How to Use the uscthesis.

cls Document Class

George F. McNulty
Department of Mathematics
University of South Carolina

9 March 2016

Contents

0.1 Organizing Your Exposition for LATEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

0.2 The main.tex File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
0.3 How to Prepare the Files Containing Sections of Your Work . . . . . 12
0.4 Preparing the Front Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
0.5 Dealing with Tables and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
0.6 Making the Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
0.7 Using BibTEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
0.8 Making a PDF File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
0.9 Printing Your Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
0.10 Commands Provided by uscthesis.cls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
0.11 Some Things Left for the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
0.12 On the Origin of this Documentclass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

0.1 Organizing Your Exposition for LATEX

The uscthesis.cls documentclass is intended for the preparation of masters the-
ses, doctoral dissertations, and honors theses submitted to the University of South
Carolina.
The Graduate School and the Honors College have a number of requirements
concerning the layout of these documents. The uscthesis.cls documentclass is
intended to meet all these requirements. This should mean that as you prepare your
dissertation or thesis, you will not have to concern yourself with such details, but
rather focus your attention on the content and exposition of your work. However, from
time to time the Graduate School and the Honors College may change or reinterpret
their requirements. Please send email to mcnulty@math.sc.edu if it seems to you
(or to either the Graduate School or the Honors College) that your output is not in
accord with current requirements.
You must be sure that LATEX is installed on your computer. There are several free
and very good systems that can be downloaded from the internet. A full installation
of LATEX is quite large. A full installation is usually not needed, but you will prob-
ably need more than a basic installation. Your installation should at least include

1
the documentclass memoir.cls and, depending on how you build your bibliography,
perhaps one of the packages biblatex.sty or amsrefs.sty. You may need other
specialized packages to support graphics, special symbols, notational support for par-
ticular disciplines (like chemistry or linguistics), or to accomplish various typesetting
tasks like endnotes or bibliographic layouts (e.g. as recommended by the American
Psychological Association).
Once you have LATEX available, you should create a directory on your com-
puter which will contain all the work on your thesis or dissertation. Put a copy
of uscthesis.cls in this directory. The uscthesis.cls documentclass is available
from the Graduate School. You should make sure that the version you have is the
latest one.
The documentclass works best if you put each section of your work in a separate
file. You should give these files logical names. For example, if one of your sections con-
cerns semidirect products, then you could create a file called semidirectprod.tex.
It is not uncommon that in the course of writing you (or your advisor) might find
it better to present the sections in a different order. Having them in separate files
makes this easy. Also it makes it simple for you or your advisor to print out just the
sections that are of current concern.
When you install LATEX on your computer you will probably have the option
to install at the same time a graphical user interface. Examples of such programs
for the Windows operating system are TEXStudio, TEXworks, TEXmaker, Winshell,
TEXnicCenter, winedt,. . . . The interface provides an editor for writing the files that
will contain the substance of your work, as well as ways in which to invoke the various
aspects of the LATEX system. You can work without such an interface. In any case,
the .tex files you create must be ordinary text files. For example, files created with
Wordpad (part of the Windows operating system) will work fine, put files created
using Microsoft WORD will not.
A typical thesis directory will contain many .tex files: one for each section of your
work, for an abstract, for aknowledgments, for a dedication, and for your bibliography.
Also there is one master file, typically called main.tex, which provides the overall
LATEX code for putting the whole thing together. As you procede with your writing,
you will also find in this directory the files that LATEX itself produces to keep track
of various pieces of information it needs.
The uscthesis.cls documentclass is built on top of the memoir.cls document-
class. This means that the options and commands provided by memoir.cls are avail-
able for use with uscthesis.cls. However, some options, like those which change
the prevailing font size or which alter the formatting of pages, can lead to output
which no longer conforms to the dictates of the Graduate School or the Honors Col-
lege. The uscthesis.cls documentclass also automatically loads the following LATEX
packages:

