The Masters Project Dissertation

University of Colombo School of Computing

May 9, 2019

Abstract
A good dissertation is important because it is the only record of
your project work for interested future readers. Further, it is a compul-
sory component to pass your project for the degree. In this document
we give a guideline that students can use to compile good dissertations.
It details the required format and the structure of the dissertations
along with some hints of recommended academic writing.

1 Introduction
The dissertation is a formal report of your project work. Thus it should
contain important information about your project that would be of use to
future readers.
Any piece of writing should be directed to a particular readership. The
readers of your dissertation would be your examiners and any interested
future researchers/users. Thus the content of your dissertation and your
writing should be directed towards them.
You are required to submit your dissertations at two instances. First,
two copies of the final dissertation should be submitted. This dissertation
would be evaluated by a panel of two examiners and marks will be given
for it. Then, secondly, two copies of the hardbound dissertation that incor-
porates any examiner feedback should be submitted. Note again that the
final dissertation is the one that will be given marks while the hardbound
dissertations are needed for the library and the student copies.
The rest of this document is organized as follows. In Section 2 we give the
required content of the dissertation. In Section 3, we give some guidelines on
academic writing.

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2 The Content
2.1 Structure
The dissertation should follow the following layout.

Title Page
[No page number]
The title page should include the UCSC logo, the full title of the disserta-
tion, the authors name and the registration number, the supervisor’s name,
the degree information and the date.

Abstract
The abstract should be a concise description of the problem addressed in the
project work, the method of solution, the results, and conclusions. It should
help a prospective reader decide whether to read the entire dissertation or
not. The abstract may be the only available part of your dissertation that
the readers can obtain via electronic literature searches or through published
abstracts. Therefore, enough key information must be included to make the
abstract useful to someone who may to reference your work.
When writing the abstract use the active voice when possible, but much
of it may require passive constructions.
The abstract is only text. It should not contain:
lengthy background information,
references to other literature,
elliptical (i.e., ending with ...) or incomplete sentences,
abbreviations or terms that may be confusing to readers,
any sort of illustration, figure, or table, or references to them.
The following is an excellent sample abstract [1]:
In this paper an attempt is made to explore the logical foundations of
computer programming by use of techniques which were first applied in the
study of geometry and have later been extended to other branches of mathe-
matics. This involves the elucidation of sets of axioms and rules of inference
which can be used in proofs of the properties of computer programs. Ex-
amples are given of such axioms and rules, and a formal proof of a simple
theorem is displayed. Finally, it is argued that important advantages, both
theoretical and practical, may follow from a pursuance of these topics.

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Declaration
The dissertation must contain the following signed and dated statement of
originality and conformity by the candidate:

The dissertation is my original work and has not been submitted

previously for a degree at this or any other university/institute.
To the best of my knowledge it does not contain any material
published or written by another person, except as acknowledged in
the text.

Students name: ...............

Signature: ..................
Date: ..........

Acknowledgements
It is expected of the candidate to acknowledge all persons and organizations
who facilitated the work described in the dissertation.

Table of Contents
A table of contents, with page references, should be provided with sufficient
detail to allow ready access to the contents of the dissertation.

List of Figures
A list containing the figure numbers, titles of the figures provided in the
dissertation, along with the relevant page numbers should be given.

List of Tables
A list containing the table numbers, titles of the tables provided in the dis-
sertation, along with the relevant page numbers should be given.

List of Abbreviations
(if needed only)
If abbreviations are used in the dissertation, their list should be provided.

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Chapter1. Introduction
The introduction should intrigue the reader and cause him to want to read
on. Firstly, the motivation for the project should be argued. Then a brief
introduction to the project should be provided indicating its objectives and
scope. Finally, a paragraph containing an outline of the remaining chapters
(starting with Chapter 2) could be given. Without simply listing the topics,
this outline could give a little more information about the contents of each
chapter.
For example, your UCSC dissertation may contain two sub-sections as
follows:

1.1. Motivation (tell why you are doing this project; what is the problem
that you are trying to solve)

1.2. Objective (the aim(s) of the project; the approach used in carrying out
this project [can be filled later when the project is completed]; any as-
sumtions on which the project is based; an overview of the dissertation)

Chapter 2. Background
The content of this chapter should be based on the type of the project:
research or implementation.

