Here is some information on writing your thesis to help you avoid common pitfalls of formatting. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but covers some of the items that seem to come up again and again.
First of all, the Department mailroom located in HP 3315 has some past examples of physics theses. You can also find electronic versions of past theses here: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14718/6629. I recommend looking at some examples, particularly from students who were in your group and/or research field.
The official material on thesis requirement and format is at https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/resources-page/thesis-requirements/. You can find the MSWord Doc template at https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/resources-page/thesis-requirements/thesis-forms-templates-policies/. If you prefer to use LaTex, the physics department recommends this LaTex template.
Note in particular that abstracts must not exceed 150 words (master’s) and 350 words (doctoral).
The best style manual that we know of for physicists is at https://publishing.aip.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/AIP_Style_4thed.pdf particularly with respect to grammar and how to format a decent graph.
Remember to obtain permission to use Figures and Tables published by others. It's not sufficient to give a reference for the source -- the title page of your thesis declares copyright for all this material under your name. Sometimes material, especially in particle physics, is overtly in the public domain. If you think that's the case, please verify it, and if so then it's your lucky day! Otherwise, you have to get permission from the publisher of the journal or book from which you want to reproduce material. Ask yourself if you really need to reproduce the material, or if a simple reference will do. A graduate research thesis is different from the reports many people have written earlier in the education system. There are strong reasons why we reference things, rather than reproduce them.
It is not a formal requirement, but most theses in Physics are made more user-friendly by having a Table of Abbreviations or a Table of Symbols. It helps the reader to have a page to check acronyms like NLO, VBF, COMS, HDR, LET, BDT, DVH etc. and/or check mathematical symbols.
With regard to use of colour, my advice to you is to reserve its use for where it is really needed. The difficulties with using colour for science are:
- most laser printers are black/white
- most photocopiers are black/white
- most printed journals are black/white
- and, about 6% of males (far fewer for females) have reduced colour vision, most usually difficulty distinguishing red/green. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness)
That's a lot of scientists and the problem is not going away soon no matter how good our computer technologies get.
Example 1: a graph with two lines on it can use different symbols for the data points, or use different line weights to distinguish the two lines, or simply label the two lines directly. Using colour for the lines is unnecessary.
Example 2: when a CT image must be overlaid with a PET image, one of the best ways to distinguish the two images is to use colour. e.g. make the CT greyscale and put the PET in colour. The colour allows the viewer to separate the two types of information despite their spatial superposition. It would be almost impossible to do this without colour.
The section near the end where you list references is properly titled "References" not "Bibliography". A bibliography generally is just an unordered list of general reading. If you are using a template that titles the section as "Bibliography", please change it.
If you are unsure about something, there are a lot of people around who can help, including faculty and other students and postdocs in your group. Many people have laboured through the task you now have at hand. And again, take a look at previous theses.
Daniel Stolarski, Graduate Advisor
Updated July 2026