Writing Guidelines

“The only kind of writing is rewriting.” - Ernest Hemingway

Writing is like sculpting: you start with a rough block of stone and then carve it into a masterpiece. The more you refine your work, the better it becomes. Nowadays, the refinement process is greatly facilitated by AI tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, and others.

Therefore, delivering poorly written work is no longer acceptable; it is a sign of laziness and lack of professionalism.

The form of your thesis is as important as its content.

Most readers use a simple heuristic to evaluate the quality of a thesis: if it is well-written, they assume the research is also of high quality. If someone is so diligent that they pay attention to the details of writing, they are likely to be diligent in their research as well.

Therefore, strategically investing time in refining your thesis is a smart move. It will not only improve the quality of your work but also make a positive impression on your readers, including your thesis committee and future employers.

Please, be merciful to your readers!

Typos, grammar mistakes, and poor formatting distract from the content and make it harder to read. Unclear sentences, inconsistent notation, and unconventional formatting make it difficult to follow the flow of ideas.

These issues are like annoying flies buzzing around your head while you are trying to read a book. They are not significant enough to ruin the experience, but they are irritating and distracting. You can ignore them for a while, but eventually, they will get on your nerves.

Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation

Make sure that:

  • Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct, and an academic writing tone is used (tip: use ChatGPT or Grammarly—consider purchasing the paid version while writing your thesis).
  • In Latex, quotes are used correctly, that is, using `` for left quote and '' for unquote (see guide).

Writing Math

For math writing, you can refer to the classic Dimitris P. Bertsekas’ Ten Simple Rules for Writing Mathematics (pdf):

  • Organize in segments
  • Write segments linearly
  • Consider a hierarchical development
  • Use consistent notation and nomenclature
  • State results consistently
  • Don’t underexplain - don’t overexplain
  • Tell them what you’ll tell them
  • Use suggestive references
  • Consider examples and counterexamples
  • Use visualization when possible

Also, when writing in LaTeX, consider the following:

  • All variables are in italics and their super/sub labels are regular (straight) text. For example, \(x_{ij}\) (x_{ij}) implies variable \(x\) is indexed by variables \(i\) and \(j\) whereas in \(x_\mathrm{total}\) (x_\mathrm{total}) “total” is a label.
  • In numbers, groups of thousands are separated by commas “,” and decimals are separated by periods (see guide and examples from UT English Style Guide). To format numbers automatically in Latex see package siunitx.

Document Structure and Layout

Make sure that:

  • Your text is structured using many levels of headings (see guide).
  • All section titles are descriptive, providing enough context to quickly grasp the structure of the document via the table of contents (TOC).
  • Pagination is correct for front, body, and back matter (see guide).
  • Lists (in-paragraph or vertical) are adequately formatted to improve clarity (see guide).

Visuals

Make sure that:

  • All images are vectorized (save all using .SVG or .PDF format).
  • All tables look pretty (see guide (latex) , guide (APA), examples, and tutorial).
  • All flowcharts look pretty (use, for example, draw.io) and follow best practices (see e.g., rules for better diagrams (Nulab)).
  • Pseudocodes have input and output fields (see guides in Word and Latex).
  • All captions are descriptive, providing enough context to understand tables and figures without going back to the main text (see guide).
  • All figures have legends explaining the meaning of colored elements (e.g., meaning of boxes in Problem Cluster flowcharts).

Citations

Referencing

  • All references to figures, sections, and tables are clickable links to these items (see guide).
  • All terms and acronyms have been 1) defined before they were used and 2) added to the glossary (see guide).
  • In text, references to document elements are all capitalized (e.g., Figure 1, Table 1, Section 1, Chapter 1).
  • All in-text references to figures, tables, and bibliography are links (use a reference management system) (see guides in Word and Latex ).

Confidentiality

If a company asks full confidentiality then you need to go to exam committee (do it ASAP, the procedure may take long). Otherwise, to hide sensible information, you can, for example:

  1. Write company X, product Y, etc.
  2. Put the confidential information in the appendix and not publish the appendix.

General

  • Don’t mention project time limitation explicitly. As a competent researcher you scoped the workload precisely to do what was possible within the time frame available.
  • Don’t mention data limitation explicitly. Instead, claim that the research you carry out adequately explores readily available data.
  • Finish each chapter with a summary that gives the reader the main takeaways and bridges the content to next chapter.
  • Some expressions in English have slightly different connotations in Dutch. For example, “so-called” (zogenaamd) is often used in Dutch to mean “allegedly” or “supposedly,” but in English, it hasn’t have a neutral connotation and can imply skepticism or doubt. Use it carefully to avoid unintended implications.