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:

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

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
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