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Writing a Doctoral Arts Thesis at the MuTri Doctoral School: Presenting Thesis Structure in More Detail

General Remarks

The following guidelines, mainly about the layout of the thesis, are only recommendations. The grade of a thesis and whether it passes or not is ultimately dependent on its content. Nevertheless its form must meet certain criteria: it must be neat, easy to read, consistent, and demonstrate a knowledge of academic practices.

The instructions given are based on a long academic tradition that has been refined over the years through extensive use. There is no need for the layout and appearance of the thesis to reflect the personality of the writer; on the contrary, the appearance should reflect the willingness of a writer to abide by a particular academic community’s rules and practices. If the work is being written in a language other than Finnish, then the spelling and formatting rules of that language must be followed.

Covers

Covers must follow a specific design at the University of Arts. The Communications Department is responsible for making the thesis covers at the University of Arts according to specific graphic guidelines. When preparing your doctoral degree, you can order this cover by filling out the form found by clicking this link. 

The form goes to the Sibelius Academy’s Communications Department and the graphic designer responsible for making thesis covers.

Examples of previous thesis covers can be found here. 

Presenting Thesis Structure in More Detail

Thesis Structure 

Overall (does not apply to cover, and is not the same thing as table of contents)

  1. Title Page
  2. Summary
  3. Preface
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Main text 
  6. Source List
  7. Possible Appendices

Sections 

1. Title Page

The thesis title should be to the point and of a reasonable length. Its structure can consist of a main title and explanatory subtitle. Remember that every word and piece of punctuation in a title “weighs a ton”, in other words its form counts for a lot. There is no specific template for formatting the title page. The student should discuss this with their supervisor. However, the following model is often used:

  • In the middle of the page is the headline (thesis title)
  • In the bottom right-hand corner is the other information: type of thesis, author, when done, and for which institution.

 

​2. Summary (Abstract)

The abstract is a short summary of the thesis. It is roughly one page in length.

Function of the abstract:

  • to convince the reader that the work is worth reading
  • to provide important bibliographical information about the work
  • to allow the work to enter the information system and be shared between libraries.

Content of the abstract:

  • it is a brief introduction to the content of the thesis
  • it is an independent text, and understandable as such; written logically, in full sentences, without references to the main text
  • there is no abbreviating, underlining, or truncating.

​

The abstract should include the following items:

I. Bibliographical information

  • author’s name
  • thesis title
  • degree it is connected to and where
  • year of publication
  • number of pages (possibly given separately for main text and appendices)

II. Information regarding content of thesis (adapt accordingly)

  • main idea(s)
  • study objective
  • method(s)
  • results
  • conclusions

III. Search terms

  • 1–7 searchable key words that describe the topic are placed after the abstract
  • it is often sensible to pick the words from a general list of search terms.

Sibelius Academy Library’s instructions for writing abstracts and a form for composing them can be found here.

 

3. Preface (aka Foreword)

The foreword is not a proper part of the main text, so the thesis itself should be readable and understandable without it. The foreword can provide extra background information about how the work came about, bearing in mind that this must not overlap with information in the introduction.

It is customary to thank people in the foreword that have guided, cheered on, helped or inspired the writer – especially those who have gone out of their way to do so. The parties that have funded the doctoral process are also acknowledged here too. You can turn to earlier research and doctoral theses for a model on how to draw up a foreword.

4. Table of Contents

The contents should be clearly outlined and follow a hierarchy of chapters and sub-chapters that is clearly shown by the use of numerals and different size and style of fonts. When using numerals there is no need to change the font or typography. The abstract is not mentioned in the contents.

Numbering (headlines here are only for the purposes of this demonstration):

1 Introduction
                      1.1 Aim of Work
                      1.2 Method(s)
                                           1.2.1 xxxx
                                           1.2.2 xxxx

2 First Treatment
                      2.1 xxxx
                      2.2 xxxx
                      etc.

  • There is no full stop after numerals (so 2.1.1 and not 2.1.1.).
  • If there is only one section of text in a chapter, then that chapter needs no subsection.
  • The appendices are not given a numeric position in the table of contents, only the chapters and sections of the actual thesis have one.
  • The appendices can be named and numbered in the table of contents if you wish, but they must be under the headline “Appendices” (especially if they are numerous).
  • The page number indicating the start of each section is placed on the right hand side of the table of contents without a full stop.
  • A dotted line between section headings and page number can be added to make it easier to read.
  • The font and line spacing of the content page are preferably the same as in the main text.

 

​4. Main Text  (see section Basis for Thesis)

5. Source List

The source/reference list should be reader-friendly and easy to use. It mentions all the sources that have been mentioned in the thesis – and only those sources. It is good to group the references according to their type (for example archive sources, interviews, newspapers, research literature etc). The reference list should be accurate, without mistakes and consistent. More detailed instructions on the style of the reference list can be found here.

6. Possible Appendices

The appendices are numbered in a way that is different from the numbering used in the table of contents, and they should each have a heading (for instance, “APPENDIX 1: Heading Goes Here”).