For a research type project: A literature review. In this chapter

a review of work that is related to your project should be provided in the
form of an up-to-date and comprehensive review of relevant literature. A
good literature survey should demonstrate your awareness and understanding
of the background literature to your topic. It should begin by setting the
proposed work in a wide context, and progress to a more detailed account
of the most relevant work in the area, taking care to include all up-to-date
references. Reviewing the literature can help to identify questions and issues
that have not yet been answered, ideally questions that will be addressed
through your project.
Your sources of literature should typically be the primary research jour-
nals - the journals that publish original research articles (e.g., ACM, IEEE).
Other reputed sources (e.g., citeseer) are also acceptable. Although you may
read some general background references (encyclopedias, textbooks, etc.,)
to get yourself acquainted with the subject area, do not cite these, because
they contain information that is considered fundamental knowledge within
the discipline. Cite, instead, articles that reported specific results relevant

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to your study. The articles listed in the “References” section of relevant pa-
pers are a good starting point to move backwards in a line of inquiry. You
may also use a citation index which is useful for tracking a line of inquiry
forward in time. Also note that only references that are directly relevant to
the project work should be reviewed.
The review should be organized and structured in a meaningful way, and
the themes and relationships between the references identified. You should
identify general trends and positions in the research area, and the papers
cited should be compared and contrasted. It may also be appropriate to
incorporate criticisms of previous work where appropriate (and to justify the
criticisms). A good literature review will also help you identify the ideas
from the literature that are useful and can be applied to your project and
those that are not.
Note that everything used should be cited by reference to the “References”
section at the end of the dissertation.

For an Implementation type project: An implementation type project

dissertation could contain one or more of the following in its Chapter 2:

An analysis. An analysis of the requirements could be provided in this

chapter. For example the requirements of the system could be listed.
Information on the existing system could be provided through appro-
priate structures like Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) if applicable. The
logic inside processes in a DFD could be given for example through
structured English, decision tables, or decision trees (whichever is ap-
propriate). Data modelling (if appropriate) could be done through ER
diagrams. Functional Hierarchy Diagrams[2] 1 can also be used if ap-
propriate. Use case diagrams could also be used if applicable. (Note:
The above is just a guideline of the different items that could be pro-
vided in your dissertation. From that list, you should pick only what
is appropriate for your project. You should also be judicious in pick-
ing the right amount of detail that your reader will appreciate and
should not have pages and pages of a particular diagram type in your
dissertation.)

A review of similar systems. You may also review existing software that
are similar to your proposed system. Your review must be comprehen-
sive and up-to-date. It may be appropriate to incorporate criticisms of
these systems where needed (and to justify the criticisms). This review
1
Functional hierarchy diagrams could be drawn by listing the tasks that each user
would like to perform using your system.

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 will also help you identify the ideas from these software that are useful
and can be applied to your project and those that are not. Also note
that everything used should be cited by reference to the “References”
section at the end of the dissertation.

A comparison of alternative design strategies. You should also con-

sider different competing design strategies for your system. The dif-
ferent strategies may involve the way of development (developing from
scratch, using open-source components,etc.,), the hardware environ-
ment (stand alone personal computer, client-server environment, etc.,),
choice of system software (Windows, Linux, etc.,). You could compare
how the project requirements are satisfied through each alternative as
well as the costs involved in each ([2] table 11.45) and select with jus-
tification a single design strategy for implementation.

Chapter 3. Methodology
For a research type project: This could be considered the most im-
portant chapter for a research type project as this is where your research
contribution to the world is presented.
The design of your solution could be described in this chapter. Ideally,
there should be evidence of a methodical approach. It will be beneficial
to discuss alternate solutions (e.g., methods, algorithms, data structures,
etc.,) if applicable, and the one selected by you should be explained and
justified. Coherent and logical arguments are encouraged with respect to the
selection. To describe your design, you may use appropriate mechanisms like
for example pseudo codes, suitable diagrams etc.
Your implementation environment (hardware/software), any tools, any
existing software that you re-used, etc., should also be given in this chapter.
You could also identify and explain all major code and module structures
in your code and also identify any platform dependencies. When re-using
existing code, your contribution in the implementation must be closely indi-
cated, and the original authors/sources must be appropriately acknowledged
(through entries in your “references” chapter).

