• Home
• Research
• Funding
• Events
• Answers
• Current Grads
• Incoming Grads

You are here »

Answers

Thesis Writing

Your Thesis: How to Get Started

1. Choose your medium wisely

There are two common routes: Word (or OpenOffice) or LaTeX. There is also a third option that is becoming more popular: LyX. Each has its pros and cons, which the table below summarizes.

	Microsoft Word	OpenOffice
License	Propriotary (not free)	Open Source (free)
Website	office.microsoft.com	www.openoffice.org
Pros	WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) Single file containment	WYSIWYG Can export directly to PDF and save as Word .doc format and export directly to pdf Single file containment Cross-platform Free
Cons	Expensive if you don't have it Less professional typesetting Has been known to resist user formatting control Must install Adobe Acrobat (not free) or PDF printer (free, e.g., PDFCreator) to export to PDF unless you have Office 2007	Not as ubiquitous as MS Word
	LaTeX	LyX
License	Public (free)	Open Source (free)
Website	www.latex-project.org	www.lyx.org
Pros	Ultimate and proper typesetting control (click here for examples), thus an inherently professional appearance Complex equations can be entered simply Cross-platform Can compile directly to PDF Any text editor can be used to write it Free	WYSIWYM, What You See is What You Mean--in other words, it takes care of typesetting and formatting for you, so you can concentrate on content Cross-platform Import from LaTeX, plain text or HTML Export to LaTeX, ps, dvi, pdf, or HTML Automatically converts most graphics formats Automatically visualize equations typed in TeX format Word processor-like interface Free
Cons	Steep learning curve Managing graphic file formats can give you a headache (e.g., pdf, eps vs. png, jpg, emf etc.)	No spell-check-as-you-go (to be developed); must manually call spell-checker Strict graphical formating according to native class files (but compiles perfectly with any LaTeX class/style files) Uses its own native file format (but can export to LaTeX)

You should answer the following questions should before choosing your platform:

• What format does my advisor prefer?
Some professors prefer to edit a Word document directly while others like to edit a printed hard-copy. Converting from LaTeX or PDF to Word from your desktop is NOT TRIVIAL without Adobe Acrobat (which is more expensive than Adobe's free Reader). The next easiest and free way is to install the tex4ht LaTeX package (see LyX section below) to export to HTML and import into Word. You can also try free online conversion utilities, like www.pdfonline.com or www.zamzar.com.
• Do I want to see the final product as I type or focus more on the content?
Word processors show the page as you build it but some people get distracted by perfecting the format. The blessing and curse of LaTeX is its power to take care of the formating for you. But that is about all it does. It is a programming language that you have to learn without the convenient interfaces of a word processor, which handles everything (including graphics) more or less automatically (although, see LyX). But once compiled, LaTeX's final product is generally more attractive.
• Will I work on my thesis at several different computers?
Word and OpenOffice will have to be installed on every computer you work (although there are poratable versions of OpenOffice you can carry on USB drives). LaTeX requires a directory full of files to compile its output. However, LaTeX files (.tex) can be edited with any generic text editor anywhere (but a large installation is required to compile the output).

2. Setting Up

Once you have choosen the software for your thesis, here are some helpers to get going.

MS Word

The Microsoft Word template (and OpenOffice Write template, since it's compatible) to start a Ph.D. thesis in the physics department can be downloaded here. It's not perfect, but it will get you started:

Download Microsoft Word Thesis Template

L^AT_EX

Download and install LaTeX according to the instructions on the www.latex-project.org website.

Download L^AT_EX Thesis Template

Note: This template is filled out for the physics department and meant to drop-and-go with minimal alterations; it should compile directly. For a more insightful headstart to writing your thesis in LaTeX and in general, download and read the 'samplethesis2e' project from the Math department. It's a quick study with good pointers.

Tips: LaTeX can sometimes be tricky to configure; there are preconfigured suites you can download with editor and all. LaTeX prefers a flat directory structure, but you can store image files, for example, in a subdirectory to keep your thesis project more organized. Also, you may find compiling to .dvi the fastest and most useful while you're editing. Dvi files can be viewed with an application called YAP which can back-link to your tex file, making navigation and corrections easier.

