Click here and type the title of your thesis. If your title runs to two or more lines, keep typing without creating a new paragraph. Don’t move the box that contains this text.

Author

A Thesis in the Field of Creative Writing & Literature

for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies

Harvard University

[Month of Graduation] [Year]

Copyright 20XX Author’s Name

Abstract

Please keep in mind that as a Creative Writing & Literature student, the Abstract is the only portion of your thesis that will be publicly viewable; please write accordingly.

To insert Abstract text here, select this text and then either type the text you wish to use or paste text from another document, being sure to keep the text only and not the formatting from the previous document. To keep text only, choose Paste, and then from the drop-down box that will appear, choose the Keep Text Only option on the right, with the icon of a clipboard and the letter A.

Frontispiece (optional)

A frontispiece can be anything that sets the tone for the work to follow, e.g. a picture, a facsimile of a document, a photograph, a poem, etc. It must be cited appropriately. Citations can be written like a footnote or in italics beneath the item.

To insert a Frontispiece image here, select this text and choose Pictures on the Insert tab of the ribbon. If using the Frontispiece, please delete the word “(optional)” from the header above.

To delete this or any other unwanted section, select it in its entirety, including the title and the Section Break, and press Backspace or Delete. To see the Section Break, show formatting symbols by clicking the ¶ button in the Paragraph section of the Home ribbon, or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+8. Repeat the command to hide them again. Failure to delete the Section Break along with the text will result in a superfluous blank page; accidentally deleting a Section Break you didn’t intend to will remove the page break between sections.

Author’s Biographical Sketch (optional)

To insert Biographical Sketch text here, select this text and then either type the text you wish to use or paste text from another document, being sure to keep the text only and not the formatting from the previous document. To keep text only, choose Paste, and then from the drop-down box that will appear, choose the Keep Text Only option on the right, with the icon of a clipboard and the letter A. If using the Biographical Sketch, please delete the word “(optional)” from the header above.

To delete this or any other unwanted section, select it in its entirety, including the title and the Section Break, and press Backspace or Delete. To see the Section Break, show formatting symbols by clicking the ¶ button in the Paragraph section of the Home ribbon, or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+8. Repeat the command to hide them again. Failure to delete the Section Break along with the text will result in a superfluous blank page; accidentally deleting a Section Break you didn’t intend to will remove the page break between sections.

Dedication (optional)

The thesis can be dedicated to anyone or anything that was meaningful to you and inspired you– your family, your early teachers, someone who encouraged you along the way, etc. It is personal and meaningful, and also entirely optional.

To insert Dedication text here, select this text and then either type the text you wish to use or paste text from another document, being sure to keep the text only and not the formatting from the previous document. To keep text only, choose Paste, and then from the drop-down box that will appear, choose the Keep Text Only option on the right, with the icon of a clipboard and the letter A. If using the Dedication, please delete the word “(optional)” from the header above.

To delete this or any other unwanted section, select it in its entirety, including the title and the Section Break, and press Backspace or Delete. To see the Section Break, show formatting symbols by clicking the ¶ button in the Paragraph section of the Home ribbon, or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+8. Repeat the command to hide them again. Failure to delete the Section Break along with the text will result in a superfluous blank page; accidentally deleting a Section Break you didn’t intend to will remove the page break between sections.

Acknowledgments

Please note that it is proper academic etiquette to publicly thank your Thesis Director and Research Advisor, and therefore this section is not optional. Please feel free to thank anyone else who directly contributed to the writing of the thesis in addition to those already mentioned.

To insert text here, select this text and then either type the text you wish to use or paste text from another document, being sure to keep the text only and not the formatting from the previous document. To keep text only, choose Paste, and then from the drop-down box that will appear, choose the Keep Text Only option on the right, with the icon of a clipboard and the letter A. If using the Acknowledgments section, please delete the word “(optional)” from the header above. Note: if you are acknowledging only one person, please change the title above to read “Acknowledgment.”

To delete this or any other unwanted section, select it in its entirety, including the title and the Section Break, and press Backspace or Delete. To see the Section Break, show formatting symbols by clicking the ¶ button in the Paragraph section of the Home ribbon, or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+8. Repeat the command to hide them again. Failure to delete the Section Break along with the text will result in a superfluous blank page; accidentally deleting a Section Break you didn’t intend to will remove the page break between sections.

