TTU LaTeX Files for Master Thesis and Doctoral Dissertations

NOTE: Download the most recent ttuthesis.sty file dated 12-03-2011.

Revisions in the most recent style file are described in the file Thesis.pdf.

A new short guide to using ttuthesis.sty file is available as myThesis.pdf file. This is a file with my seminar presentation of January 20, 2011.

I suggest that anyone who has used a previous style file, read that pdf file first. Also, I recommend that people who used previous versions of the style file, download the entire zip file Thesis.zip (454KB) as other TeX files have been revised as well.

This page is a resource for any TTU graduate student who uses LaTeX to compose and write a master thesis or a doctoral dissertation. LaTeX is a set of TeX macros that make it easy to typeset complex documents such as articles, thesis, books, reports, etc. It is especially useful in writing documents that involve mathematical symbols, graphics, multiple input files, etc. For more information on LaTeX and TeX, see references at the bottom of this page. In order to process or typeset documents in LaTeX, you will need a LaTeX typesetting program such as, for example, PCTeX32 for Windows. PCTeX32 is available to all TTU students on the university network including the Mathematics Department Computer Laboratory in Bruner 305.

Although LaTeX and these templates are most suitable for typesetting mathematics, they are also very useful in preparing thesis and dissertations in all sciences, engineering, and even in English and foreign languages. For more information please see any book on LaTeX (see references below).

The TTU thesis style file ttuthesis.sty is the key file that makes the thesis or dissertation conform to all requirements of the Graduate School. This file was originally written by Paul Tsai from the TTU Computer Center. Since summer 2000 this file has been maintained by Rafal Ablamowicz, Department of Mathematics. The instructions how to use this and all remaining files listed on this page can be found in Thesis.tex which provides a skeleton for the entire thesis.

If you don't have a .dvi viewer to view file Thesis.dvi, which contains the final, typeset, and printable version of the sample thesis, you can view an annotated file Thesis.pdf (201KB) with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The skeleton file Thesis.tex uses a 12-pt report style from LaTeX2e which is modified by ttuthesis.sty. Its preamble begins as follows:
 

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage{ttuthesis} % TTU thesis/dissertation style file
\usepackage{latexsym}  % additional packages that may be read in
\usepackage{amssymb} % to augment generic LaTeX; needed for \mathbb font
\usepackage{amsfonts} % reading in some AMS fonts
\usepackage{amsthm} % reading AMS theorem macro package
\usepackage{amsmath} % needed for AMS-LaTeX environments like \begin{align}... \end{align}
\usepackage{graphics} %needed to use \includegraphics command

It is recommended that you download Thesis.tex and open it in any editor, e.g., Notepad, to see the structure of the entire thesis.

All files needed to compose a sample master thesis under LaTeX2e using any LaTeX2e composer can be downloaded as a single file Thesis.zip (454 KB). It contains the following files (all needed to compose Thesis.tex) divided into four categories:

There are several user-controlled features that are built into the style file ttuthesis.sty. In order to select or change any options described below, you will need to edit file Thesis.tex and set appropriate switches. Editing can be done in PCTeX32, or in Notepad, or in DOS editor. More detailed information can be found in Thesis.tex and in Thesis.pdf.  The following is a list of some of these features: Furthermore, all features of LaTeX are supported including: Finally, the source document itself has the following structure:
 
 
\begin{document}
\include{abstract} % reads in your abstract file abstract.tex 
\beforepreface % creates all pages before the permission page
\permissionpage % creates the permission page
\dedicationpage % reads in your dedication file dedication.tex
\acknowledgmentspage % reads in your preface file with acknowledegments
\afterpreface % creates pages after the preface but before the text
\ttutext % sets parameters for the actual text, e.g., spacing 
\include{chapter1} % reads in your chapter 1 file chapter1.tex
\include{chapter2} % reads in your chapter 2 file chapter2.tex
\include{chapter3} % reads in your chapter 3 file chapter3.tex
\include{references} % reads in your file with references references.tex
\include{appendixA} % reads in your appendixA file appendixA.tex
\include{appendixB} % reads in your appendixB file appendixB.tex
\include{vita} % reads in your vita file vita.tex
\end{document}

Chapter 1 of the sample thesis is just a part of a mathematical paper and is intended to illustrate basic features of LaTeX. It shows basic parts of a mathematical paper such as definiton, theorem, proofs, etc. Chapter 2 is explains how to include graphic files such as Postscript (PS), Encapsulated Postscript (EPS), Windows Metafiles (WMF), and Windows Bitmap Files (BMP).

References

Last revised: January 20, 2011/ra

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