Within each titled chapter of the thesis body, section headings are used to help the reader understand the organization of the information.
Heading and subheadings may not stand alone at the bottom of a page. If after the heading or subheading, there is no room for at least two lines of 1½- or double- spaced text before the bottom text margin, then the heading is placed at the top of the next page.
You must follow your department’s preference for the heading system and style, but two frequently used systems are the double-numbering system or the three-level system.
In the double-numbering system, each heading is preceded by a number. For instance, in the second chapter of a thesis, the first subheading is numbered 2.1. The use of heading numbers requires at least two subdivisions under each main division. That is, if there is a 2.1, there must be a 2.2. If there is only one division under a heading, then that division is labeled as 2.0, not 2.1.
Numbered headings and subheadings use capital and lower case letters and are all placed flush with the left margin.
The three-level system uses the following heading levels.
A-Level: This heading uses both capital and lower case bold letters, and is left justified. Three single lines separate the heading from preceding text, and one keyboard return separates the heading from the following text.
B-Level: This heading uses both capital and lower case bold letters, and is indented from the left text margin. Long subheadings are broken into two lines and single spaced, with the second line indented from the first line. Three single lines separate the subheading from preceding text, and one keyboard return follows the subheading before the text that follows.
C-Level: This heading uses both capital and lower case bold letters and is indented from the left text margin incrementally from the B-Level heading.