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MP Guidelines -- MP Report
Preparation of the Masters Project Report
The final report on the masters project must show professional
competence through organization, quality of analysis, and
ability to communicate findings. The student is responsible
for technical content and careful proofreading is required.
Consult an appropriate writer's style manual, and
obtain the agreement of your advisor on the appropriate
style to follow (from a style manual or journal in your
field). The advisor will approve the masters project
after a critical assessment of content, format, style of
writing, and technical quality. All revisions must be made
before the Project is completed, the abstract signed, and
the official document uploaded to DukeSpace.
The Cover Sheet. The cover sheet gives
the title, author, date and degree, and the name of the
MP advisor. The cover sheet is not numbered (click
here for sample).
The Abstract. All masters projects contain
an abstract. The abstract states the purpose, general experimental
design (as appropriate), results, conclusions and significance
of the work. It should stand alone (i.e. be intelligible
to those who may not have the opportunity to read the entire
work). It may not exceed one typewritten page. The recommended
length is 250 to 300 words. It may be typed double or single
spaced. Normally, the abstract follows the cover sheet
and precedes the table of contents in the bound report.
It is titled "ABSTRACT" and may be numbered with
a small Roman numeral or left unnumbered.
The Separate Abstract. Abstracts of all
student research are bound into a notebook available to
persons who are interested in a quick reference to work
being done in the School. For this purpose, students must
submit a separate abstract typed in the format shown in
Appendix 2. The content of the abstract is the same as
in the final report, but the format differs. The title
of the project, the author's name, and the date of submission
are essential parts of the heading. There must be a place
for the advisor to sign and date the abstract as approval
of completion of the project (click
here for sample).
General Typing Instructions. Use a computer
printer that produces sharp, black type. If/when you print
your document out, use white, 8½" by 11" paper
of good quality. Allow margins of approximately one inch
on both sides, top, and bottom. All type, including titles
of sections and page numbers, should fall within these
margins. All material in the body of the report should
be double spaced. Footnotes and references, charts, diagrams,
etc., may follow any generally accepted format for your
field and be single spaced.
General Content. Generally, project reports
or research papers contain the following five sections:
- Introduction (including statement of hypothesis or
objective),
- Materials and methods,
- Results or observations,
- Discussion and conclusion, and
- References (literature cited).
Students are referred to the Council of Biology Editors
Style Manual, available in the library, or the style
manual recommended by your advisor, for a discussion
of content of these main sections. Project reports may,
however, be divided into other sections and subsections
as needed.
Students interested in using the internship as the basis
for their MPs should work closely with their advisors to
ensure that reports expected of them under their internships
are compatible with the requirements of the masters project. Sometimes
the product required by the internship supervisor is different
from that required by the Nicholas School, resulting in the
student having to prepare two versions of the report. Communicate
closely with both the internship supervisor and your MP advisor
to determine if this will be the case. PLEASE NOTE:
because final MPs will be publicly available via search engines
to persons outside of the Nicholas School and Duke, students
must anticipate and address in advance any potential difficulties
regarding proprietary or confidential information with both
their internship advisor and their MP advisor.
Copying and Binding the Report. Since
paper copies of the MP are no longer required, students
are not required by the school to submit paper bound
copies of their Master’s Projects. However, if you or
your advisor wish to have a paper copy, you may purchase
covers (front and back) for $1 per set from Enrollment
Services. Check with your Masters Project advisor to
determine if s/he wants to receive a bound copy.
Submission. When the final report has
been approved by the MP advisor, the "official copy" is
to be uploaded to DukeSpace following specific instructions.
The separate abstract with advisor’s signature must be
submitted at the same time. Deadlines for submission
are as follows:
- For May graduation: Friday of Reading Week for
the spring semester
- For September graduation: last Friday in August
- For December graduation: Friday of Reading Week for
the fall semester
For more information, contact the Office
of Professional Studies
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