Writing your thesis

Using a wordprocessor for your thesis

1. Follow the UCC requirements for theses: set the margins and line-spacing correctly.

2. Use a common serif typeface for readability (eg Times, Garamond, Charter, Georgia etc). Avoid using sans-serif typefaces like Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Avant Garde, etc for the text. Set the text size to 11pt or 12pt.

3. Be consistent: don't format the same kind of thing one way in one place and a different way in another. The best way to avoid this is to read the rest of this list!

4. Learn how to use the built-in named styles to automate your formatting (details: OpenOffice, Word) and how to create your own in a template: this alone can save days of fiddling around with the font menus.

5. Never add manual line-breaks or page-breaks until after you have written it all and really finished editing. Otherwise you'll find that any late changes and corrections will mess up all your formatting again and again.

6. Use the built-in cross-reference mechanisms (details: OpenOffice, Word) rather than typing them by hand. That way when you move bits of your text around while editing, you won't have to waste time tracking down and manually changing every cross-reference.

7. The same applies to the automated Table of Contents (details: OpenOffice, Word), List of Figures, List of Tables, Index, Glossary, etc (if you need them). Don't even think of typing them by hand, otherwise you'll spend forever trying to keep them up to date.

8. Most important of all, use a reference manager (bibliographic database) to keep track of all the articles, books, papers, websites etc that you read. This lets you add citations formatted correctly for the style your discipline uses, and ensures that they all appear in your References section correctly sorted and formatted.