COMMON ISSUES COMMON MISTAKES DETECTED IN THE THESIS 1

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WRITING THESIS ACCORDING TO GAYA UKM: LIST OF COMMON MISTAKES

I. All thesis must be written according to UKM thesis style of writing [Rules 29: UKM Regulation (Graduate Studies) 2015].

II. Student should refer to the following website for the guideline on how to write thesis according to GAYA UKM: http://www.ukm.my/pusatsiswazah/thesis-templates-and-guidlines/

III. Several mistakes commonly detected in student thesis are listed in the table below. Please go through the list and avoid making similar mistakes.

COMMON ISSUES COMMON MISTAKES DETECTED IN THE THESIS

1. Title Page

• Should have a TITLE PAGE in English and followed by a translation in Bahasa Malaysia.

• Purpose of submission of thesis (for English title page) should be:

THESIS SUBMITTED IN FULFILMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF

……. (DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY OR MASTER OF SCIENCE)

• Purpose of submission of thesis (for Bahasa Malaysia title page):

TESIS YANG DIKEMUKAKAN UNTUK MEMPEROLEH IJAZAH…….. (DOKTOR FALSAFAH/SARJANA SAINS) (Refer page 11, GAYA UKM)

• Title page in Bahasa Malaysia presented before English

• Include discipline in thesis submission statement (English/Bahasa Malaysia): THESIS SUBMITTED IN FULFILMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY/MASTER OF SCIENCE IN BIOLOGY/ PHYSICS/ CHEMISTRY/

MATHEMATICS/ETC

• Spelled MEMPEROLEH AS MEMPEROLEHI

2. Font Size in the Text

• Font size for headings and subheadings is 11 points.

The font size for the text is 12 points.

(Refer page 1, GAYA UKM)

• Font size of 12 points used for the headings and subheadings

• Font size of 11 points used for text

3. Page Number

• The first page (title page) is considered as page “i” but the page number is not typed in.

• The first page of the text proper is considered as page

“1” but the page number is not typed in.

• The first page of each section or chapter, the page number is not typed in even though the page is counted.

• Students typed the page number on the first page of each chapter

• The page number was not on the top right hand corner of the page (especially page with landscape orientation)

UKM/FST/SPS/21(BI) Tarikh Kuatkuasa 10-12-2020

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• Page number must be on the top right hand corner of the page

(Refer page 1 GAYA UKM)

4. Abstract

• A thesis written in English should have its translation abstract in Bahasa Malaysia (without title), followed by abstract in English (without title)

• The abstract for English was presented before Bahasa Malaysia.

• Title was included for Bahasa Malaysia/English abstract

• Titles were included for both abstracts

5. Table of Content

• The sub-headings in Table of Content is until two decimal points only, for example: 2.1.1, 3.1.1, 4.3.2.

• Use the following format for the table of content:

• Take note of the capital and small letters as well as line spacing between headings and subheadings as well between different subheadings

• The level of subheadings presented in the Table of Content were more than two decimal points.

• The usage of capital letter and small letters for headings and subheadings are not according to GAYA UKM.

• The spacing presented in the Table of Content is not according to GAYA UKM

6. List of Tables and Illustrations

• The list of tables/illustrations should be numbered according to the chapters, for example, Table 2.1, Table 3.1, Table 4.4, Figure 2.1, Figure 4.5

• The titles must be worded exactly as they appear in the text of the thesis. DO NOT include figure/table legend in the list.

(Refer page 85-86 GAYA UKM)

• Table/Figures were listed without the word

“Table”/”Figure”

• Table/Figure legends were listed along with the title.

7. Subheadings in the Text

• Subheadings are used until two decimal points only (eg. 3.2.2). For the following subheadings, use

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alphabets (a, b, c, …) and subsequent subheadings use Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, …).

• The following subheading styles were

detected in the text: 3.3.3.1/ 3.3.1.a, 3.3.1.b/

3.3.1(a)/ 3.3.1.(i)A, B/I, II, III

8. Table

• The title of a table must be positioned above the table.

• Tables have no vertical lines. Horizontal lines are only used at the top and bottom and to separate major sections of the table.

• If a table is presented in landscape view, the head of the table must be along the bound edge of the thesis.

• Font size for all table title and contents is 10 points.

• Table continue on several pages must use “to be continued…” and “…continuation”

• The title was provided at the bottom of the table.

• Vertical lines appeared in the table. Horizontal lines were used to separate rows of data.

• In the landscape view, the head of the table was presented towards the outside of the thesis

• The font size for the title and content was not 10 points.

• Student failed to use “to be continued…” and

“…continuation” for table continue on several pages.

9. Illustration/Figure

• The title of each illustration/Figure should be positioned below it.

• If an illustration/Figure is presented in landscape view, the head of the illustration must be along the bound edge of the thesis.

• Font size for all illustrations/Figures title is 10 points.

• The title was provided at the top of the illustration

• In the landscape view, the top of the

illustration was presented towards the outside of the thesis

• Different font size (not 10) used for the titles.

10. Reference for Table and Illustration

References for tables and illustrations are written at the bottom of tables/illustrations after text or footnote describing the tables/illustrations. It is written as a new line and must be centered. It contains the following information:

Source, followed by colon, name of the authors followed by the year of publication

Source: Brown & Gow 2019,or Source: Wahab et al. 2020, or

Source: Tourism Development Board, Malaysia 1994

• Reference was provided at the end of the title/ legend of table/illustration and not written as a new line

• Year of publication provided in a bracket

• The reference not centered

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11. Writing Numbers

• Numbers up to four digits, that is 9999, are written without a comma or a space between them. Number larger than four digits are written with a space before each set of three digits, for eg. 10 000, 100 000.