For an implementation type project: The design of your system should

be given in this chapter. The structure of the system should be clear to the
reader after reading this chapter.
In this chapter, you may provide for example database table structures, file
organization type, backup strategy design, design of any audit trails, security
scheme design, structure charts, important pseudo codes, class diagrams (for

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OO design), state diagrams (for OO design), sequence diagrams (for OO
design), test plan, etc., (whichever is appropriate for your project).
As for a research type project, your implementation environment (hard-
ware/software), any tools, any existing software that you re-used, etc., should
also be given in this chapter. You could also identify and explain all major
code and module structures in your code and also identify any platform de-
pendencies. When re-using existing code, your contribution in the implemen-
tation must be closely indicated, and the original authors/sources must be
appropriately acknowledged (through entries in your “references” chapter).

Chapter 4. Evaluation
For a research type project: In a research type project, this chapter
should give the results of the work. Your results could be given in the form
of tables or graphs (if applicable) so that the reader can easily compare your
work with other approaches.
This chapter should also provide a critical discussion evaluating the re-
sults. In the discussion, you may point out both the positive and the negative
aspects of your work.
You should also provide well thought out details of any future work that
future researchers can work on.

For an implementation type project: In an implementation type project,

this chapter should give a critical evaluation of the system. It should dis-
cuss whether the project objectives were satisfied and if not, the reasons for
them. Lessons learnt during the course of the project should also be ex-
panded upon. It is important that any failures to achieve given objectives
should be discussed and analyzed (this does not mean that the candidate will
be penalized). Problems beyond the control of the candidate (e.g., client re-
quests, obtaining necessary hardware/software, etc.,) that have affected the
progress of the work may be mentioned here. However, it is important to
leave your reader with a good impression of the work. Therefore be positive
and upbeat, even if the candidate feels that he has had a tough time.
Ideally you should say in writing that all aspects of the system have been
tested and specification has been met. The evaluation of your developed
system by potential users (through their feedback after using your system)
may also be provided here. Any documents related to client’s evaluation of
your system (if applicable) and also a client certification letter indicating the
level of achievement of the set objectives and usefulness of the system (also
if applicable) should be provided in the Appendix.

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Chapter 5. Conclusion
This chapter should conclude the work indicating a summary of the results
of the project. It should also identify any deficiencies in the final product (if
applicable) and highlight how improvements could be made through future
work.

References
All references cited in the dissertation should appear in the reference list, and
all references in the reference list should appear as citations. The referencing
should be done in the IEEE format (given in the Appendix of this document).

Appendices
Detailed information or data which may increase the usefulness of the disser-
tation for examiners and subsequent readers, but which are too detailed
for inclusion in the main body of the dissertation may be included as ap-
pendices. Appendices must meet standards with respect to margins and be
formatted according to the remainder of the dissertation.
For an implementation type project, it will be beneficial for future readers
to include as an appendix a cocise administration guide for your system. As
mentioned earlier, a client certification letter (if applicable) is also a good
item to be included in the appendix.

2.2 Formatting Guidelines

A sample dissertation is available in the VLE.

Paper
To save paper, printing could be done on both sides of the paper start-
ing from Chapter 1. However, single side printing should be done for the
preliminary pages (i.e., starting from the title page upto the abbreviations
page).

Font
The students are advised to follow the sample dissertation available in the
VLE and we do not intend to enforce strict font sizes etc. The student can
however use 12 point Times New Roman font size for general text. Chapter
headings could be in 16 point size and any other title could be in 14 point
size.

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Line Spacing
Single line spacing is recommended.

