Hi All,

It looks like (*fingers crossed*) I'm in the final stages of writing my thesis. However, I'm so concerned with getting the damn thing submitted that I'm worried I'm missing something obvious in these final moments!

My timeline for the next few days at present looks something like the following. I would really appreciate it if anyone who has been through this stage of the process is able to have a look at my list to see if I'm missing anything major:

- Make revisions on final chapter following feedback from supervisor
- Move all chapter sub-headings that start literally at the bottom of a page, on to a new page
- Update all chapter, table and figure page numbers in the table of contents
- Print and bind (is this really it?!)

Cheers in advance, and here's to the END after nearly 6 years!!!
RLD

Unfortunately it doesn't end until you receive 'the letter' - after your thesis has been examined, corrections accepted and bound/electronic copies submitted. So be prepared for this to drag on a bit longer (3-12 months). At least the examination period is a time to take a mental breather and do some of the things you put off doing during the write up.

Other things to check for:
- Same terminology has been used throughout the thesis
- Where you have referred to section numbers, figures and tables in the text - make sure these are correct
- If submitting an electronic copy and converting to pdf, check all figures for any irregularities. Simply save the individual pages and insert into document
- If using Endnote, ensure all citations in the text are proper links and not plain text (I had a couple in my thesis that were normal text)

In addition to what Barramack has said, I got advised to check, check, check and check again my Table of Contents, both for typos and to ensure that the formatting and page numbers are correct, uniform, and how I wanted it. I was told that there's nothing more annoying for an examiner than reading the first page and spotting mistakes. They also have to keep going back to that to find where they want to read from, so they may see it over and over again.

Good luck!

Read from start to finish your faculty's/institution's regulations on thesis submissions to make sure everything is present and correct. Do this at least several days before submission. There can be all sorts of odd things in there e.g. you may be required to submit a loose sheet of paper with your abstract on, you may need to bind a submission form into the thesis etc.

I'd echo checking the doc after converting to pdf. Mine was fine, but when I submitted it, the uni system then inserted a cover sheet into the file that then messed up all my vertical/horizontal page breaks. If I'd have printed from that file it would have been a right mess.

Common mistakes:

- update Month of submission in the first page
- in my University there needs to be continuous numbering from page 1 to the end. That means you shouldn't use Roman page numbers for the front pages
- all chapters start on the right-hand page (if you print double-sided)
- Once you insert page breaks to fix headings at the bottom, make sure figures and tables stay at the right place (if you use Word)
- each table and figure must be stand-alone, put footnotes of abbreviations in each table and Figure
- you didn't miss any abbreviations
- make sure that in the headings first letter of each word is consistently either a capital letter or a lower-case letter.
- bullet points are correct and consistent ( upper or lower case, semi-column etc)
- numbers should be consistent eg 70,000 vs 70000
- same decimal points in tables especially 6 vs 6.0 (messed up in excel)
- references!
- smaller font with a larger gap looks better than larger font with a smaller gap
- Do the final corrections on a printed version. Ask someone to have a look at it.

These are excellent suggestions. Thanks so much for taking the time to respond.