Do's and don't when writing a thesis

When I wrote my Bachelor’s thesis in computer science, I had barely any experience with academic writing. So far, I only attended one seminar about OT security, where I wrote a small 10-page paper, which was not published. Although I learned the basics of Latex and academic writing, it was less comprehensive than the requirements in my thesis.

First, check your faculty’s homepage for guidelines. They usually provide extensive documents on style, format, and writing. Ultimately, these documents overrule any other advice you may find on dubious websites.

Do’s and dont’s

General notes:

• In chapter/section headlines, do not add the acronym.
  Good: 3. Data Plane Development Kit
  Double click to copy
  .
  Bad: 3. Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK)
  Double click to copy
• Avoid enumerations in brackets; instead, use “such as”
• Use a spellchecker!
• Read out loud to detect errors or strange wording
• Do not use a new page for a couple of sentences. At least fill 1/4 or even more of a page.
• Do not add Section 7.1 when you do not have a 7.2
• Check for double spaces
• Tables/Listings/… should not reach into the side margin
• Use colors and different line types to highlight graphs better
• Do not ever use forward references
• Section/Chapter/Listing always with uppercase (this might be TUM specific?)
• Tables should never have vertical lines
• Check for consistent dashing in words such as “low latency” vs “low-latency”

Latex:

• Citations should be on the same line; use invisible spaces (~) to avoid a linebreak before a citation
• Use the package siunitx for consistent formatting of numbers
• Use an acronym library and use it consistently throughout the thesis

Figures:

• Avoid png or jpegs. Instead, use vector graphics such as SVG
• Do not write a novel in a figure caption. The caption is printed in the table of contents; large sentences look strange there and decrease readability
• A figure should have the same font as the remaining thesis
• Avoid hard-to-read colors like yellow in figures

Spellchecker

I am not affiliated with any service mentioned here

I have had good experience with Writefull . More specifically, compared to alternatives, they support Latex. They trained their AI with scientific papers so that the recommendations mostly match the expected writing style. Especially when it comes to commas, it pointed out many mistakes which I would have not noticed on my own.

One thing I disliked about Writefull is that it is only available for Word documents or Overleaf. I am using neither. Therefore, I had to copy and paste my tex files from my local editor to Overleaf. A bit of a hassle, but okay. Another thing I noticed is that the Latex acronym package is not supported. Often, it would suggest reordering my \ac so that it does not make sense afterward.