UNIVERSITY OF TRENTO

Department of Industrial Engineering

Polymer and Composites Laboratory

INDICATIONS FOR THE PREPARATION OF THE

UNDEGRADUATE THESIS AND OF SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

Ing. Andrea Dorigato, PhD

Last update : April 11th 2017

1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 2
2. FRONTISPIECE........................................................................................................................... 2
3. PAGE SETTINGS ........................................................................................................................ 2
4. GENERAL STRUCTURE ........................................................................................................... 2
5. SPECIFIC INDICATIONS .......................................................................................................... 4

1. INTRODUCTION

The present document has a merely indicative aim, and it mustn’t be considered has a mandatory
regulation for a correct preparation of an undergraduate thesis document or for a scientific report.

2. FRONTISPIECE

The frontspiece choice is free, please refer to the thesis previously presented in Polymer and
Composites Laboratory.

3. PAGE SETTINGS

The choice of the upper/lower and lateral page borders is free. However, not less than 2 cm and not
more than 3.5 cm.
A justified 12 pt Times New Roman font with 1.5 interline should be used, while titles and subtitled
can be placed on the left side or in the centre of the page. The choice of the title and subtitles styles
is free.
Every page, expect for the first one, must be numbered. Manuscript pages must be numbered also
in the partial reports submitted to the tutors, in order to render the correction easier.
It is better to insert in the text headings and footers. The choice of heading and footers style is free.

4. GENERAL STRUCTURE

Before the preparation of the manuscript, the candidate must define with the tutor (or the co-tutor)
the summary of the thesis, in order to determine a precise order in the presentation of the thesis
contents.

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Every chapter must be numbered in a progressive order (1,2,3, …), indicating also the sub chapters
(1.1, 1.2, 1.3, ….), and also further sub sections (1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, ….). At a general level, the
thesis must be organized in the following sections:

INTRODUCTION: it has the aim to synthetically define the topic of the thesis and the aim of the
work. It must contain a subchapter defining the aim of the work. Then, some subchapters defining
the properties of the material classes utilized in the research and the state of the art of the research
in that field must be inserted, together with the relative bibliographical references. For some
introductive sections, the examples of the previous thesis works could be useful.

MATERIALS AND METHODS : it synthetically describes the experimental way in which the
experimental work has been performed. It must contain a subchapter with the description of the
utilized materials, followed by a subchapter with the description of the methodologies of the
samples preparation. Another subchapter with the description of the experimental techniques must
be reported.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION : in this section the most important results of the thesis work,
divided on the basis of the adopted experimental techniques, must be reported. The results should
be presented in the same order in which they were presented in the Materials and Methods section.
After the presentation of the results in graphical or tabular format, their discussion and the
comparison with the literature references must be reported.

CONCLUSIONS : the most important results of the thesis must be summarized (max 2-3 pages),
indicating also the original aspects of the thesis, the open questions and the future developments of
the work.

BIBLIOGRAHY : it must contain the references utilized as the starting point for the development
of the thesis work. Even if it is possible to utilize a pointed list of references, it is better to introduce
the references with a progressive numerical order. The same order should be utilized also in the text
of thesis as citations (for instance (1) o [1]).

After the bibliography, further information could be inserted in an appendix. The

acknowledgements could be inserted as the last part of the thesis (not more than 2 pages).

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 5. SPECIFIC INDICATIONS

Gramathical settings
• In the preparation of the text the change from present to simple past and viceversa should be
avoided within the same manuscript section. Generally, in Materials and Methods part it is
better to use the simple past, while in the Results and Discussion section the present is
preferable.
• In the preparation of the text the impersonal form must be used, avoiding thus the description
of experimental procedures or systems in first person (singular or plural).
• Avoid expression such as : “was done”, “wa have done”, etc…

Symbols/units settings
• Pay attention to apeces and pedices.
• Please use SI units.
• Every symbol or acronym introduced in the text for the first time should be spelled and/or
explained.

Figures/tables settings
• All the figures and all the tables must be numbered and accompanied by a caption, with a
progressive numeration.
• All the figures and all the tables must be cited in the text.
• The equations must be numbered and cited in the text.
• Do not discuss or present the results of a figure/table before to have reported it in the text.
• In the Results and Discussion section, the graphs with the experimental curves must be
reported before the tables with the results in numerical form.
• Avoid the insertion of figures/tables beside the text.
• In the axis of the diagrams, insert the numbers with the appropriate decimal places.
• Avoid the insertion of titles in the graphs.
• Figures and tables must be inserted and cited as “Figure” and “Table”, avoiding expressions
as “Curve”, “Diagram”, etc….