• amsmath.sty

• amsthm.sty

• amsfonts

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 • amssymb.sty

• latexsym.sty

• array.sty

• ifthen.sty

• threeparttable.sty

• array.sty

• xcolor.sty

• xpatch.sty

• xparse.sty

This makes all the commands and environments defined in these packages available
to you.
A word of advice: LATEX is not a what-you-see-is-what-you-get system like
Microsoft WORD. Rather it aspires to deliver an output that is superior to what
you can see instantly on your computer screen. For one thing, LATEX needs to see
somewhat more than one page worth of input to compute what the current page will
look like. As you prepare your thesis or dissertation you will be actually inserting
markup commands to obtain effects like boldface or to use characters like ℵ and æ
or symbols like ∞ not found on your keyboard or to accomplish a wide assortment
of other typesetting tasks. What you see on the screen is what you typed in at
the keyboard, rather than the effect that will ultimately result. If your work is just
ordinary text in English, with now and then a few effects like italics, it should not take
you long to get use to LATEX. You should not expect, of course, to be perfect when
doing this markup. For instance the command $\infty$ is used to produce ∞. If you
type instead $\intfy$ then LATEX will not understand you. Fortunately, LATEX has a
pretty good system for reporting errors. It will tell you what the offending command
was and on which line of your file the error occurs. Here is the important bit of
advice. The lines in your file should be about 80 characters long. If the program
you use to edit your files has a WRAP feature you should turn it OFF. Get use to
hitting the ENTER key at the end of the line. Alaternatively, depending on the editor
program, you might be able to set it for hard wrapping. Then when it automatically
wraps, it will insert an end-of-line symbol (unreadable) at the correct place. In either
case, this will let LATEX’s error messages get you to the trouble spots more quickly.
It also has the advantage that if your files are processed on some other system—for
instance that used by your advisor—then it is more easily handled.
A second word of advice: In order to make it convenient to be able to
process your LATEX files on different computers using different operating systems, it
is advisable to chose filenames that do not involve blank spaces or characters other
than letters and numerals. For instance, a filename like My3Friends.tex is likely to

3
be acceptable by all computer operating systems, whereas My 3 Friends.tex might
be accepted on some operating systems but cause problems on some different system.
A third word of advice: Sometimes typesetting priorities and expository
priorities conflict. In the preponderance of cases, the expository priorities should
carry the day—after all the typesetting is suppose to support the exposition, not
impede it. Nevertheless, here is some advice about how to make the more common
compromises:

1. Choose the title of your work and the titles of your chapters, sections, and
the captions on figures and tables as short as possible while still conveying
the meanings you intend. A really long title, for example, will force crucial
information (e.g. the name of the Dean of the Graduate School) off your title
page and is unlikely to be acceptable to the Graduate School.

2. Use restraint with exotic symbols in your title. In particular, make the first
thing in your title an actual word. This helps the folk like reference librarians
and the designers of bibliographic data bases.

3. While LATEX is really very good at page layout, now and then it is forced into
embarrassment. For instance, there may be places where things stick out into
the right margin. This doesn’t happen often, but when it does the remedy is
to rewrite a sentence or two. LATEX will announce its embarrassment by issuing
a warning about what it will call “an overfull \hbox.” You should ignore these
until you are polishing your final draft, since during the course of writing and
rewriting these kinds of problems come and go.

An alert for veteran users of LATEX: The uscthesis.cls documentclass

is based on the memoir.cls documentclass. That class is designed to conform to
the LATEX3 guidelines. In particular, these guidelines recommend that some familiar
LATEX commands be phased out. This applies to the following font commands: \bf,
\sc, \it, . . . . The font selection scheme in LATEX is organized into font families, font
series, and font shapes. Usually there are three font families:

• a typeface with serifs invoked by \rmfamily (replacing the phased out \rm);

• a typeface without serifs (that is, a sans serif typeface) invoked by \sffamily
(replacing the phased out \sf);

• a monospaced typewriter font invoked by \ttfamily (replacing the phased out

\tt).

The font series is a combination of the weight (boldness) and width of the characters in
the font. The command \bfseries replaces the phased out command \bf and is used to
invoke boldface. There is also the command \mdseries which invokes medium weight
and medium width. The third font attribute is the font shape. Usually the following
shapes are available:

• The default or upright shape. It can be invoked with \upshape;

4
 • The italic shape can be invoked with \itshape (replacing the phased out \it);

• The Small Caps shape can be invoked with \scshape (replacing the phased
out \sc);

• The slanted shape can be invoked with \slshape (replacing the phased out \sl).

0.2 The main.tex File

The first file you should prepare is the one that will coordinate the entire project.
You are free to name this file anything you like, but its file extension should be .tex.
Below I will assume that you have named it main.tex. (Other good choices are
frame.tex, mythesis.tex, etc.). Here is a model of such a file. It is available from
the Graduate School as modelmain.tex.

