LaTeX provides many advantages over other word processors while writing the written report as part of your qualifying exam, such as easy (and pretty) equation editing, effective tools to format of chemical equations and reactions, automatic formatting and ordering of citations, etc. However, formatting the LaTeX document itself according to the provided guidelines can be very tedious, especially if you have little experience using LaTeX. This template solves that problem, allowing you to focus on the science and reap the benefits of LaTeX!
If you're new to LaTeX, I highly recommend using Overleaf as your LaTeX editor.
- MIT provides a premium subscription to all students, so you have access to many convenient features; several are mentioned in the template itself.
- Overleaf automatically backs up to the cloud and can be accessed from a browser on any computer, so you don't have to worry about losing work.
- A vast number of LaTeX packages (including all packages necessary to use this template) are pre-installed, so you don't need to fiddle with the installing packages.
There are multiple ways to copy the template to Overleaf, e.g. copy/pasting files, but in my opinion, the two following approaches are easiest:
If you have a GitHub account, you can clone this repository and place it in your account. You can then sync the repo with Overleaf, which provides a quickguide to do this. (See the "Creating a new Overleaf project from a GitHub repository" headline.) In summary:
- Clone this repository so it appears on your GitHub account. (I'll assume you know how to do this. Note: If you fork this repo, your version of the repository will be public!)
- Open Overleaf and log into your account.
- Select "New Project" and choose "Import from GitHub" from the dropdown menu.
- Select "Import from GitHub" and choose the fork you just made.
- Open the project, and you're ready to write!
If you do not have a GitHub account:
- Go to the home page of this repository.
- Click the "code" dropdown (green button) and download the repository as a .zip file.
- Open Overleaf and log into your account.
- Select "New Project" and choose "Upload Project" from the dropdown menu.
- As directed, upload the zip file.
- Open the project, and you're ready to write!
It's worth noting that the premium Overleaf subscription provided by MIT allows you to back up your project to GitHub, adding more redundancy (so I recommend doing it). If you uploaded the template to Overleaf using the first approach, your proposal will backup to GitHub according to the sync frequency you have set up. If you used the second option, I recommend setting up GitHub backups so that you can back the project up in two locations (Overleaf and GitHub) for added security.
The first two pages of the PDF generated by the template contain some basic information about using LaTeX and the template. Look at the raw code in main.tex for additional instructions. Some key points:
- You'll need to compile main.tex to make your PDF. To do this in Overleaf, click "Recompile" or press "command+s" or "ctrl+s" while in any of the text editors.
- The sections folder contains a separate file for each section of the written proposal that requires text. a. Edit these directly, and they will appear in the document when you compile main.tex. b. Do not add headers, etc., in these files.
- The file report.cls contains almost all of the formatting details; do not edit this unless the formatting requirements have changed.
- Place figures in the figures folder.
- Place your references in bibtex format in refs.bib. (Zotero is your friend for generating these!)
It's important to cite everything you use in the final report! I've already included a sentence in the acknowledgements section and a citation of this repository. You can rephrase, but keep the acknowledgement and the associated "\cite{schuette_template_2023}" command. Depending what year it is, you may have to (1) enter the refs.bib file, (2) locate the citation for schuette_template_2023, and (3) change the urldate field to the current year, as this refers to an access date.