Assessment 3: Dissertation Requirements
Each student will complete a research dissertation, following the suggested structure outlined below.
• Preliminaries
- Coursework cover sheet (available on LMO)
- Title Page (including the title of the project, student name and ID number, supervisor name, name of degree programme, date of submission)
- Abstract, in both English (no more than 300 words) and Chinese
- Acknowledgement (if applicable)
- Table of contents
- List of Tables (if any)
- List of Figures (if any)
- List of Abbreviations (if any)
• Main Body of Text
1. Introduction/Background
2. Literature Review
3. Methodology
4. Models/Results/Findings
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions and recommendations
• References
• Appendices
The dissertation structure provided above is intended as a general guideline. Given the diverse nature of projects, no formal structure is mandated. However, all dissertations must include a cover sheet and title page (templates are available on LMO), along with an abstract in both English and Chinese, as well as an introduction and a conclusion. Supervisors may have different expectations regarding the appropriate structure. Therefore, students are advised to follow their supervisor’s guidance when organizing their FYP dissertation. For further details, refer to Appendix I for the FYP Dissertation Format Guidelines and Appendix II for the suggested FYP Dissertation Content by Section.
The dissertation will evaluate students’ academic skills (research, evaluation of primary and secondary data, drawing of conclusions from research) and transferable skills (time management, project management, organisation, written communication, presentation, and problem solving). For details on the assessment criteria, refer to Appendix III for the Dissertation Marking Scheme.
Note:
• The use of Generative AI tools for content creation is prohibited for the dissertation.
• All submitted work is subject to the university’s rules and procedures regarding the infringement of assessment regulations.
1. Length: The maximum length of the dissertation is 10,000 words. The word count only includes the main body of text described above, i.e., it does not include:
• Coursework Coversheet
• Title Page and Table of Contents Page
• Acknowledgement (if applicable)
• List of tables, list of figures and list of abbreviations
• Tables and Figures
• Reference lists/Bibliography
• Footnotes and Appendices - provided these have been used only when necessary. If footnotes or appendices are used excessively, or contain material that should clearly be included in the main body of the dissertation, it is at the markers’ discretion to include these in the word count.
2. Coursework Cover Sheet: A cover sheet must be included at the beginning of your dissertation. The cover sheet should have the following format. The template is available on LMO under the "Other Important Resources" section of the module page.
3. Title Page: The dissertation report must have a title page with lettering of font Times New Roman size 16 in black. The title page should have the following format. The template is available on LMO under the "Other Important Resources" section of the module page.
Title of the Thesis
By
Student’s Name
Student ID number
Supervisor: Name of supervisor
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Name of the Degree
to
Date of Submission
4. In order of Appearance:
• Coursework Coversheet
• Title Page
• Abstract
• Acknowledgment (optional)
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables (if any)
• List of Figures (if any)
• List of Abbreviations (if any)
• Main Body of Text
• References/Bibliography
• Appendices (if any)
5. Abstract: Each dissertation must be accompanied by an abstract and a list of keywords. The abstract should be written in both English (no longer than 300 words) and Chinese.
6. Table of Contents: The table of contents must show chapter headings and page numbers. All separate sections of the thesis, such as abstract, bibliography, lists of abbreviations, appendices, etc., must also be identified on the contents page.
7. Headings: Chapters or major sections should be clearly numbered. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. No more than three (3) levels of headings can be used. Each heading should be left-aligned and appear on its own separate line. Headings of chapters or major sections are in boldface, font size 14 and title case. Sub-headings appear like major headings, except they are in font size 12. Sub-sub-headings appear like sub-headings, except they are in italics and not boldface. See the example below:
1. Chapter/Section Heading
1.1. Subsection Heading
1.1.1. Sub-subsection Heading
8. Paragraph: Except for the first paragraph under a heading, indent each new paragraph by 1 cm. After a quotation or equation, when the text is the continuation of the text preceding the quotation or equation, the first line must be flush left; otherwise indent.
9. Font: The main body of the dissertation should be typed in letter quality using Times New Roman font size 12 and 1.5 line spacing. Long quotations (quotes of more than two full lines) should be indented by 1cm from each margin, single-spaced and in block quotations. No quotation marks should be used.
10. Paper Size and Margin: A4 size paper should be used as the word processing template, with 1 inch (2.54 cm) in top, bottom, left and right margins.
11. Page Number: Page number should be in Arabic numerals and runs consecutively throughout the body of the dissertation. This also includes pages containing Bibliography, and Appendices. For the preliminaries (preface, acknowledgements, table of contents, list of tables, list of figures, etc.), page number should be in Roman lower-case numerals.
12. Footnote: Footnotes should be inserted at the foot of the relevant page in single line spacing. Smaller type may be used, if available. A line should be ruled between footnotes and the text. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively throughout the thesis. The reference number for the footnote in the body of the text is a superscript. numeral, not enclosed in parentheses.
13. Figures and Tables:
• Figures and tables should be numbered consecutively and appear immediately following the text as the first point of reference.
• Each table or figure is to be identified with the word “Table” or “Figure” and its number. All figures and tables should be referred with their numbers in the main text where appropriate.
• Tables and maps should have titles or captions at the top and figures should have titles or captions at the bottom.
• A list ofall tables and a separate list of all figures, identifying each by name, number, and page must be included in the preliminaries (prefatory pages).
• Avoid using any screenshots to present original results in the assessment. Inappropriate snapshots may lead to certain marks deduction.