Pagination
Brevity of your dissertation is important and we believe that the quality of
dissertation content to be more important than its number of pages. There-
fore you should decide on the most important information (which would
benefit your readers) to be provided in your dissertation, avoiding any un-
necessary repetition of detail.
Pages should be numbered consecutively throughout the dissertation.
Preliminary pages (i.e., title page, abstract, statement of declaration, ac-
knowledgements, table of contents, list of figures, list of tables and list of
abbreviations) that precede the main text should be numbered with lower
case roman numerals beginning with iii for the page that contains the state-
ment of declaration. Number the main text, starting with the “Chapter 1.
Introduction, consecutively beginning with the Arabic number one (1).

Tables and Figures

Each table and figure should be consecutively numbered (e.g., Table 1.1,
Table 1.2, Fig. 1.1, Fig. 1.2, etc.,) and a title should be given to each.
e.g.1, Table 4.2. User evaluation results
e.g.2, Fig.4.1. Idealized random distribution curve
Whenever possible, tables and figures should be placed close to their first
references in the text. The titles should give enough information so that they
can be understood without referring to the text.
Note that all tables and figures should be referenced from within text.
e.g.1, The Level-1 Context Diagram of the System is shown in fig.1.1.
e.g.2, The results of our method are given in table 4.1.

3 Writing Guidelines
3.1 General
In this section, we give some generally accepted guidelines for academic writ-
ing.
The report writing style should be generally of the passive form. It is
considered a bad style in a formal report to make explicit references to what
the candidate himself did as in for example “I decided...”. Scientific papers

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never use the first person in this way. The passive form as in “it was de-
cided...” is preferred. In the dissertation, the first person could be used
judiciously in the Introduction and Evaluation chapters, but the use of “we”
is recommended over “I”. The use of first person writing should be avoided
everywhere else in the dissertation.
Before any piece of writing is done, a good outline of the report, detailing
the different chapters in it, has to be made to ensure a good flow for the reader
and to avoid unnecessary repetition of text. The suggested chapter structure
for the dissertation was given in the previous section of this document. If
needed, the candidate should carefully decide on suitable sections and sub-
sections for each chapter. It is not recommended to divide the sub-sections
further, unless it is absolutely necessary. Then the writer should decide on
the required paragraphs for each section/sub-section. The writer should fine
tune his outline to make sure only the required information is planned and
nothing is duplicated.
Section and sub-section headings should be short, meaningful, and sim-
ilar in tone. Note that when a section of text is sub-divided, there should
ordinarily be at least two sub-sections (e.g., If there is no Section 1.2, you
should never number a section as Section 1.1 as then a reader would look for
a non-existent Section 1.2).
It is important for the student to carefully decide on the paragraphs to
include for each section/sub-section. Each paragraph should consist of the
development of a single idea through a collection of sentences. It is sug-
gested in writing literature to compare a good paragraph to a train. The
engine gives the direction to a train and the cars follow it. The topic sen-
tence of a paragraph can be considered the engine and the other sentences
of the paragraph, the cars of the train. The topic sentence should give the
“direction” to where the paragraph is going. In other words, it should give
the gist of the paragraph and set its tone. As such, it usually occurs at the
beginning of the paragraph although it could come in at the middle or at
the end. Each sentence in the paragraph should be relevant to the topic
sentence. Following is an example (source: [2]) of a good paragraph with
topic sentence in bold:
Researchers have also compared decision tables to decision
trees. The pioneers of structured analysis and design thought decision ta-
bles were best for portraying complex logic while decision trees were better for
simpler problems. Others have found decision trees to be better for guiding
decision making in practice, but decision tables have the advantage of being
more compact than decision trees and easier to manipulate. If more condi-
tions are added to a situation, a decision table can easily accommodate more
conditions, actions, and rules. If the table becomes too large, it can easily

