Overview & MSSE Requirements

The MSSE Office requires its graduates to go through the ETD process with their professional paper. The formatting and accessibility standards set forth by the Graduate School are to ensure consistency and professionalism of theses, dissertations, and professional papers published to ScholarWorks.

You can use the MSSE template provided by the Graduate School, listed below. All formatting requirements are listed on the standard formatting webpage.

Due to the volume of MSSE students, the MSSE Office will assume formatting advisor responsibilities. The MSSE Office will inform students of deadlines and will take care of the Certificate of Approval form for students. Please contact your Project Advisor with questions on the ETD process.

Word Template

MSSE students should carefully follow the standard option formatting rules. An MSSE template is provided below. The only difference between the standard template and the MSSE template is that the front matter is partially filled out and Chapter 1 through 5 follow the MSSE suggested outline.

This template was updated in December 2023 to improve wrapping on chapter titles and first level headings. No formatting rules have changed.

MSSE Template

Suggested Outline

The MSSE Office suggests the following outline for an MSSE professional paper:

  • Chapter 1: Introduction & Background
    • Level 1 heading: Context of the Study
    • Level 1 heading: Focus Statement/Question
  • Chapter 2: Conceptual Framework
    • Level 1 headings: Up to 5-6 headings based on the theme titles from the literature
  • Chapter 3: Methodology
    • Level 1 heading: Demographics
    • Level 1 heading: Treatment
    • Level 1 heading: Data Collection and Analysis Strategies
  • Chapter 4: Data Analysis
    • Level 1 heading: Results
  • Chapter 5: Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning
    • Level 1 heading: Claims from the Study
    • Level 1 heading: Value of the Study and Consideration for Future Research
    • Level 1 heading: Impact of Action Research on the Author

References

For the references list, please follow APA Guidelines by referring to the Reference List: Basic Rules provided by Purdue Online Writing Lab.

Notes on Reference Formatting

The MSSE template should have reference formatting properly displayed already. For further help, see below.

  • To properly format the second line of a reference, search Google or YouTube using the keywords "Word hanging indentation."
  • Double space between reference entries.
  • Single space within reference entries.

How To Guide

For help with formatting, you can refer to the "How Do I...?" Guide provided by the Graduate School.