\documentclass{uscthesis}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%% Options include: [forbinding], which produces
%%% an alternative title page and an appropriate
%%% binding margin, and [honors] for Honors College theses.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% LaTeX Preamble
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{enumerate}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% The packages above are only examples. You should include
%% any LaTeX packages that you need. Most packages should work
%% with this documentclass. If you do not use the
%% packages in the example above, don’t put these
%% lines in your file.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\usepackage[style=uscauthoryear]{biblatex}
\bibliography{references}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% The lines above specify a BibTeX style which controls

5
%% the appearance of the bibliography and how citations to
%% the bibliography within the text will work. It is based on the biblatex.sty
%% package and provides a Chicago style, as preferred by the Graduate School.
%% There are other acceptable styles. Indeed, different academic disciplines
%% have different styles.
%%
%% The line \bibliography{references} will cause LaTeX is search for a file
%% called references.bib. This file could be named differently. For example
%% \bibliography{henry} would provoke a search for henry.bib. The
%% file reference.bib (or henry.bib) is one you will have to produce. It is
%% a BibTeX database of references you use.
%%
%% There are a number of alternate ways to address your bibliographic needs.
%% See uscthesisdoc.pdf for a discussion of the different options.
%%
%%
%%
%%In any case, this is a good spot to ask LaTeX to load what it needs to handle
%% literature citations and to layout the bibliography.
%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\newcommand{\join}{\vee}
\newcommand{\meet}{\wedge}
\newcommand{\w}{\omega}
\newtheorem{thm}{Theorem}[chapter]
\newtheorem*{thmun}{Theorem}
\newtheorem{cor}[thm]{Corollary}
\newtheorem{lem}[thm]{Lemma}
\theoremstyle{definition}
\newtheorem{defn}[thm]{Definition}
\newtheorem{ex}[thm]{Example}
\theoremstyle{plain}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Again, this is just a few sample lines. Put here any
%% commands of your own devising that you want to use.
%% If these examples are no use to you, omit them.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% The Front Matter
%% The section below deals with the material that comes
%% before the actual content of the document: The title

6
%% page, abstract, acknowledgments,etc.
%%
%% Some of it is required.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\title{A Proof That Really Fits in the Margin}

\author{Isaac Leonard}{Gauss} %% First Name then

%% Last Name

\degreedate{2035} %% The year of graduation

%\degreemonth{December} %% Only for the honors option

%% where it is REQUIRED

\otherdegrees{
Bachelor of Arts\\
Harvard College 2028\\ [3pt]
Master of Science\\
Savannah School of Design 2030\\ %% The \\ on this line is
} %% ESSENTIAL!

\degreename{Doctor of Philosophy} %% The Graduate School provides

%% a list of official degrees.
\field{Mathematics} %% Fields also provided by the
%% Graduate School.
\college{College of Arts and Sciences} %%As listed by Grad School

\advisor {Dr.}{David Hilbert}{Major Professor} %%% Be sure the

\readera{Dr.}{Karl Gauss}{Committee Member} %%% third field is
\readerb{Dr.}{Charles Parker}{Jazzman} %%% the one used in
\readerc{Dr.}{George Washington}{Fourth Reader} %%% your department.
\readerd{Dr.}{Albert Camus}{External Examiner}
%%% If you have just two readers, for example, leave out \readerc and
%%% \readerd
%%%
%%% For Honors College theses use \reader{}{} NO third field.
%%% The commands \otherdegrees, \degreename, \field, \college, \readera, etc.
%%% are not used under the honors option.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\dean{Plato}{Founder of the Academy}

%% The Dean of Graduate Studies
%% For Honors College theses use
%% \schcsigner{}{}. For example,

7
 %% \schcsigner{}{Tayloe Harding, Interim Dean}

\copyrightpage %% This is optional. It makes a

%% copyright page that will appear
%% immediately after the title page.

\abstract{herkimer} %% This calls the file herkimer.tex but

%% but you might replace herkimer by
%% anything you like, for example by
%% abstract. Note, the Graduate School
%% REQUIRES that PhD dissertations have
%% abstracts.
%%
%% For Honors College theses use
%% \honorsabstract{}

%\summary{precis} %% This command calls precis.tex

%% It is only available with the honors
%% option and it is REQUIRED for Honors
%% theses.

\acknowledgments{thanks} %% This calls the file thanks.tex

%% This is optional %% where you have put your
%%acknowledgments.

\dedication{dedication} %% Calls dedication.tex

%%% Also optional

\preface{forward} %% Calls forward.tex. Optional.

\makeLoT %% Issue this command if your work has

%% four or more tables. A list of tables
%% will be produced automatically.

