4.3 The Last Part of the Thesis

The last part of the bachelor’s or master’s thesis consists of indexed information relating to the report: references and appendices.

References

The reference list includes an alphabetical listing of the source materials used. For further details, refer to Basic Principles of Reference List Entries.

Appendices

Appendices are materials that are non-critical to the understanding of the topic of a thesis, but still referred to in the text. It is also permissible to append materials that facilitate the understanding of and reinforce the validity of the report. Examples of such appendices might include, e.g. data acquisition materials such as data collection instruments, interview scripts, detailed explanations of methods and techniques, as well as progress reports referred to in the text.

Appendices are placed after the list of references. They are referred to in the text of the report, and are usually numbered sequentially and given informative titles. At the end of the table of contents, there is a compiled list of the appendices to the report. The sources of appendices are indicated in the list of references. Because appendices represent supplemental material, line spacing may be adapted as appropriate to suit their intended purpose.

Numbering of appendix pages

As a rule of thumb, appendices are numbered consecutively (Appendix 1, Appendix 2, and so on) in accordance with the total number of them and with the running page numbering established at the beginning of the report. For separate standalone appendices, e.g. DVDs, CD-ROMs, videos, folders, or work instructions, it is sufficient to number them either according to how many of them there are or to their own running page numbers.

The item Pages on the description page always indicates the total number of pages in the report, while the item Miscellaneous contains a further breakdown.