In this section, I will give a basic LaTeX template for a student thesis, focusing on UoA students. The template provides most -if not all- basic features that are necessary, such as figures, tables and bibliography. I have organized the template on a specific structure. Here is a brief description of the files I have included: [Download the zip]

• thesis_template.tex
  This is the main file where all options are defined in the preamble. It contains definitions of the basic document: paper and margin dimensions, language, fonts, math extensions. The greek customization for chapters, contents, sections etc also takes place here. In addition, the cover page with the UoA logo, the author's name, the title and the supervisor's name, and the date of the thesis are also defined in this file.
  Instead of using just one long file for the thesis, a common practice is to break it down into more files containing parts of the thesis. Quite often these parts are the chapters of the thesis and this is what I have chosen to do here. The following files are included in a batch mode, one after the other. This is done with the command include{...filename...}. The "filename" should be included without the .tex extension.
• thesis_abstract.tex
  A separate file that contains the abstract of the thesis in both Greek and English
• thesis_intro.tex
  This is the introductory chapter. For the purpose of the sample it spans just a few descriptive lines of text. Same holds for the other files/chapters.
• thesis_theory.tex
  The file contains the chapter with the theoretical background. I have made this thesis an experimental one, therefore some theory is always required before one goes to the experimental details. The latter are included in another chapter/file:
• thesis_experiment.tex
  All experimental details may be included here, such as the apparatus, the methodology etc. It's up to the author to decide upon the content.
• thesis_results.tex
  Since this sample prefers experimentalists :-), the results and the corresponding discussion are included in the present chapter.
• thesis_conclusions.tex
  Final conclusions and comments on the work completed are included in this chapter
• thesis_template.bib
  This file is included immediately after I have defined the bibliography style. It contains all bibliographical information used in this sample thesis. The sample contains four entries, that I have generated with JabRef, my personal preference for a software suite keeping track of citations. I strongly recommend it.
• thesis_appx_software.tex and thesis_appx_vita.tex
  An appendix is quite often necessary in theses. I have used LaTeX's ability to generate appendices automatically, once declared in the source file, and added two of them. The first appendix is supposingly about a software used in the analysis. The second appendix is a short CV of the student, which is not mandatory, however it is a common practice in major universities and institutes abroad. So here it is.

The course will go through all LaTeX source step-by-step and invest some time on strengthening students understanding of both LaTeX commands and the document structure. It is beyond the scope of this website to go through this (else I would not offer the course!).

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