There are a few very nice text editors designed especially for LaTeX. If you are on Windows, check out TeXnicCenter. If you're running Linux, you may find Kile a useful package to install, although there are LaTeX plugins for both emacs and gvim.

LyX

Many say that LyX offers the best of both the MS Word and LaTeX for writing a thesis or journal articles, yet most graduate students do not know about it. It is a free graphical interface to LaTeX that runs on Windows, Mac or Linux. You never have to worry about converting graphics from one format to another; it does it all for you. You can import any LaTeX files you've already started and simply export it back to LaTeX at any point. It also has many other intuitive features, such as convenient in-line equation writing and editing. It helps if you know basic LaTeX commands and structure, but it isn't necessary. Also, your advisor may want to review your thesis chapters in MS Word format. You can convert from LyX to Word pretty smoothly; the steps are outlined in the ReadMeFirst.pdf file included with the template.

To install LyX, you first have to download and install a full LaTeX package, like MiKTeX for Windows. You should install the revtex4 package if you plan on publishing to physics journals and the tex4ht package to export to html (or convert to Word, see below). You should also install the latest version of GPL GhostScript and GSview from this website. Then download and install LyX. It will install any extra LaTeX packages it needs during installation.

Once LyX is installed, the LyX template below contains all you need to get started on your Ph.D. thesis in the physics department:

Download LyX Thesis Template

Finally, read through "This author's experience" under the General Tips section below.

Reference Managers

Despite what writing system you choose, we recommend you keep track of your references using Endnote (notice the student discount at software.utah.edu) or JabRef (a free, cross-platform, open-source and realistic alternative to Endnote). If you're using MS Word, you may be interested in the tutorial on BibTex4Word that Randy Polson put together about how to create a BibTeX reference database and use it with Microsoft Word. You may also want to check out Mike Brookes's BibTex4Word macros here, near the bottom of his page.

3. General Tips

1. Go to the Graduate School Thesis Page and read through their deadlines, rules and download their handbook. Skim through the handbook and especially read the short Style and Mechanics section (Chapter 3); it's much easier to construct your sentences correctly while you're writing them then to go back and correct them all.
2. Start early.
3. Save and backup your thesis often.

This author's experience: I started writing my thesis in LaTeX text using TexnicCenter but now use LyX as my primary editor; I've come to appreciate its pleasant mix of visual display and LaTeX conformity. It handles equations written in LaTeX format in real-time and, best of all, converts and displays figures as you insert them in almost an graphics format. LyX still needs all the thesis classes to compile just like LaTeX (see the LaTeX download above) but can display an general uncompiled layout pretty accurately without them. I use JabRef to manage all my references.

Getting to the correct image format can be a pain in LaTeX, especially if you want to preserve rastered graphics (vector graphics that scale to preserve information at any dimension, as from Kaleidagraph, Origin, GnuPlot, Illustrator, or Inkscape). I use Kaleidagraph (but Origin, GnuPlot would also work well, if not better) to generate plots. In my main thesis directory, I have a LyX file for each chapter and a subdirectory for each chapter's images so I can find and modify figures easily as needed.

I use PowerPoint to "store" my figures. For each chapter I keep a PowerPoint presentation with a slide of each figure for that chapter (with the page/slide setup as letter-size portrait orentation--just like a thesis page). To update a figure, I modify it in Kaleidagraph, copy and paste it into PowerPoint (which preserves OLE linking), modify any slide annotations (text, curves, arrows, etc. are sometimes easier to manipulate on the slide), right-click the slide and "Save as Picture..." to an Enhanced Windows Metafile (EMF). LyX automatically detects the changed file and displays the new image. Then I compile to .dvi for a quick view or .pdf for a final product. The OLE linking is really handy because I can double-click on my graphic (which is really an object) in PowerPoint and it will open in Kaleidagraph where I can make any modifications and save it again directly back into the ppt file. I'm sure my process will evolve, but this has so far worked out conveniently for me.

4. You're on your own

Good luck!