\makeLoF %% works the same way but for figures.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Finally, here is the meat. The idea is to compose a
%% .tex file for each section of your thesis or dissertation.
%% Then use LaTeX’s \include command to put them all together.
%% Doing it this way makes it easier to change the order of
%% exposition as your writing is in progress. Also it
%% makes it easy to print out just one section. The \include
%% command always starts a new page. So every section would
%% start on a new page. If you would like for sections just

8
%% to continue, after the appropriate vertical space, on the
%% current page, then use the \input command instead of the
%% \include command.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\begin{document}

\include{Introduction} %% Calls Introduction.tex

%% Honors theses are required to
%% have an Introduction. For
%% Honors theses, the file
%% Introduction.tex should begin
%%
%% \chapter*{Introduction}
%% followed by the text of the
%% introduction.

\include{Squares} %% The three sections of Chapter 1

%% are in the files Squares.tex,
\input{Cubes} %% Cubes.tex and Hypercubes.tex
\input{Hypercubes}

\include{1mod4}
\input{flying}
\input{joins}
\input{wattage}

\include{3mod4} %% This chapter has 8 sections

\input{bigtime} %% You should give your sections
\input{smalltime} %% logical names, rather than
\input{roadmap} %% numbers. As you write, you might
\input{overview} %% decide to rearrange things.
\input{turnabout} %% LaTeX can keep track of the
\input{fairplay} %% numbering for you.
\input{roundup}

\include{rest}
\input{relax}
\input{grin}

%\include{Conclusion} %% Honors theses are required to

%% have an unnumbered chapter
%% for conclusions. The file
%% Conclusion.tex should begin

9
 %%
%% \chapter*{Conclusion}
%% followed by the appropriate
%% text.

\printbibliography %% This is the command to use to

%% insert the bibliography if you are using
%% the biblatex.sty package.

\appendix %% Use this command if you have one

%% appendix. Use \appendices if you
%% have more than one.

\input{toolong} %% Calls toolong.tex which contains

%% an appendix. After issuing the
%% command \Appendix or \Appendices
%% you must use \input not \include
%% to load the first appendix.

\end{document}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

As you see, the file main.tex has four parts:

1. The documentclass declaration.

2. The LATEX preamble.

3. The frontmatter.

4. The operative part.

The options made available by uscthesis.cls are

forbinding Chose this option if you want a title page displaying the committee as
a table and margins appropriate for making bound copies. This is not
the format approved by the Graduate School. Nor is it acceptable by
ProQuest, the company that archives theses and dissertatoins. Rather the
option is intended for your personal use, and perhaps for the bound copy
for your department, should your department require one. If you want to
employ this option then the top line of your main.tex file should be

\documentclass[forbinding]{uscthesis}

Running LATEX under this option will produce output suitable for binding.
This option can be used or omitted with just a few keystrokes to change
the main.tex file. No other changes are needed.

10
honors Chose this option if you are writing an honors thesis for the South Carolina
Honors College.

durt Chose this option if you are writing a mathematics thesis for graudation
with distinction in mathematics.

The LATEX preamble should contain any usepackage commands has well as any
LATEX commands or environments of your own devising. If you have an extensive list
of the latter, you should consider putting them in a separate file called something like
mymacros.sty and then in the LATEX preamble you can insert the line

\usepackage{mymacros}

to obtain the same effect.

The frontmatter portion of main.tex houses the information needed for that
part of your work which comes before the body of the work. In particular, all the
information that goes on the title page is part of the frontmatter. You don’t have to
worry about making the title page look right, but you have to provide the information
that will be displayed. Also as part of the frontmatter, you will be asked to give the
names of files that contain things like your abstract, dedication, acknowledgments,
and preface. Some people make the following distinction between a preface and an
introduction: a preface gives a brief account of the substance and structure of your
work, whereas an introduction may be much more elaborate in its presentation of
background material. So a preface has more substance than an abstract less than
an introduction. In your thesis or dissertation, the preface comes before the Table
of Contents, whereas an introduction is really the first chapter. You will need to
create the corresponding files in your thesis directory. These files can be empty (at
the start), but they must exist if you put their names in the frontmatter. In the
frontmatter you can also specify whether you want a list of figures or a list of tables.
The rule of thumb is that if your work has four or more figures (or four or more
tables) then you should provide a list following the table of contents. These lists, as
well as the table of contents will be built automatically by LATEX.
Finally, the operative part of the main.tex file consists of those lines between the

\begin{document}

line and the

\end{document}

line. This part simply calls a sequence of files which contain the substance of your
work. You can add, delete, and rearrange the lines in this part of main.tex as your
writing procedes.

11
0.3 How to Prepare the Files Containing Sections of Your
Work
Ordinarily, a thesis or dissertation is divided into several chapters, and each chapter is
divided into sections. Introductions, and appendices (as well as the bibliography) are
treated as chapters, but are not numbered as chapters. Here is how the file containing
the introduction might begin:

\chapter*{Introduction}

The main concern of this thesis is to give a proof that

really fits in the margin.