• Numbers smaller than 12 should be spelt out except they are with unit or when they appear in a list, for example 5, 90, 102 and 1032.

• Avoid beginning a sentence with a number or a symbol.

• Mistakes in writing number were detected in the thesis (for example 9,999; 10,000; 10000, 100,000)

• Number smaller than 12 without unit was not spelt out.

• Sentence was started with numbers/symbol

12. Writing Units

• There should be a space between number and unit except for %. For C use the degree from the symbol not superscript of O, o or 0 (zero).

• Molarity is represented by the symbols M.

• Use proper symbol for microliter () and times ().

• There is no spacing between number and unit.

• A space appear between number and %.

• Student used u instead of  for microliter and x (from keyboard) instead of  (from symbol) for times

13. In Text Citations

• Use author-date system.

• Where the work of two or three co-authors is referred to, then all names must be mentioned each time it is referred to.

• Where reference is made to a work authored by more than three people, the name of the first author is given followed by “et al.” and the date of publication

• Use “and” in the text to refer to two or more authors but use “&”when listed the authors in the bracket.

• Examples:

1. Candida albicans is a human pathogen (Gow & Brown 2011).

2. Ganoderma is an oil palm pathogen (Seman, Murad &

Wahab 2019)

3. Magnaporthe oryzae produces appressorium during infection (Kamarudin et al. 2019)

4. Zhang and Storms (2012) showed that PyrG protein is required for the pathogenicity of Colletotrichum.

Type of mistakes detected in the thesis

• Use comma after author names or after “et al.”, eg. Candida albicans is a human pathogen (Gow & Brown, 2011; Mohan et al., 2009).

• Spelled “and” when used in the bracket, eg.

Candida albicans is a human pathogen (Gow and Brown 2011).

• et al. is italicized, eg Magnaporthe oryzae produces appressorium during infection (Kamarudin et al. 2019).

• Use symbol “&”in the text, eg. Zhang &

Storms (2012) showed that PyrG protein is required for the pathogenicity of Candida albicans.

• Author initials were included, for example (N.A. Gow & A.J. Brown 2011).

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14. In Text Citations: Multiple References

Two or more references made in the same place should be separated by semicolons and the sequence should be in alphabetical order.

(Alberts 2011; Bong et al. 2001; Jamaluddin, Ramanda &

Bakar 2010; Quay & Murad 2006) (Refer to page 24, GAYA UKM)

• References were separated only by comma and not semicolon, for eg. (Alberts 2011, Bong et al. 2001, Jamaluddin, Ramanda & Bakar 2010; Quay & Murad 2006)

• References were arranged according to year of publication, for eg. (Bong et al. 2001; Quay

& Murad 2006; Jamaluddin, Ramanda & Bakar 2010; Alberts 2011)

15. Writing References: Books and Chapters in Book

Provide the following information:

Author’s name (all), full-stop. Year of publication, full- stop. Title of book (in italics), full-stop. Editor, Compiler, Translator (if indicated), full-stop. Name of series and volume number or series number (where relevant), full- stop

Edition, other than the first, is typed 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) Ed., full-stop. Volume number, full-stop.

Place of publication (city), followed by a colon, and Publisher, followed by a full-stop

Book:

Smith, M., Beck, J., Cooper, C.L., Cow, C., Ottaway, D. &

Talbot, R. 2008. Introducing Organizational Behaviour.

London: MacMillan.

Book Chapter:

Fleishman, I.A. 2011. Twenty years of consideration and structure. In Fleishman, I.A. & Hunt. J.G. (ed.). Current Development in the Study of Leadership: Selected Readings. pp. 1-37. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

• Student used ‘and’ instead of ‘&’ in the list of authors

• The year was presented in a bracket

• The title of the book was not italicized

• Failed to provide place of publication and name of the publisher or the arrangement of the place and publisher not in the right order

• Page number was not provided for book chapter

• The name of editors for book chapter was not properly arranged

16. Writing References: Articles in Journals

Author’s name, full-stop.

Year, full-stop. Title of the article, full-stop. Name of Journal (in full and italics). Volume number, issue number (within bracket), colon, number of pages, full- stop.

Example: Hamzah, N., Mohamed, A. & Hussain, A. 2004.

A new approach to locate the voltage sag source using real current component. Journal of Electric Power System Research 72(2): 113-123.

• The year was presented in bracket

• The title of the journal was not italicized

• Volume or page number was not provided

• The format for journal titles in the list of reference is not consistent, mixture of full journal name and journal abbreviation

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Must be consistent when writing the name of the journal, either write in full or use journal abbreviation.

Do not mix both.

17. Writing References: Articles in Proceeding

Author’s name, full-stop.

Year, full-stop. Title of the article, full-stop. Name of the proceedings (italics), comma. Page number (pp.), full- stop.

Example: Rahmat, R.A., Jumari, K., Hassan, A. & Basri, H.

2002. Intelligent traffic control with image processing sensor. Proceedings of the 2nd World Engineering Congress, pp. 339 – 344.

• The title of the proceeding was not italicized

• The title of the proceeding is incomplete

• Page number for the article was not provided

18. Writing References: Electronic Reference Materials Name of author, followed by a full stop. Year, followed by a full stop

Title of article, followed by a full stop. Website/file/e- mail address (without underline)

Date of access [within brackets], followed by a full stop Example: Howell, V. & Carlton, B. 2008. Arsenic

contamination of drinking water.

http://www.cit.edu/phys/sensor.html [4 July 2008].

• The date of the article downloaded was not provided

Prepared by

Deputy Dean (Postgraduate) Faculty of Science and Technology October 2020

M: http://www.ukm.my/pusatsiswazah/thesis-templates-and-guidlines/