Thesis defense format?

[joops]

Hi everyone, this is a pretty stupid question, but what is "thesis defense format?" U of Minnesota says that the writing sample should be written in this manner, but I'm not quite sure that it is.

I did do a google search, but nothing clarified what it was. My library is pathetic, so it doesn't really have any info. I'm assuming it's something like a paper in a journal, am I wrong? Thanks!