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I want to include a glossary in my master’s thesis explaining some technical terms.

My university doesn't make any specifications about the usage or position of glossaries inside of a thesis.

  • Is it better to put the glossary at the beginning of the thesis? (e.g. between the Table of Contents and the main content) That way the reader would see it first and either read it or keep in mind that he can look up unfamiliar terms there. But it would disrupt the reading flow between Abstract, Table of Contents and Content.
  • Or would it be better to but the glossary in the appendix? Maybe with footnotes refering to it, each time a new term is used for the first time.

The current structure of the thesis is:

- Titlepage
- Abstract
- Table of Contents
- Main Content
   - Chapter A
   - Chapter B
   - ...
   - Chapter N
- Appendix
   - Appendix A
   - Appendix B
   - Table of Images
   - Table of Tables
   - Table of Literature
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I would personally not include a Table of tables and table of Images, I think it is a waste of space no one will read, imho. You could also add a small biography of yourself. – Paul Hiemstra Dec 2 '12 at 19:17
Our university recommends them. Also I'm using quite a lot of images and tables in my thesis, so they might actually be helpful (and they only take up one page). But I won't add the bigraphy ;-) – Karin Dec 2 '12 at 23:29
1  
I agree with @Karin, you put at table of tables, etc, in your thesis if your institution asks you to do so. – Ben Norris Dec 3 '12 at 14:44

3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

It is utterly a matter of style. Just put it where it makes more sense to you. If you expect people actually NEED to read it before they can read your thesis, just put it in front. Otherwise, put it after the main text.

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If somebody needs to read the glossary highly depends on the reader. My professor might need it. I'm only wondering if it might disrupt the flow of reading to much. – Karin Dec 2 '12 at 23:21
2  
My thesis had a list of abbreviations and acronyms that came as part of the front matter. It was easier to define all of those things once at the beginning in the same place rather than worry if I need to redefine HMQC in chapter 4, when it hasn't been used since chapter 1. – Ben Norris Dec 3 '12 at 14:46
In another guideline of my university (one about assignments in general) I just now found the instruction to put the glossary before the main text. So in my case the decision to have it at the front was the right one. – Karin Jan 12 at 14:07
up vote 7 down vote

I suggest to follow the order reported on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_design.

EDIT: as requested in the comments, here is the suggested order (skip all that is not needed your thesis; colophons are only needed in published works, and you publisher will take care of it):

Front Matter

Title page - Colophon - Contents - Foreword - Preface - Acknowledgment - Introduction - Dedication - Prologue

Body Matter

Content - optionally divided into volumes, books, parts, chapters, sections

Back Matter

Epilogue - Outro - Afterword - Conclusion - Postscript - Appendix - Glossary - Bibliography - Index - Colophon

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3  
Could you reproduce the essence of the wiki page here, this makes your post selfcontained, and not dependend on a non StackExchange external website. – Paul Hiemstra Dec 2 '12 at 19:15
1  
I'm not sure if the wikipedia article on Book design in general is the perfect match for a thesis. Reading a piece of fiction like "Lord of the Rings" which is mentioned as instructive example in the article, is a whole different way of reading than reading a scientific work. So the best order of the contents might be different, too. – Karin Dec 2 '12 at 23:17
1  
Good point. That list seems to be tailored to all kinds of publications, though: most works of fiction do not need a glossary, a bibliography and an index, so I would say that the authors had at least both fiction and non-fiction in mind. (that said, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that LotR contains all of them). – Federico Poloni Dec 3 '12 at 12:52
One element very specific to some kinds of academic theses are the included papers. Do they go all the way at the end of the back matter? What about the lists of papers, somewhere in the front matter? Would be nice to have a list more geared to this. – gerrit Dec 3 '12 at 15:04
up vote 3 down vote

Put the glossary after any appendices and before the index.

EDIT: This advice is simply based on a very quick survey of the textbooks that I had close to hand. The sample size is therefore small, possibly subject biased (physics, mathematics, astronomy, economics), and therefore subject to argument. Thanks to aeismail for the comment prompting this edit.

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4  
Just curious—is there a specific reason why it should be there? – aeismail♦ Dec 2 '12 at 18:43
1  
Aside from any over-riding requirements set by a departmental style guide (and we're told that there is none in this case), placing the glossary at the end of the document in general seems to correspond with the trend that I see in the textbooks that I use. Conformity with established trends isn't necessarily a good thing, I realise. – Nicholas Dec 3 '12 at 12:51
You should put that in your answer (I should have mentioned that in my original comment; the goal was to avoid a "quick-fire" answer that doesn't explain things to future readers). – aeismail♦ Dec 3 '12 at 13:44
1  
Nicholas, if I understand you correctly the reason for your advice is, that most people do it that way. Is that what you meant? – Karin Dec 3 '12 at 15:01
1  
@Karin: Yes, but see the qualification that I included in my edit. – Nicholas Dec 4 '12 at 9:20
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