10
be divided into sub-tables, without the inconvenience of using flowchart-like
tree connections used with decision trees. Creating and maintaining complex
decision tables can be made easier with computer support.
The candidate should avoid plagiarism at any cost. Plagiarism is presen-
tation of another person’s thoughts or words as though they were candidate’s
own. The candidate should avoid this when writing his dissertation. All sen-
tences or passages quoted in his dissertation from other people’s work have
to be specially acknowledged by clear cross-referencing to author, work and
page(s). Direct quotations from published or unpublished work of others
should always be clearly identified as such by being placed inside quotation
marks and a full reference to their source should be provided in the References
chapter. Equally, if another person’s ideas or judgements are summarized,
the candidate should refer to that person in the main text of the disserta-
tion, and have a relevant entry in the References chapter of the dissertation.
Failure to observe these rules may result in an allegation of cheating. All
suspected cheating will be reported as examination offenses. Any figures or
tables, which are not the work of the candidate and are reproduced in your
dissertation, should be specially acknowledged with a reference by its title
(e.g., Fig.1.1. The Existing System at ABC. (Source: [2]).
The project is an important component of the degree and plagiarism in
project work is taken very seriously, and when discovered will imply severe
penalties and consequences for the culprit’s degree and possibly for his entire
future career. Such a candidate will fail the project and the degree exami-
nation as a whole when plagiarism in project work is discovered. Candidate
will not be allowed to repeat the project and other degree components for a
specified number of years. Therefore, it is important to give credit where it is
due and acknowledge all work borrowed, and emphasize what the candidate’s
distinct contribution has been in the project.

3.2 Punctuation
There are many punctuation rules. Those that are relevant for scientific dis-
sertations and many writers disregard are listed in the following subsections.

Period
1. Omit periods after items in a vertical list unless one or more of the
items are complete sentences. If the vertical list completes a sentence
begun in an introductory element, the final period is also omitted unless
the items in the list are separated by commas or semicolons.
e.g.1, The following users’ feedback was considered:

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 system administrators
operators

e.g.2, Considering the results of this work, it can be confirmed that

1. the method A is better than method B in most of the cases;

2. method C is the worst of the three.

2. When parentheses or brackets are used to enclose an independent sen-

tence, the period belongs inside.
e.g., It was decided to re do the test on a different architecture. (This
new choice was made after a lengthy search.)
When enclosed matter comes at the end of an including sentence, the
period should be placed outside the parentheses or brackets.
e.g., The tests were performed on a cluster of computers available at
the UCSC (swelanka1 cluster).

Comma
The use of the comma is mainly a matter of good judgement, with ease of
reading the end in view.

1. When the clauses of a compound statement are joined by a conjunction

(e.g., and, but, for, or, nor, yet), a comma is usually placed before the
conjunction unless the clauses are short and closely related:
e.g.1, Most Sri Lankan radio and television channels conveniently ignore
the laws regarding royalty payments to artists, and as a result, the
artists are inconvenienced.
e.g.2, We performed 20 tests and compared the results.
Note: If the coordinate clauses themselves contain commas, semicolons
may be used to separate them.
e.g., The method proposed by Perera, which became very popular for
simple reasons, was to use a summation of the partial results in the
end; but it involved a lot of work for the slave machines.

2. In a series consisting of three or more elements, the elements are sep-

arated by commas. When a conjunction joins the last two elements in
a series, a comma is used before the conjunction.
e.g., We had a choice of Java, C, or FORTRAN.

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3. When the elements in a series are very simple and are all joined by
conjunctions, no commas should be used.
e.g., It was not sure whether the design was originated by Dias or
Sivarajah or Hakeem.

4. The use of et cetera, and especially its abbreviation, etc., has long been
discouraged in formal writing, although it is more acceptable in lists,
tables, and parenthetical series. It is also recommended that, when
used, the term be set off by commas.
e.g., The firm manufactures nuts, bots, nails, wire, etc., at its plant at
Ratmalana.
Such similar expressions such as and so on, and so forth, which find
more acceptance in formal writing, have also been customarily set off
by commas.
e.g., The manual methods of data entry, modification, deletion, and so
forth, were found to be very inefficient.

5. The term el al., (meaning “and others”) used when referencing a work
involving three or more authors, should have a comma after it (as shown
above).

6. Ordinarily, commas are not used following a series of items in a vertical

list. If the vertically listed items are phrases, especially long phrases,
that grammatically complete the sentence containing them, commas
may, but need not, be used. If commas are used, the last item is
followed by a period.
e.g., The difficulties of this method included
the delay in data gathering,
the complexity of data modification,
the slow speed of the operation.

7. A comma is usually used after such expressions as that is, namely, i.e.,
and e.g.,
e.g., Bones of a variety of small animals (e.g., squirrels, cats, pigeons)
are stored in this laboratory.

