does not print, but stops
the number and its unit breaking at the end of a line.

Only use the term ‘per’ with words (for example metres per second), but use a solidus
(/) with symbols (for example m/s).

Dates
The preferred format for dates is 2 November 2006, as this form requires no separate
punctuation or formatting (do not use November 2, 2006 or 2nd November 2006).

Write 1990s (not 1990’s) when the case is not possessive.

Time
Use the abbreviations am and pm, e.g. 9.15 am and 4.30 pm.

When using the 24-hour system, number the hours consecutively from 1 to 24,
beginning at midnight (0000), and follow the form 0915 (9.15 am), 1630 (4.30 pm).

Hyphenation
Hyphenation helps the reader to understand your meaning on the first read through,
without having to come back and decipher the sense of what you are trying to say.

Say “high-speed cars” rather than “high speed cars”, or “a high aspect-ratio surface-
piercing hydrofoil” rather than “a high aspect ratio surface piercing hydrofoil”. Also, “a
cost-effective design”, but “the design was cost effective”.
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En rule and Em rule

The en rule (not a hyphen) is used to link words or numbers in pairs (the en rule is
called the em dash in the USA and is found in MS Word under Insert/Symbol/Special
Characters). e.g. for ranges of years use the form 1992–93 (not 1992/93, 1992/3 or
1992–3), or the Sydney–Hobart Yacht Race.

The em rule is used to separate strings of words (the em rule is called an em dash in the
USA and is found in MS Word under Insert/Symbol/Special Characters). e.g. Sydney
Harbour –– where the yacht race starts –– is beautiful.

Formatting
Don’t use boldface and underlining together; underlining is a hang-over from the days
of typewriters, which did not have boldface. Use a graded sequence of upper-case,
initial capitals and boldface for grading headings and sub-headings.

Spelling
Use The Macquarie Dictionary (Butler, 2005) for all spelling except proper names.

In Australia, we prefer “…ise” endings; e.g. organise/organisation (not

organize/organization as used in the USA).

 Common things to check include the following:

 There is one criterion, but two or more criteria.
 “affect” is the verb; “effect” is the noun; e.g. cold is the effect of heat which
affects the body.
 “licence” is the noun, “license” is the verb in Australia (“licence” is used for
both in the USA).
 “metres” (not “meters” as in USA).
 “myriad” is an adjective, not a noun, so you say “there were myriad stars”
(meaning many stars), not “there was a myriad of stars”.
 There is one phenomenon, but two or more phenomena.
 “practice” is the noun, “practise” is the verb in Australia (“practice” is used for
both in the USA).
 “principal” is an adjective, as in “principal characteristics” (and a noun as in
“principal of a school”); “principle” is the noun meaning a fundamental or
general rule.
 “there” means “over there”; “their” is possessive.
 “who’s” = “who is”; “whose” is possessive.

Contractions and Abbreviations

Ensure that unfamiliar abbreviations and acronyms are explained at the first occurrence
(or compile a list of those used in the nomenclature).

Place a full stop after abbreviations (where the last letter is not the last letter of the full
word), such as Prof., Co. and etc.

Omit full stops after contractions (where the last letter is the last letter of the full word),
such as Dr, Mr, Ms and Pty.

Do not punctuate acronyms such as CASA, HMAS and UNSW.

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In general, don’t use ampersands (&) in text; spell out “and” in full. Ampersands are
only used now in names of companies (and then only if the company uses it).

Punctuation is as follows for some commonly-used abbreviations: e.g., i.e., etc. (not eg,
eg., ie, ie. or etc).

“it’s” means exactly the same as “it is”, so test to see if you can use “it is” where you
are intending to use “it’s”, e.g. “it’s a fine day today”, but “the cat sat on its mat”.

Text and Grammar

Write in the past tense because, when you submit your thesis, all you work will have
been done.

Prefer “this project” to “this thesis”.

The name of the university is now “University of New South Wales” (this was changed
in 2006 at the behest of the new Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Fred Hilmer). This means that
the definite article (the) now takes no initial capital when referring to “the University of
New South Wales” (not “The University of New South Wales” as it was previously).

The word “however” always has a following comma and, if in the middle of a sentence,
needs a preceding comma or semicolon, depending on the context, e.g. “…; however,
…”

References to chapters, sections, figures, tables, pages, etc. all take an initial capital,
e.g. “Chapter 3, Section 3.3, Figure 3.5, Table 3.7, Page 32”, etc. Strictly speaking, the
space between the word and the number should be a non-printing unbreakable space
to prevent the word separating from its number at the end of a line (see Numbers and
Dimensions for how to achieve this).

Use “comprises” or “is composed of” (not “is comprised of”).

Use minimal capitalization; e.g. things like “finite-element analysis” and

“computational fluid dynamics” do not need capitals when spelled out.

References
The preferred style of referencing is the Harvard (author-date) style, e.g. “Doctors
(1985)” in the text, and, in the references section:
Doctors, L.J. (1985), Hydrodynamics of High-speed Small Craft, Department of Naval
Architecture and Marine Engineering Report No. 120, University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, January.

One or two authors are referred to in the text. Three or more authors are referred to in
the text as FirstAuthor et al. All authors must be spelled out in the references section.
e.g. “Loadman et al. (2003)” in the text, and “Loadman, D.R., Doctors, L.J. and Riley,
N.T. (2003)… in the references section.

References in the references section are placed in alphabetical order of the first author’s
family name.

Titles of books, journals or conference proceedings should appear in the references

section in italics; titles of papers do not appear in italics.
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Choose a style for quoting the titles of books or papers (e.g. “Title Case as Shown Here”
or “Sentence case as shown here”), and then stick to that style; nothing looks worse
than a mixture of styles.

When you think that you have completed your write up, go through one more time to
check that every reference in the text appears in your list of references; few things
annoy an examiner more than looking for a reference and finding that it is not present.

Nautical
Names of ships are given in italics, e.g. HMAS Anzac, or Wild Oats.

Ships are traditionally regarded as female, e.g. Titanic was the world’s largest vessel at
the time and she was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.

Don’t use the definite article when referring to ship names, e.g. On board Titanic were
insufficient liferafts…(not “On board the Titanic…”).

Refer to “tugs” not “tug boats” (tugs tow ships; tug boats are played with by children in
the bath!)

The symbol for nautical miles is “n miles”, and for knots is “kn”,

Some Final Thoughts

If any one area of the write-up of your thesis (e.g. spelling, grammar, referencing, etc.)
is poor, then it casts doubt on the integrity of the remainder (i.e. has the author been
equally slipshod in the collection of data, analysis of results, etc.?)

It is not the duty of the reader to understand, it is the duty of the author to make the
meaning clear.

Good luck with your write-up!

P.J. Helmore
10 February 2010