ucalgmthesis

ucalgmthesis.cls is a LaTeX class file that produces documents according to the thesis guidelines of the University of Calgary Faculty of Graduate Studies. It uses the memoir class, which provides very powerful and flexible mechanisms for book design and layout. All memoir commands for changing chapter and section headings, page layout, fancy foot- and endnotes, typesetting poems, etc., can be used. (Memoir is meant as a replacement for the standard LaTeX classes, so all standard LaTeX commands such as \chapter, \section, etc., still work.) Likewise, any of memoir's class options can be passed as options to ucalgmthesis, in particular 12pt to select 12 point type (11 point is the default).

License

The files in this directory are provided under the terms of the MIT License. natbib-oup.bst is provided under the terms of the LaTeX Project Public License.

Usage

Consult the file sample-thesis.tex for an example thesis setup with parts \include'd from separate files. Here's a minimal file:

\documentclass{ucalgmthesis}

\author{...}
\title{...}
\prog{...}
\degree{...}
\thesisyear{...}
\monthname{...}

\begin{document}

\frontmatter

\makethesistitle

\chapter{Abstract}

...

\tableofcontents

\mainmatter

...

\backmatter

....
\end{document}

The easiest way to get started is perhaps to rename sample-thesis.tex, change the metadata and layout options to your liking, and put the content of your thesis into the files it includes (frontmatter.tex, chapter1.tex, etc.)

ucalgmthesis is part of TeXLive and MikTeX. If you have one of these installed (or you are working on Overleaf), you do not need the class file ucalgmthesis.cls itself in your thesis directory. You can just copy the TeX and Bib file from the source directory in your TeXLive tree, from CTAN, or from the GitHub repository to get started.

Commands

The class provides a number of commands to facilitate the production of the thesis.

• \makethesistitle to produce the title page

• \degree, \prog, \monthname, \thesisyear are used to provide the names of the degree and graduate program, and the month and year of the thesis. (These are compatible with the legacy ucalgthes1 class.)

• \dedication produces a dedication centered on its own page

• \fullpagethesis sets up the type block to have 1" margins on all sides. \manuscriptthesis sets up the typeblock to have a line length of about 72 characters and 25 lines per page. The package options fullpage and manuscript use these at the appropriate time, but you can use them after you set up your own fonts in the preamble.

Otherwise, all the class does is change memoir's defaults to comply with FGS thesis guidelines. Specifically:

• All page numbers appear in the same place (centered in footer).
• All pages except title page are numbered.
• Front matter is numbered in roman numerals, main matter in arabic.
• Abstract, preface, acknowledgments, dedication are included in table of contents.
• The table of contents is called "Table of Contents".

Class options

The class takes a number of options:

• singlespaced, onehalfspaced, doublespaced sets up the line spacing (onehalfspaced is the default).

• palatino, times, garamond, utopia, libertine offer some nice alternative typefaces (i.e., fonts) to the default Computer Modern. Note that garamond uses the garamondx package, which is not included in the TeXLive distibution (and is not available on Overleaf).

• headers produces running heads. Per the guidelines, the running heads must not be the thesis title or author's name, and must be separated from the main text by a line. The class uses the chapter number and title and places it flush right in the header.

• fullpage calls \fullpagethesis, so produces a thesis with 1" margins all around. This produces very long lines and is not recommended for review or submission, but if you have to pay by the page for printing you may want to use it.

• manuscript sets the type size to 12 points, double spaces the text, and calls \manuscriptthesis to set the textblock to be about 72 characters wide and 25 lines high. That makes a page longer than a standard manuscript page (60 characters by 25 lines, or about 250 words), but produces reasonably readable lines and plenty of space between lines and in the margins for remarks, corrections, and annotations. Recommended for the version you submit for examination. You might remove the option for the final version submitted to the Vault.

A sample thesis file is also provided. The various parts of the thesis are included from subsidiary files to enable generating PDFs of the title page and individual chapters separately.

Switching from ucalgthes1

If you are already using the ucalgthes1 class, you don't have to do much to switch to ucalgmthesis:

• Change ucalgthes1 to ucalgmthesis in the \documentclass command.

• The thesis template provided with ucalgthes1 then uses the geometry package to set the margins to 1" on all sides. This produces atrocious results and you should remove that line. If you really want the same narrow margins, use the fullpage class option, i.e., \documentclass[12pt,doublespaced,fullpage]{ucalgmthesis}. A better option for reading and reviewing the thesis is the manuscript class option (see above).

• The template also loads the mathptmx package to set the typeface to Times New Roman. Times is a good typeface for newspapers, but not for dissertations or books. Pick a different one! But if you do want Times, use the times class option instead and delete this line. (The class option loads the newer newtx packages.)

• Delete all the lines from the template that say \pagenumbering, \newpage, \clearpage, \phantomsection, \setcounter, \begin{singlespace}, \end{singlespace}.

• Abstract and Acknowledgments just start with \chapter{Abstract} and \chapter{Acknowledgments}.

• Insert \frontmatter at the very beginning, \mainmatter before your first real chapter, and \endmatter after the last real chapter and before the bibliography, etc.

Note that the ucalgmthesis class sets much wider margins even with the manuscript option than the ucalgthes1 template. Lines are shorter than the excessively long lines resulting from just setting left and right margins to 1 inch. This will change the number of pages in the PDF and may result in some displayed formulas and tables not fitting into the type block anymore. So be sure to check the result for such problems.

Troubleshooting and Known Issues

• The font options may interact badly with other packages you load. Try compiling without the font option to see if that's the problem.

• The font options all load the newtxmath or newpxmath packages. These have to be loaded after amsthm, so the class loads amsthm before it sets up these fonts. If you don't want that, leave out the font option, load the font in your main document preamble, then call \manuscriptthesis or \fullpagethesis to set the right page dimensions based on the new font.

• garamond uses the garamondx package. This package has a restrictive license and is thus not included in the TeXLive distribution. Use the getnonfreefonts installer to download it.

• The guidelines require that the official filed thesis is laid out for one-sided printing (equal left and right margins). You may want to print the thesis two-sided, however, e.g., to give a nice bound copy to your supervisor or your mom. You can produce a version for two-sided printing using the twoside class option of memoir. The page layout will be altered to have spine and edge margins in the golden ratio, and alternating on rectos and versos. This will produce a nicer-looking page spread. However, both \makethesistitle and \mainmatter clear to a recto (odd) page even with the openany option, and so twoside will produce additional blank pages in the front matter. The main text, however, should have the same pagination as the "official" one-sided version, as the size of the typeblock is the same.