The Format Review

The document that you submit for the format review should be relatively free of formatting errors. You have spent many months on your applied dissertation. During that time, you were expected to master—with the guidance of your committee—the style and format rules established by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services.

The writing and preparation of a dissertation requires a meticulous attention to detail. Strict adherence to the guidelines of the Fischler School’s Style Guide for the Applied Dissertation and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) is required. To assist you, the Applied Research Center (ARC) Web site's "Resources for Writing and Preparing the Applied Dissertation" contains an array of supplemental information about writing style, APA style, and word processing.

The format review involves a cursory examination of your manuscript; consequently, it is designed to identify only a small number of minor errors in format and style. It is not intended to be a page-by-page or line-by-line edit or proofreading. You and your dissertation committee are responsible for ensuring that the manuscript is in compliance with required guidelines. Your committee chair may recommend that you obtain the services of a professional editor before you send the manuscript to the ARC.

After your manuscript is examined at the ARC for format, you will receive by e-mail one of three possible determinations: (a) “acceptable,” (b) “minor changes required,” or (c) “not acceptable for format review.”

In the first determination (“acceptable”), your manuscript is found to be relatively free of errors and will be forwarded to the next step in the approval process. In the second determination (“minor changes required”), you will receive a short list of items to correct or a list of style and format guidelines to study before you make revisions. You may work with your committee chair to make these final changes. The ARC expects you to complete this process after no more than one revision.

In the third determination (“not acceptable for format review”), your committee chair will be advised that professional editing is necessary. Because the manuscript deviates substantially from the required guidelines, additional comment cannot be provided.

We hope that you are able to move quickly through the approval process and that the end result is a document for which you and the university can take great pride.