8. A comma is sometimes necessary to prevent a mistaken junction.

e.g., Soon after, the new system was rejected by the users due to its
inefficiency.

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 9. When the context calls for a comma at the end of material enclosed in
quotation marks, parentheses, or brackets, the comma should be placed
inside the quotation marks but outside the parentheses or brackets.
e.g.1, See Fernando’s comments on “adequate testing,” which is found
in Appendix B of this report.
e.g.2, Hu gives a comprehensive, though obscure (and somewhat ex-
pensive), exposition of the subject.

Semicolon
1. It should always be used between the two parts of a compound sentence
when they are not connected by a conjunction.
e.g., The installed system was hardly promoted by the organization;
instead, the manual system was further improved.

2. The following words are considered adverbs rather than conjunctions

and should therefore be preceded by a semicolon when used transi-
tionally between clauses of a compound sentence: then, however, thus,
hence, indeed, accordingly, besides, therefore. The adverb is usually
followed by a comma, but if there is no risk of misreading, and if a
pause is not desired, the comma may be omitted.
e.g., System A had failed in the initial evaluation; hence it was not
chosen for subsequent testing.

3. When items in a series are long and complex or involve internal punc-
tuation, they should be separated by semicolons for the sake of clarity.
e.g., The membership of the evaluation panel was as follows: managerial
staff, 3; system administrators, 2; general users, 2.

4. The semicolon should be placed outside quotation marks or parenthe-

ses.
e.g., It was assumed that all users had read Fernando’s “adequate test-
ing”; it was referred to several times in the evaluation.

Colon
1. A colon is used to introduce a formal statement or an extract.
e.g.1, The rule may be stated thus: Half the period involved in system
development should be used for testing.

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 e.g.2, We quote from the keynote address by Wait at Icter 2011 Con-
ference: “It seems now that the time has arrived for home networks...

2. A colon is commonly used to introduce a list of a series.

e.g., Patterson’s study included three critical areas: memory, caches,
and registers.

3. A colon should not be used to introduce a list that is the complement

or object of an element in the introductory statement.
e.g., The systems excluded were
backup
data migration

4. The terms as follows and the following require a colon if followed di-
rectly by the illustrating or enumerated items or if the introducing
clause is incomplete without such items.
e.g., The steps are as follows:
1. Design the algorithm...
If the introducing statement is complete, however, and is followed by
one or more other complete sentences, a period may be used.
e.g., An outline of the procedure follows. Note that care was taken
to eliminate work load variation of the computer. 1. The required
program is started on the computer...

5. If the material introduced by a colon consists of more than one sentence,

of if it is a formal statement, it should begin with a capital letter.
Otherwise, it may begin with a lowercase letter.
e.g.1, We wish to state the following: For maximum speed, all programs
should only use data that are local. Non-local data will always have
some latencies attached.
e.g.2, System A was insupportable: not only had it failed all its evalu-
ations, but further was very expensive.

6. The colon should be placed outside quotation marks or parentheses.

e.g., We were puzzled by the behaviour of most of the users involved in
the evaluation (of System A): none of them had difficulty in navigating
the interface.

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Parentheses
1. Parentheses, like commas and dashes, may set off amplifying, explana-
tory, or digressive elements. If such parenthetical elements retain a
close logical relation to the rest of the sentence, commas should be
used instead. If the logical relation is more remote, dashes or paren-
theses should be used.

2. An expression such as that is, namely, i.e., e.g., and the element it
introduces, may be enclosed in parentheses if the break in continuity is
greater than that signalled by a comma.

3.3 Other
We list below some more guidelines that will improve your dissertation:

1. Please also note that in writing, only the first letter of a proper noun
should be capitalized at the middle of a sentence. All the others should
be written in lower-case. A good guideline is to check whether what you
are referring to is unique to the entire world. If it is, then capitalize it.
Else use lower case. Following two examples use proper capitalization
and follow the above guideline:

Correct example 1: Government of Sri Lanka enacted legislation in

2004 to . . . (Correct use of G in government and SL in Sri Lanka)
Correct example 2: Many governments around the world, . . . (Cor-
rect use of g in government)

Important: If you are not sure whether to capitalize or not, use lower-
case.

