The following information is taken from "Publishing Your Dissertation" by UMI Company. These guidelines must be followed for dissertations and are strongly urged for master theses.

An abstract for a dissertation or thesis should provide a succinct, descriptive account of your work and not exceed 350 words. If it is longer than 350 words, revise it.

The abstract should be on one side of the paper only, double-spaced.

Include pertinent place names, names of persons (in full), and other proper nouns. These are useful in automated retrieval.

Clearly and accurately display symbols and foreign words/phrases. Include transliterations for characters other than Roman and Greek letters and Arabic numerals. include accents and diacritical marks.

Your abstract must not include graphs, charts, tables, or illustrations.

If the original abstract is not in English and an English translation has been made, provide both the English and the foreign language abstracts.