Refer to the Basic Table of Contents Sample as you read through the following section.
- A Table of Contents is required for all theses and dissertations.
- All chapter titles and titles of chapter equivalents (e.g., List of Symbols, Bibliography, Appendix A, etc.) must be listed in the Table of Contents.
- Do not include the Abstract or any other sections that are placed before the Table of Contents in the list of entries in the Table of Contents.
- Headings from within chapters are not required to be listed in the Table of Contents by the Graduate College. (The Thesis Office strongly encourages students to keep the Table of Contents as simple as possible. The purpose of the Table of Contents is to be a quick, useful reference for the reader, not to outline the argument of the thesis in detail. If you choose to include additional headings in your Table of Contents, please refer to the Extended Table of Contents Sample.)
- Chapter and Appendix titles (and any headings, if included) listed in the Table of Contents must exactly match the wording found in the text (abbreviations or references that appear in the text as parenthetical additions may be omitted from the Table of Contents).
- If headings are numbered, heading numbers listed in the Table of Contents must exactly match the heading numbers found in the text.
- Page numbers listed for headings must be correct.
- List only the page number of the first page of the chapter or section. (Do not list a range of page numbers.)
- Page numbers must be aligned at or near the right margin of the page.
- Leader dots must be displayed between the final word of each title and the page number.