ETD Introduction Video

Video Transcript

[00:00 – ETD homepage]

Hello, This is the formatting advisor for the graduate school.

I wanted to give you a brief overview of the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation, or ETD, process.

If you’re doing a thesis or dissertation or Doctorate of Nursing scholarly project for your graduate degree, you’ll have to complete a few extra steps.

[00:16 – Slide of ETD lifecycle]

You’ll have to comply to the ETD formatting standards and get your formatting approved by me. During your last semester, you’ll upload drafts of your ETD to our Submission Portal, which has a checklist designed to help you with common formatting tasks. Feel free to send me a draft as early as you have one and we will work together. Please do not send me the first draft for the first time on deadline day. After you’ve defended and the formatting is up to standards, you can submit a final PDF copy to the Submission Portal. This final upload also replaces the old Certificate of Approval form, as well, so don’t worry about that.

[00:50 – Grad School home page > Dates & Deadlines page]

You’ll have to get your final upload approved by me by the ETD deadline, which is typically a week or two before the end of the semester.

[00:57 – ScholarWorks webpage]

The formatting standards set forth by the grad school are to ensure consistency and professionalism. All ETDs are published on ScholarWorks by the MSU library after you submit it.

[01:10 – ETD website – formatting and submitting pages]

On the ETD website, we have a lot of information about formatting, submission, and approval. I think the most helpful parts is the Sample Pages, which you can find in the side navigation or Formatting Page.

[01:22 – Sample pages]

The sample pages explain the formatting in these little yellow boxes and in the text. Everything you need to know about formatting should be mentioned in the sample pages.

[01:32 – ETD page then template]

We also have Word templates and link to one for LaTeX, as well. I recommend using the template, as it can help do much of the formatting for you and save you a lot of work.

[01:43 – Word template]

Here’s a quick look at one of our Word templates. The style headings are already set for you to do a lot of the spacing formatting and this helps with accessibility as well.

[01:55 – Accessibility webpage]

You can read more about accessibility on out accessibility page here.

[01:59 – Video Tutorial page]

We have helpful video tutorials for the Word template, and I recommend checking those out, as well.

[02:05 – Checklist slide and submission page]

To wrap up - If you are a master’s degree student or doctorate of nursing student, you just have to get your ETD uploaded and approved by me by the deadline date.

If you are a Doctoral student, and this PhD or EdD, you’ll also have to take a Survey of Earned Documents, and I’ll provide you with a link.

[02:24 – Website]

So read through our website or come to one of our seminars hosted with the library for more in depth information on submitting your ETD. Feel free to email me at gradformatting@montana.edu with any questions you might have. Thank you and good luck!