Follow your department's format rules exactly

Format rules can seem arbitrary, but submissions are checked against them and some departments return non-compliant reports. Rules vary widely between universities. For example, FAST's handbook specifies Times New Roman 11 for body text, 1.5 line spacing and a 2 inch left margin, while the University of Lahore's Islamabad campus guidelines ask for 1.5 line spacing, a 1.5 inch left margin and a report of at least 55 pages counted from the introduction.

Set these up once as styles in your template (heading levels, body text, captions, margins) and use the styles everywhere. Then check the last details before printing or uploading:

• Page numbers: roman numerals before the introduction, arabic after, if required.
• Headers and footers as specified.
• Table of contents regenerated after the final edit.
• Required signatures, declarations and binding instructions.