Yesterday I received my envelope from the grad school noting the changes I have to make to my manuscript.
Overall, the corrections are minor. The biggest problem, however, is that I have to collect new signatures from my committee because the grad school determined my layout for my signature page isn’t correct. This is easier said than done. One of my members is currently in St. Louis Missouri.
You remember the 36-page document that gives you the guidelines for formatting your manuscript? I now have some suggestions on how they can edit that document so it makes it more likely to create a correct manuscript. (Wow, is that an ugly sentence or what?)
My biggest problem in my formatting is my bottom margin. I set my page margins just like the grad school told me too. And then I inserted my page numbers using (and this is where my mistake was) Word’s default placement, which put my page numbers about a half-inch above the bottom of the page. You would think it was the default placement for a reason, but the grad school doesn’t like it. So all of my page numbers need to be repositioned so there is an inch of nothing underneath them — including the signature page. And I can’t resubmit my manuscript to the grad school for final approval until I get the new signature page(s). Because I have to have at least two copies bound, and the signatures MUST be original. No copies.
There were other things that needed changed too. My chapter titles were formatted using Word’s “heading 1″ setting, which includes a 12 pt line spacing before the actual title, which made my titles below the one-inch margin demanded at the top of the page. So they began at 1.25 inches below the top of the page, which means the top margin was wrong.
Overall, the changes weren’t that hard. I’ve already completed them. Except, I need to have my signature page printed on the speciality paper by a laser printer (four times). And then I have to get it to my various committee members for their signature (black-ink only). And that’s not really that hard either. It’s just a hassle.
But, but, when I am done, I can resubmit it, and the grad department will be happy, and the dean will sign my signature page too, and I will be really really DONE. And that equals degree. So.
And there is good news too. According to the grad department’s guidelines, they aren’t even required to start looking at new thesis submissions for August graduation until June 1, and I received my changes in the mail June 1, so at least they didn’t make me wait. And when I submitted it, they said it would be about two weeks, but they had it in the mail to me May 30, and my defense date was May 25, so they were quick too.
I could grumble a bit, but I’m not going to (well, except for this blog post. But let’s look at this as educational. That’s it. Educational.). Yes, the changes are minor and pesky, and the guidelines (you remember the 36-page document) could be more specific, or at least offer the warning “do not rely on the default settings in Word,” but it’s all fixable and good. And really, the fix is pretty quick and painless.
The one correction I thought was very strange: the spacing in between my segments. My memoir is written in segmented essay format, which means I will have a section, a space, three shekels*, a space and then a new segment. This was done in double-space type. But the grad school wants the space between the sections and the shekel to be single spaced so that only two lines are between.
So I did do it like this
With the double space section.
(blank line)
shekel, shekel, shekel
(blank line)
New section starts here. But the grad school doesn’t want that. Because when you count it up, it actually ends up with three blank lines between the section and the shekels and the shekels and the section. And the grad school only wants two lines. This was probably the biggest “error” that I had to correct in my manuscript, and it accounted for most of the pages the grad school sent me.
The strangest thing:
On the title page, you have to type” Department of” and then enter the name of your department. I had typed, “Department of English.” They wanted me to add in “Language and Literature.” This confused me because there are three grad degrees in the English department and they are 1) Composition and Communication (which is the one I am receiving), 2) Creative Writing and 3) Language and Literature. So I thought they were getting my degree mixed up. But no, turns out the “official” name of the CMU English department is “Department of English Language and Literature.” Who knew? Not I.
*A shekel is an ancient symbol of weight that I selected to divide my segments because my thesis is primarily about weight issues (how cool is that?). I use a row of three to divide my segments. I’ve tried to copy and paste them here, but I have no guarantee you will see them correctly. But if you were to open up character map (start>programs> accessories> system tools> character map), in Times New Roman, a shekel is listed under U+20AA. Or you might be able to see it (I can) below, centered, three in a row:
₪₪₪