2. Note also that you should not use shortened word forms in writing.
Thus for example, have not should be used instead of haven’t, is not
instead of isn’t, do not instead of don’t and so on.

3. If you have to write numbers below ten in a statement, use words

instead of digits. Two correct examples are: We performed seven tests
with our new system. and There were 20 cases of error.

4. Use of italics: Key terms in a discussion, terms with special meaning,

and in general, terms to which the reader’s attention is directed are
often italicized on first use. Also, technical terms, especially when

16
 accompanied by its definition, is often set in italics the first time it
appears in a discussion.
e.g., The cache line is the smallest unit of data transfer.

5. Note that its (without the apostrophe) is used on indicate possession.

e.g., The system failed in its integration test.

4 Conclusion
This document has thus provided you with a guideline to prepare your dis-
sertations. Although not highlighted here, it is very important to write your
dissertations in correct English. Thus it is the responsibility of the student
to make sure that all sentences are grammatically correct. Your grammar
skills will automatically improve by increasing your amount of reading of
good material. The task of writing grammatically correct sentences will also
be made easier by cultivating the habit of writing short sentences that are
correct. Note also that your dissertation should be also free of any spelling
errors to make it perfect.
Also note that we have provided you with only a guideline. As mentioned
at the beginning of this document, the readers of your dissertation would be
your examiners from UCSC as well as any future readers that will either add
to your work or use the system that you developed. Therefore your should
judiciously select the content to suit that readership.

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Appendix
Referencing using the IEEE style
IEEE is a numbered style with two components:
In-text references where references are numbered from [1] in the order of
appearance in the article and
A reference list, displayed at the end of the article which provides full
details of all references cited in-text. The references are ordered as they
appear in the in-text references (in order of citation, not in alphabetic order).

In-text Referencing
Using this system, references are numbered in the order in which they are
first cited in the text. If the same reference is cited later in the text, the
same number is given. For example:
“The theory was first put forward in 2001 [1]”
“Perera [2] has argued that...”
“Recent studies [1], [3], [4], [15] have suggested that...”

Reference List
This is provided at the end of the dissertation in a separate chapter titled
“References”. The details of all the literature that has been referenced in-text
in your dissertation should be given here in a consistent format. The format
examples for different types of literature commonly used in dissertations are
given below. It is very important to follow the correct use of punctuation
marks and italics.
References must be listed in the order in which they were cited (numerical
order) not in alphabetical order.

Books:
Elements of the citation Author(s) First name or initials. Surname, or
name of organization, Title of book followed by fullstop if no edition
statement, or comma if there is an edition statement, ed., Edition (ex-
cept the first). Place of publication City: Publisher, Year of Publica-
tion. In addition, to the above citation details, provide page numbers
if you have quoted specific facts or materials e.g. pp. 28-30.

18
Example C. W. Lander, Power Electronics, 3rd. ed., London: McGraw-
Hill, 1993.
B. Hancock, Advanced Ethernet/802.3 Network Management and Per-
formance. Boston: Digital Press, 1994, pp. 5-8.

Sections/chapters of books
Elements of the citation: Author(s) First name or initials. Surname, “Ti-
tle of the chapter,” in Title of the book, ed., Edition (except the first)
vol., volume if available, Ed. editor if available, Place of publication:
Publisher, Year of Publication, pp. Chapter/s or First and Last pages
of the article.

Example: G. K. Knopf and A. S. Bassi, “Biological-based optical sensors

and transducers,” in Opto-mechatronic Systems Handbook: Techniques
and Applications, Hyungsuck Cho, Ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press,
2003, pp. 195-210.

Papers from conferences

Elements of the citation: Author(s) First name or initials. Surname, “Ti-
tle of paper,” in Title of the Conference, Editor/s firstname last name
if available, Ed. Place of publication: Publisher if available, Date of
publication, pp. first and last pages of the paper.

