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Theses & Dissertations: Certificate of Approval

The Certificate of Approval for Thesis or Dissertation page is sometimes referred to as the signature page.  A blank Certificate of Approval (with no signatures) will always be part of your thesis or dissertation (see Manual Instructions below). 

You will need to submit a signed Certificate of Approval to the College of Graduate Studies as part of your defense process. It is highly preferred that you submit the after your defense. This form will automatically route to the College of Graduate Studies. Note: If the formatting is incorrect, your Certificate of Approval may be voided. If an email address is incorrect, the electronic routing will stop. DocuSign will not notify you if an email address is incorrect.

If you have more than six committee members, you will need to create your Certificate of Approval manually and get the needed signatures. You can get in-person or electronic signatures (or a combination). You will then need to deliver the completed Certificate of Approval to the College of Graduate Studies.

The complete, correct, and fully signed Certificate of Approval must be received by the College of Graduate Studies by the due date specified in the Graduate Student Calendar. Please note that any incorrect formatting or errors in email addresses on the DocuSign form that cause delays will not be exempt from the deadline and may affect your graduation.

DocuSign Instructions

Enter your name and email address. Then enter the name and email addresses of your committee chair and committee members. Please make sure you spell all names correctly and use the correct email addresses. 

Click the Begin Signing button at the bottom of the page.

You must manually center your title (in all caps) and your name (as registered with the university):

 

Click submit. Your Certificate of Approval will automatically route for electronic signatures.

Your signed Certificate of Approval is an historic record and will be added to Tennessee Tech's Archives.

Manual Instructions

You will need to manually create a Certificate of Approval to be included in your thesis/dissertation. If you have more than six committee members, you will also need to create a manual copy as part of your defense process (see above).

PLEASE follow the instructions below. It is very important that this document is formatted correctly. 

1. The approval page may not be more than one page.
2. By default this page is double-spaced, but some lines are single-spaced as specified below.  
3. At the top is the page title.
   For theses: CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL OF THESIS
   For dissertations: CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL OF DISSERTATION
4. Be sure to label this title as a page title heading to format it properly. See Content/Chapters for more information about headings.
5. Leave the next line blank.
6. Type the TITLE OF YOUR THESIS OR DISSERTATION, which is centered, bold, and in all caps.  Your title must also form an upside down triangle if it is more than one line. This means the first line is the longest and each consecutive line is shorter than the previous line.
7. Type "by" (centered and not capitalized).
8. On the next line, type your name as registered with the university (centered).
9. Leave the next line blank.
10. On the next line, type "Graduate Advisory Committee" (left justified).
11. Leave enough blank space for a signature.
12. Create signature lines for your committee (left justified).
13. The signature lines for your committee are single-spaced so the name appears directly under the lines.  See the photo example at the bottom.
14. Use the underscore key to make a solid line that is approximately 50 underscores long, and press Enter.  If Microsoft Word automatically inserts a solid line all the way across the page, undo this auto formatting by holding Control and pressing Z in Windows or holding Command and pressing Z on a Mac.
15. On the next line, type your committee chair: e.g., "Jackie Smith, Chair" (left justified). Then tab over until you are near the end of the line above and type "Date."
16. Leave two blank single-spaced lines before each signature line.
17. Copy and paste the underscore lines, type the committee member name and date under the appropriate line and repeat until all your committee members are listed.
18. Make sure all the Date words line up vertically.
19. Do not use titles like Dr. or Mr. or Ms.
20. Leave a blank space.
21. Type "Approved for the Faculty:"
22. Leave enough blank space for a signature.
23. Create a signature line for the College of Graduate Studies Dean.
24. This signature line is also single-spaced so the name appears directly under the lines. See the photo example at the bottom.
25. Copy and paste the underscore line.
26. On the next line, type "Julie Baker, Dean " (left justified). Then tab over until you are lined up with the other Dates and type "Date."
27. On the next line, type "College of Graduate Studies" (left justified).