Table of Contents

Frontispiece (optional)	iv

Author’s Biographical Sketch (optional)	v

Dedication (optional)	vi

Acknowledgments	vii

Chapter I. About Chapters	1

Chapter II. Chapter Styles	3

Heading 3, SectionTitle/A-Head	3

References (optional)	5

Chapter I.
About Chapters

Here’s an example of an epigraph at the beginning of a chapter. Including epigraphs is not a requirement, and so please simply delete this text if you are not using any in your thesis.

—Epigraph author

From this point on, you are free to format your thesis in the way that is correct for your genre. If you are using a different program, for example if writing a screenplay, then a good solution is to create the front matter in Word and then convert this to a pdf; convert your screenplay or other document to pdf; and then use either a free program online or an Adobe product to combine the two pdfs into one document. Reach out to your case team with any questions about how to do this, if needed.

Please keep in mind that the abstract and metadata will always be viewable, but that your thesis itself will be permanently embargoed. This is done during the approval process by Harvard administration, but you can also select those options yourself when uploading to the ETDS system at the end.

If you would like to continue using this template to write your work, you are free to do so.

There are two ways to add a new chapter. First, you can simply type the name of your new chapter on a separate line and apply the Chapter Title (or Heading 2) style. (NOTE: A style is a quick way to set formatting ahead of time.) This will automatically drop your chapter title down to the next page and you may then begin your next chapter. Alternatively, you can copy this section, from the chapter title down to the section break, and then paste it immediately following the section break.

Please create new pages either by inserting a page break or a next-page section break. Do not hit “enter” repeatedly as this can cause problems. Breaks all live under the Layout tab.

To insert a new section break, go to the Layout tab in the Ribbon. In the Page Setup section, choose the Breaks dropdown menu; from the second half of the list, choose Section Break: Next Page or Section Break: Continuous if you don’t want a page break.

Chapter II.
Chapter Styles

There are several styles that are used within chapters that you’ll need to know how to use. Other styles in the document are used in specific circumstances only, but we’ll cover those later.

Heading 3, SectionTitle/A-Head

Use this heading if you want the heading itself to appear in the Table of Contents. If this isn’t needed, there’s no need to use the style.

The Chapter Title or “Major heading” style (shown in the Quick Styles menu as “Ch Title”) is used at the beginning of each chapter, including the appendices. For an example, see “Chapter 1 About Chapters” above. The first line of the title text will always begin 2” from the top of the page. The style immediately following the Chapter Title style will default to the Body Text style, to be used for the introduction of the chapter.

Chapter titles will automatically be included in the Table of Contents, but in order for them to appear after they’re first added, you’ll need to right-click on the TOC and choose “Update entire table.” To ensure that the chapter title is formatted correctly both on the page and in the corresponding TOC entry, there are two commands you’ll need to use for each:

In the TOC entry for Chapter 1, you’ll notice that there’s a half-inch space between the words “Chapter 1:” and the chapter title. This is accomplished by using a Tab character in the title itself. The Chapter Title style has been designed so that this Tab character will not interfere with the centering of the header and therefore will not appear to be present on this page at all; if the TOC entry does not contain that half-inch space, remember to add a Tab character.

In the Chapter 1 example above, you’ll notice that the chapter title falls on two different lines, with the words “Chapter 1:” on the first line and the chapter title itself on the second line. If you use the Enter key to separate these (called a “hard return”), they will appear much farther apart on the page and will appear in the TOC as two separate entries. To prevent this, you’ll need to use what’s called a “soft-return” by pressing Shift + Enter (just after the Tab character mentioned previously). This command tells the computer that you want the second line to be considered part of the same header or paragraph even as it appears on a new line.

If you run into any issues using the template or Microsoft Word, please reach out to Trudi Pires, tpires@fas.harvard.edu.

References (optional)

(This is for English or non-fiction only; please delete if not using.)

Last Name, Full First Name. Basic MLA Style Only. City: Publisher, Year. Print.

Last Name, Full First Name. Basic MLA Style Only. City: Publisher, Year. Print.

This is a footnote.

This is more than one footnotes. To delete these, delete the footnote reference in the text itself.