Writing and Formatting

Most students write their thesis either in LaTeX or Word. Most of us are somewhat familiar with Word and find it easy to get started with writing. However, often you will spend significant time - especially when finalising your thesis - in getting the formatting right, e.g. aligning your captions, producing consistent headings and a correct reference list. That's where LaTeX comes in: It is more like writing code, so it takes some time to learn the basics, but thesis templates and strict separation of text and formatting might save you headache in the long run - if you are willing to invest some learning time in the beginning.

LaTeX

• Free
• Code instead of GUI
• Produces a clean layout, easy typesetting
• very few layout adjustments needed
• Auto-generated reference list
• Takes some effort to learn, but time savings in the long run
• Overleaf
• Web-based Latex Editor
• No setup needed
• Limited collaboration possible
• Good Thesis Templates:  
• Hagenberg Thesis Template
• Cambridge University Engineering Department - PhD Thesis Template
• TexMaker (Multi Platform)
• Sublime Text Plugin for Latex
• How to use BibTex for references: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS9GvK7cvmo 
• Templates are cool, but creativity wins

Word / Open Office

• Use the Document Styles like “Heading1” 
  • Right click on format template to change these
• Use Table of Content/Images etc. only from references - table of contents
  • Formatting headings and Table of Contents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G7lr_7qqkc
• Some general formatting shortcuts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss2lPz7m0GY

Referencing LaTeX in Word

1. Install BibTeX for Word: http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/hp/staff/dmb/perl/index.html
   It only works on PC and not MAC. The website also provides a wiki on how to use the plugin and the offered reference styles
2. Install a reference manager, which will store your citation details in BibTeX format. I used JabRef and did not run into issues so far.

What You Get (Example):

• • This is a test reference [1]. Now I would like to add another reference here [2].
  • [1] Vonne Polanen and Marco Davare. Sensorimotor memory biases weight perception during object lifting. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9, 12 2015. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00700.
  • [2] Bernhard Treutwein and Hans Strasburger. Fitting the psychometric function. Perception & Psychophysics, 61: 87–106, 1999.

Wording / Phrases

Need some inspiration for fancy phrases? Academic Phrasebank