Example: A. H. Cookson and B. O. Pedersen, “Thermal measurements in a

1200kV compressed gas insulated transmission line,” in Seventh IEEE
Power Engineering Society Transmission and Distribution Conference
and Exposition, 1979, pp. 163-167.

Journal articles
Elements of the citation: Author(s) First name or initials. Surname, “Ti-
tle of article,” Title of journal, vol. volume, (issue number), pp. first
and last pages of the article, Date of issue month if available year.

Example: K. P. Dabke and K. M. Thomas, “Expert system guidance for

library users,” Library Hi Tech, vol. 10, (1-2), pp. 53-60, 1992.

Theses or dissertations
Elements of the citation: Author(s) First name or initials. Surname, “Ti-
tle of dissertation,” Type of dissertation PhD dissertation or doctoral

19
 dissertation or master’s dissertation, Department, University, Place,
State, Country, Year of Publication.

Example: S. Birch, “Dolphin-human interaction effects: frequency medi-

ated psychophysiological responses in biological systems,” doctoral dis-
sertation, Dept. Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering, Monash
University, Victoria, Australia, 1997.

Electronic book
Elements of the citation: Author(s) First name or initials. Surname. (date
of publication year, month day). Title. (ed. edition except the first)
[Type of medium]. volume number if needed. (issue number if needed).
Available: site/path/file

Example: A. K. Salkintzis. (2004). Mobile Internet: enabling technologies

and services. [Online]. Available: http://www.engnetbase.com/books/1253/
1631fm.pdf
V. Guruswami. (2004). List decoding of error-correcting codes: win-
ning dissertation of the 2002 ACM doctoral dissertation competition.
(2nd ed.) [Online]. 3282. Available: http://portal.acm.org/3540240519.pdf

Online journal article

Elements of the citation: Author(s) First name or initials. Surname. (year,
month). Title of article. Title of Journal. [Type of medium]. volume
number (issue number), pp. pages. Available: site/path/file Note: the
dates where months are included the following abbreviations can ap-
ply: Write May, June, and July in full. Abbreviate the other months:
Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. Use a slash
for bimonthly issues (Aug./Sept. 2000) and a hyphen or en dash for a
quarterly (July-Sept. 2000)

Example: J. S. Fulda. (2000, Mar.). The Internet as an engine of schol-

arship. ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society. [Online]. 30 (1), pp.
17-27. Available: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/572217.572222
J. Farrell. (2007, May). In Wikipedia we trust? Cosmos Online [On-
line]. Available: http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1339

20
Electronic conference paper
Elements of the citation: Author(s) First name or initials. Surname. (year,
month). Title. Presented at Conference title. [Type of Medium].
Available: site/path/file

Example: X. Yang. (2003, Aug.). NIRA: a new Internet routing architec-

ture. Presented at ACM SIGCOMM FDNA 2003 Workshop. [Online].
Available: http://www.isi.edu/newarch/DOCUMENTS/yang.nira.pdf

Website
Elements of the citation: Author. (year, month). Title. [Type of Medium].
Available: site/path/file

Example: (2007, Mar.). Dr Jean Armstrong: Brief Biography [Online].

Available: http://www.ecse.monash.edu.au/staff/jeana/aboutarmstrong.html

A Sample Reference List

[1] C. W. Lander, Power Electronics, 3rd. ed., London: McGraw-Hill,

1993.
[2] B. Hancock, Advanced Ethernet/802.3 Network Management and Per-
formance. Boston: Digital Press, 1994, pp. 5-8.
[3] G. K. Knopf and A. S. Bassi, ”Biological-based optical sensors and
transducers,” in Opto- mechatronic Systems Handbook: Techniques and Ap-
plications, Hyungsuck Cho, Ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2003, pp.
195-210.
[4] A. H. Cookson and B. O. Pedersen, ”Thermal measurements in a
1200kV compressed gas insulated transmission line,” in Seventh IEEE Power
Engineering Society Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposi-
tion, 1979, pp. 163-167.

References
[1] C.A.R.Hoare. An axiomatic basis for computer programming. Commu-
nications of the ACM, 12(10), October 1969.

[2] J.A.Hoffer, J.F.George, and J.S.Valacich. Modern System Analysis and

Design. Pearson Education, third edition, 2002.

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