Thesis/dissertation template in LaTeX for UTK

Templates for thesis/dissertation proposal and research manuscript. This template is distributed with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. It serves as a guideline and constitutes a basic structure for a thesis or dissertation. The user assumes full responsibility for formatting and typesetting their document and for verifying that all the thesis requirements set by the University of Tennessee are met. Please refer to the most recent UTK thesis guide https://gradschool.utk.edu/thesesdissertations/formatting or contact the thesis consultant https://gradschool.utk.edu/thesesdissertations.

Project files and directories

1. utk.cls - TeX class file for research manuscript. Contains configuration, macros, and functionalities for adhering to UTK guidelines. Users should not need to modify this file (see Advanced options documentation).
2. utk.tex - main compilation file for research manuscript. Users need to modify parts of this file as desired. It contains document options, general information, and invokes all TeX files required for compilation. This file contains comments and notes that users should read prior to customizing it.
3. utk.bib - sample bibliography file. It is recommended not to change the name of this file as it is invoked by utk.tex and utk-proposal.tex.
4. sample-dissertation.pdf - PDF example of a research manuscript generated with the default configurations.
5. utk-guide-to-thesisdissertation.pdf - official UTK guide to theses/dissertations at the time of this writing 11/2018.
6. utk-forms/ - directory containing UTK Master and PhD graduate school forms such as admission to candidacy, committee, and thesis/dissertation approval to be completed and signed by committee members for thesis/dissertation. It is recommended to check the official website for the most recent versions.
7. figures/, front-matter/, chapters/, back-matter/ - directories that should be self-explanatory once you take a quick look at them and the sample PDF (sample-dissertation.pdf). It is recommended to use the provided .tex files as templates because they contain common commands such as \autoref, \cref, \cite, \url, \footnote, etc. and contain examples of tables and figures (begin/end{pagefloat}).
8. utk-proposal.cls - TeX class file for proposal document. Users should not need to modify this file (see Advanced options documentation).
9. utk-proposal.tex - main compilation file for proposal document. Users need to modify parts of this file as desired. It contains document options, general information, and invokes all TeX files for compilation. This file contains comments and notes that users should read prior to customizing it.
10. sample-proposal.pdf - PDF example of a proposal generated with the default configurations.
11. proposal/ - directory containing the sections for the proposal document.

PhD dissertation instructions

In utk.tex make the following changes:

1. Add dissertation to the document class options, \documentclass[dissertation]{utk}.
2. In the General Information section change the degree text, \degree{Doctor of Philosophy}.

Master thesis instructions

In utk.tex make the following changes:

1. Add thesis to the document class options, \documentclass[thesis]{utk}.
2. In the General Information section change the degree text, \degree{Master of Science}.

PhD/Master proposal instructions

1. Customize utk-proposal.tex following instructions similar to the PhD dissertation instructions or the Master thesis instructions.
2. Files with sections for the proposal document section are in proposal/.

General instructions for PhD dissertation and Master thesis

In utk.tex make the following changes:

1. Set remaining General Information fields accordingly: title, author, major, department, university, graduationYear, graduationMonth, majorProfessor, dean, and committeeMembers.
2. Enable/disable section items to be included in manuscript by commenting/uncommenting. Note that not all sections are mandatory, some sections will be tagged as either optional or if applicable. The following is a listing of each section and corresponding items:
   1. Front-matter section
      • \makeTitlePage - mandatory, creates title page.
      • \makeCopyrightPage - optional, creates copyright page.
      • dedication - optional, includes dedication page.
      • acknowledgments - optional, includes acknowledgments page.
      • abstract - mandatory, includes abstract page.
      • preface - optional, includes preface page.
   2. Tables section
      • \tableofcontents - mandatory, creates a table of contents for manuscript sections.
      • \listoftables - if applicable, creates a table of contents for tables.
      • \listoffigures - if applicable, creates a table of contents for figures.
      • abbreviations - if applicable, includes if manuscript requires a list describing abbreviations. Use example provided as template.
      • symbols - if applicable, includes if manuscript requires a list describing symbols/nomenclature. Use example provided as template.
   3. Chapters section
      • chapter-# - mandatory, includes chapter # page.
      • If your manuscript requires less chapters simply disable/comment/remove those lines.
      • If your manuscript requires more chapters, then create files in chapters/ named chapter-#.tex and add the corresponding \input commands to include those files.
   4. Bibliography section
      • \makeBibliography - mandatory, create bibliography page.
      • \bibliographystyle{...} - sets the bibliography style. For example, APA and IEEE Transactions.
      • \bibliography{utk} - mandatory, uses the references found in file utk.bib.
   5. Back-matter section
      • \initializeAppendix, \finalizeAppendix - if applicable, creates appendix page and controls appendix formatting environment.
      • appendix-x - if applicable, files with appendix content located in back-matter/ and named as appendix-x.tex.
      • \addToTOC{vita} - mandatory, adds the vita section to the table of contents.
      • vita - mandatory, includes the vita page.

