How to Write Your Thesis in LaTeX: A Complete Guide

Where to write it: Overleaf or a local installation

If it's your first LaTeX project, start with Overleaf: you'll be writing in five minutes, and you can move to a local installation later by downloading the project.

How to organize the project

Keep each chapter in its own file. The project is easier to navigate, and when something fails to compile you'll know where to look:

thesis/
├── main.tex
├── chapters/
│   ├── introduction.tex
│   ├── background.tex
│   ├── results.tex
│   └── conclusions.tex
├── figures/
└── references.bib

The main file loads the packages and includes each chapter with \include{chapters/introduction}. Each chapter file starts with \chapter{...} and contains only its content, without \documentclass or \begin{document}.

A template you can copy

This main.tex is a solid starting point: it compiles in Overleaf and in any up-to-date TeX distribution, and it includes what a typical thesis needs (margins, math, figures, professional tables, bibliography and clickable links):

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,oneside]{report}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage[margin=2.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb, amsthm}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=numeric]{biblatex}
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}

\addbibresource{references.bib}
\graphicspath{{figures/}}

\newtheorem{theorem}{Theorem}[chapter]
\newtheorem{definition}[theorem]{Definition}

\title{Title of Your Thesis}
\author{Your Name}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

\maketitle
\tableofcontents

\include{chapters/introduction}
\include{chapters/background}
\include{chapters/results}
\include{chapters/conclusions}

\printbibliography

\end{document}

Many universities publish an official LaTeX template with the cover page, margins and fonts they require. If yours has one, use it, and apply the rest of this guide on top of it.

Bibliography with BibLaTeX

Save each reference once in references.bib and cite it wherever you need it with \cite{key}. Google Scholar and most databases let you export references in BibTeX format, so you rarely have to type them:

@book{spivak2008calculus,
  author    = {Spivak, Michael},
  title     = {Calculus},
  edition   = {4},
  publisher = {Publish or Perish},
  year      = {2008}
}

When you compile, biber builds the numbered reference list at the end of the document. Overleaf does it automatically; locally, compile with latexmk, which runs biber for you and repeats the passes it needs.

Figures, tables and equations

These three patterns cover most of a thesis. Label everything with \label and refer to it with \ref or \eqref, so the numbering stays correct even if you reorder chapters:

\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.7\textwidth]{diagram.png}
  \caption{Description of the figure.}
  \label{fig:diagram}
\end{figure}

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{lcc}
    \toprule
    Method & Error & Time (s) \\
    \midrule
    A & 0.12 & 3.4 \\
    B & 0.08 & 5.1 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{Comparison of methods.}
  \label{tab:comparison}
\end{table}

\begin{equation}
  \int_0^1 x^2 \, dx = \frac{1}{3}
  \label{eq:integral}
\end{equation}

As Figure~\ref{fig:diagram} and Table~\ref{tab:comparison} show,
equation~\eqref{eq:integral} ... \cite{spivak2008calculus}

Save hours: turn your notes into LaTeX

The slowest part of a thesis is often not writing but transcribing: derivations on paper, photos of the whiteboard, results in old PDFs. That's where MathWrite saves you the most time:

Common errors and how to fix them

Tips to finish without stress

• Compile often: one error is easy to find, fifty accumulated errors are not.
• Keep backups: use Git or, at least, Overleaf's history and a regular download of the project.
• Write first, format later: until the last weeks, content matters more than margins.
• Agree on the delivery format (LaTeX, PDF or Word) with your supervisor from the start.

Frequently asked questions