University of Manchester
Postgraduate research theses under the March 2026 policy; confirm your degree and faculty requirements.
Test draft. Independent review and testing on real theses are pending.
Published rules checked. AI-assisted source check; independent review and real-thesis testing are pending.
What this pack checks
- Font and spacing
- Front matter order
- Table of contents
- Page numbers
- Draft for testing, not independently verified or validated on real theses.
- Margins are printing/binding recommendations, shown as warnings. Binding-edge checks assume left binding; mirrored margins and gutters need manual review.
- Main-text formatting checks cover recognised Normal-style prose between introduction and references. Quote checks cover named quote styles; note checks follow the document’s note relationships. Unmarked quotations and other styles may need review.
- Page-number checks cover fields, active header/footer variants, Arabic format and restart settings in every section. Word must still render pages to confirm the displayed sequence and contents-page accuracy. Declarations and signatures need review.
- Automatic fixes change only selected formatting in a new copy and are re-scanned. Caption numbering and cross-references are not rewritten; update fields and check the final PDF in Word.
- Endnotes have no separate single-spacing exception in section 7.1. Citation matching is an advisory aid, not a check of the required citation style. Unnumbered COVID-19 impact statements and extra title pages need manual pagination review.
Recommendations
Confirm these with your course. They do not count as errors.
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Your course may add rules
Use your department’s current guide for chapter structure, citation style and any approved exceptions. These can differ between courses.
Sources · 7.2; 13 (journal-format exceptions) -
Choose a readable font
Manchester recommends a readable font, for example 12 pt Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman. Confirm your course’s choice.
Sources · 7.1
Changes
- 0.1.0 · 2026-10-17
- Initial source-reviewed draft for product testing. Synthetic fixtures only; independent review and real-thesis corpus validation are pending.
- 0.2.0 · 2026-10-18
- Added source-backed pagination, note/quote, caption-list and length checks where applicable; targeted formatting fixes and course recommendations.
- 0.3.0 · 2026-10-18
- Removed the unsupported endnote spacing exception. Citation matching is advisory; pagination fixes are guided because permitted unnumbered pages need review.