The Most Important Guideline

• Obtain a copy of your university's thesis guidelines. While there are plenty of common conventions, each institution is different and you don't want to make the mistake of not adhering to a simple rule you've overlooked. Most of guidelines are posted on the school's website.
  
  

The Basics

• Use left and right margins of at least 1.5 inches. If these seem generous, it's because many colleges will bind your thesis, and that requires a little extra space. The top margin should be 2 inches, and the bottom margin should be 1 inch.
  
  Set your word processing program to the correct font and size. Most guidelines require 12-point Times New Roman font, something you'll find in most word processing software programs.
  
  Number your pages correctly. According to the graduate school at Ohio State University, you should leave out a number on the front page, but start with lowercase Roman numerals on the pages that come before the first real page of your thesis. After that, center Arabic numbers on the bottom of the page.
  
  

Sections

• For the sections, you'll likely need a title page, a copyright page, an abstract, a dedication page, an acknowledgment page, a vita, table of contents and appendices.
  
  

Citations

• Follow the citation format favored by your university. This can also vary depending on your discipline. Psychology theses, for example, are more likely to require the American Psychological Association citation rules. You can purchase handbooks to help you figure out the format, or use the quick reference sheet that is probably on your college's web site. Ohio State, for example, prefers that students to use the Council of Science Editors Style.
  
  

Finishing

• Convert the Word document containing your thesis into a PDF file or whichever digital style might be required for easy archiving. Sites such as doc2pdf make this easy. Be sure to take a look at the converted PDF file to ensure that your formatting was retained.