wisc-thesis-template

A Minimum Working Example of the Dissertation Template for UW-Madison.

What's New

• Easy to use, customize, and debug (there is only one style file)
• You can define and change everything as you like
• Minimal dependency and minimal working example

Usage

See example PDF at github or download.

\documentclass[12pt,oneside,letterpaper]{memoir}
\usepackage{thesis}

% Use any text & math fonts you like
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{tgpagella}

% Use any bib style you like
\usepackage{natbib}
\setcitestyle{sort,compress,numbers,square,comma}

% Define thesis information
\title{A Minimum Working Example of the Dissertation Template for UW-Madison}
\author{Student Name}
\department{Computer Sciences}
\deposityear{YYYY}
\defensedate{MM/DD/YYYY}

% Define committee members, you can add more.
\committeemember{Faculty Name, Professor, Computer Sciences}
\committeemember{Faculty Name, Professor, Computer Sciences}
\committeemember{Faculty Name, Associate Professor, Computer Sciences}
\committeemember{Faculty Name, Assistant Professor, Computer Sciences}

% Define frontmatters (comment out if you don't want it)
\dedication{...}

\acknowledgements{
	...
}

\abstract{
  ...
}

\begin{document}

% Make everything before the main thesis
\maketitle
\makefrontmatter

% Your thesis
...

% Use any bib style you like
\bibliographystyle{abbrvnat}
\bibliography{...}

\end{document}

How to Customize

Q: I still want to use 1.5 spacing.

Change \DoubleSpacing to \OnehalfSpacing in thesis.sty.

Q: I want to change the title page margin.

Play around with these lengths before \maketitle:

\setlength{\titlepagemedskip}{0.15in}
\setlength{\titlepagebigskip}{0.55in}
\setlength{\committeeindent}{2em}
\setlength{\committeetop}{3\titlepagebigskip}

Q: I want to customize the TOC style.

This package relies on the tocloft package, please google how to customize it or reference the default settings here.

Q: I want to change the depth of section numbers or TOC.

% Set the depth of section numbers you like
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{2}

% Set the depth of table of contents you like
\setcounter{tocdepth}{1}

Q: I am not writing a dissertation for a Ph.D.

Change the text to whatever you want before \maketitle:

\doctype{A dissertation}
\degree{Doctor of Philosophy}

What's Not Working with Previous Templates

Currently, there are three templates available online:

• GitHub: WI-thesis UW-Madison Dissertation Template
• Overleaf: UW-Madison Dissertation Template
• Memorial Library Template

For some unknown reason, all of these packages have several issues:

1. They hardcoded many formats NOT required by UW-Madison

As per UW-Maidison's requirement at web or pdf, there is no requirement for:

• Putting chapter titles in the header
• Font (the official sample title page uses Times New Roman)
• A large margin (only required a minimum of 1 inch)
• Reference format
• ...

2. They used 1.5 spacing, but UW-Madison requires double spacing

Yet, many deposited dissertations in the past few years passed the formatting check with 1.5 spacing.

I don't know why, but it is better to follow the requirements.

3. Hard to customize

• They defined many math and proof environments, which conflict with mine and are hard to dig out
• They defined the math font, which is not friendly for a math-heavy thesis and hard to change
• Too many unnecessary definitions compared with the official requirement
• Too many nested files, which costs me several days to debug

Acknowledgements

Although previous templates are not working perfectly after these many years, this template referenced a lot of ideas from them:

• https://github.com/willb/wi-thesis-template
• https://uwmadison.box.com/s/euyh4u8ffk3evfs30643

The example bib file was generated by:

• Claude 3 Opus