Guidelines for Master’s Theses
The formatting guidelines for Master’s Theses are similar to those of the Term Papers. The amount of text is larger than that of a term paper according to the requirements of an in-depth research.
Amount of Text
Minimum 70 pages (plain text without bibliography and illustration part).
Cover Sheet
Structure of the Thesis
The structure of the thesis depends on the topic. The following table of contents shows the mandatory parts that have to be contained in a thesis.
Table of Contents
| English Abstract | (with keywords) mandatory | |
| Chinese Abstract | (with keywords) mandatory | |
| Introduction | mandatory | |
| State of Research | mandatory | |
| 1. (First Chapter) 1.1 1.2 (can be extended) |
The main body of text may vary according to your topic. Please note that, when you have a heading number 1, there has to be at least another heading number 2 on the same chapter level, and when there is a heading 1.1 , there must be at least a heading 1.2 (the same goes with a, b, c, etc.). |
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| 2. | ||
| 3. (can be extended) |
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| Conclusion | mandatory | |
| Bibliography | mandatory | |
| Appendix: Illustrations | mandatory | |
| List of Photographic Credits | mandatory | |
Abstract
A mandatory part is the abstract before the introduction. The abstract (c. 500 words) contains a short summary of your thesis reporting your objectives and outcomes. Write your abstract when you have completed the main text of your thesis.
When you write your thesis in English, you have to add two abstracts, one in English and a translation in Mandarin.
When you write your thesis in Mandarin, you only need one abstract in Mandarin.
The abstract will be followed by a certain number of keywords (choose c. 5–10 keywords). Thus, the thesis content is condensed into a short list of words. When your thesis will be published on the website of NTNU Main Library, the keywords will help potential readers to find your thesis when searching literature on a certain topic in the library catalog.
Declaration of Academic Integrity
Never copy text or ideas from an original work without mentioning the source. This is considered to be fraud (plagiarism).
Students must execute their scholarly work independently and all sources used in the text—taken from archive material, books, articles, essays, dissertations, and other printed materials or the internet—must be quoted or paraphrased correctly, acknowledged in the footnotes of the thesis and listed in the bibliography. A signed paper copy of the Declaration of Academic Integrity has to be submitted with the thesis.