Document class options

This template allows a user to control several aspects of the manuscript via document class options in utk.tex. Document class options are placed between square brackets as a comma-separated list in the \documentclass command. For example, \documentclass[option1, option2, ...]{utk}

The following is a list of the available document class options. Use a single option per category. If an option is not set explicitly then the default option will be used.

1. dissertation, thesis - (Default is dissertation) controls document type printed in title page and approval forms. Note: auto-generated approval forms have been deprecated, use external forms provided by institution or at utk-forms/.
2. 11pt, 12pt - (Default is 12pt) controls the font size in regular text regions. Headers for chapter titles, sections, subsections, ... are relative to this font size.
3. roman, sans, typewriter - (Default is roman) controls the font family used for the entire manuscript. For specific font control, you need to enable/uncomment the respective TeX package in the Package Configurations section in utk.tex. These are common font packages supported:
   1. \usepackage{times} - (Default) Times
   2. \usepackage{helvet} - Helvetica
   3. \usepackage{avant} - Avant-Garde
   4. \usepackage{lmodern} - Latin Modern
   5. \usepackage{courier} - Courier
4. onehalfspace, singlespace, doublespace - (Default is onehalfspace) controls the text spacing in regular text regions.
5. lefttext, justifytext - (Default is justifytext) controls the text alignment in regular text regions.
6. lefttitle, centertitle - (Default is lefttitle) controls the text alignment in chapter titles.
7. centerpagenum, rightpagenum - (Default is centerpagenum) controls the location of page numbers.
8. notes - (Default is notes) enables/disables notes generated by \note and \mnote commands.

Advanced options

The file utk.cls controls several formatting functionalities which can be modified (use caution and make sure you know general TeX concepts). This section describes how to enable/use some of these functionalities.

Manage packages

The Packages section contains a list of all packages included by default. Here a user can change an option of an existing package or add a new package. New packages can also be added in utk.tex.

Referencing figures, tables, etc. and Citations

Most of the references can be handled gracefully by \autoref, \cref, and \Cref commands.

• For all single item references use \autoref except for equations where we recommend \cref. Basically, \cref by default encloses the equation number in parenthesis. To force capitalization, use \Cref.
• For multi-item references use \cref. Do not leave spaces after the commas.

For custom control of the reference labels, see the autoref and cleveref configuration in the class files.

Citations are always handled by the \cite command, irrespective of single and multi-item citations.

Show header at top of page with the section and chapter information

In Global and Packages Configurations section, comment the command fancyhead{}. This will show a header line at the top of pages that are consider as intermediate pages for a particular chapter or major section.

Place a float in center in single page

To place a float (e.g., figure or table) vertically centered in a single page, use the pagefloat environment:
\begin{pagefloat}
\begin{figure}
...
\end{figure}
\end{pagefloat}

Change page layout to landscape

To change a page to landscape layout, use the landscape environment:
\begin{landscape}
...
\end{landscape}

Using notes to annotate manuscript

When writing long/complex manuscripts it is convenient to be able to include temporary annotations. These annotations can be embedded in-text or placed along the margin of the page and can serve to post answer/questions/comments during draft versions.

This template supports both in-text and on-margin annotations via the \note and \mnote commands. The \note command uses colored highlight (default is yellow) and \mnote command does not highlights (because text is in margin). Notes are shown when the notes option is used in the document class options, and notes are hidden/removed when the option is not used.

Examples:

• \note{This is an in-text note with a yellow highlight.}
• \note[green]{This is an in-text note with a green highlight.}
• \mnote{This is a margin note with no highlight color.}