The file Squares.tex containing the first section of a chapter might look like this:

\chapter{Geometry fits!}\label{chap:geom}
\section{Squares}\label{sec:squares}
Every square dances...

On the other hand, a file containing a later section of the same chapter would
begin

\section{Hypercubes}\label{sec:hypercubes}
Hypercubes have more shadows ...

Finally, the file containing an appendix might begin

\chapter{Proofs too long for the margin}

Fermat may have had one, or maybe not.

We have a few more words about the bibliography below.

0.4 Preparing the Abstract, Acknowledgments, Dedication,

and Preface
The Graduate School requires an abstract for doctoral dissertations and masters
theses. The inclusion of acknowledgments, dedications, and prefaces is optional. If
you choose to or are required to include any of these you must provide a file name in
the frontmatter. For example,

\acknowledgments{thanks}

12
will cause LATEX to search for and load the file thanks.tex. You must create the
file thanks.tex in your thesis directory. In this file you should put just the text of
what you want to say. The uscthesis.cls documentclass will put in the appropriate
heading. If you don’t want an acknowledgment, then simply omit the command. The
other three commands work in a similar way.

0.5 Dealing with Tables and Figures

LATEX provides two standard environments table and figure to handle the insertion
of tables and figures. These are commonly called floats. Tables and figures tend
to take up a lot of space on a page. Just like typesetters have for centuries, LATEX
reserves the right to place these on pages as it see fit. The problem is that the ideal
place you might want is actually two-thirds down the page and there is not enough
space left on the page to accommodate the table or figure. Rather than leaving a
terrible looking empty space, LATEX will continue to fill in text and place the figure or
table at the top of the next page OR it might decide to recompute the current page
and place the table or figure at the top. As you write and rewrite you won’t know
(and you shouldn’t worry about it) how much space will be left. Let LATEX figure
it out. In polishing the final draft, you will have some chance to fix it if you don’t
like the result of the efforts of LATEX. Once again, this is accomplished by rewrite or
shifting text around to change the amount of vertical space available to LATEX.
Here is an example of a table:

Table 0.1 The Comedies of Shakespeare

The Two The Taming of The Comedy of

Gentlemen of the Shrew Errors
Verona
Love’s Labor A Midsummer The Merchant of
Lost Night’s Dream Venice
The Merry Much Ado As You Like It
Wives of About Nothing
Windsor
Twelfth Night Troilus and Measure for
Cressida Measure
All’s Well That Pericles Prince The Winter’s
Ends Well of Tyre Tale
Cymbeline The Temptest

The table environment and the figure environment allow you to use the \caption
command. The Graduate School wants the captions of tables to appear at the tops of
tables and the captions for figures at the bottoms of figures. This is achieved by issu-
ing the caption command at the beginning of the threeparttable environment and
at the end of the threepartfigure environment. The Graduate School discourages
long captions and will allow only two sentences in any one caption.

13
 Table 0.1 was produced by

\begin{table}[hbt]\centering\SingleSpacing
\begin{threeparttable}
\caption{The Comedies of Shakespeare}\label{comedies}
\newcolumntype{Y}{>{\small\raggedright\arraybackslash}X}
\begin{tabularx}{100mm}{|Y|Y|Y|}\hline
The Two Gentlemen of Verona&The Taming of the Shrew&
The Comedy of Errors\\
\hline
Love’s Labor Lost&A Midsummer Night’s Dream&
The Merchant of Venice\\
\hline
The Merry Wives of Windsor&Much Ado About Nothing&
As You Like It\\
\hline
Twelfth Night&Troilus and Cressida&
Measure for Measure\\
\hline
All’s Well That Ends Well&Pericles Prince of Tyre&
The Winter’s Tale\\
\hline
Cymbeline&The Temptest&\\
\hline
\end{tabularx}
\end{threeparttable}
\end{table}

To LATEX veterans the threeparttable environment looks like extra work. With-
out it the caption would be centered. The Graduate School wants the caption to be
flush left with the edge of the table and be no longer than the table is wide. This is
what the threeparttable environment does. The environment tabularx allows us
to specify the width of the table and how to format the contents of each cell in the
table. The tabular environment is simpler and will serve most purposes.
Had the caption command been placed at the end of the threeparttable en-
vironment (just above the \end{threeparttable} command), then the caption would
have been typeset at the bottom of the table. The figure environment is similar,
but a bit more complicated, as we will see soon.
The label \label{comedies} is used to refer to the table. So elsewhere in the
text you might have written
As we see from Table~\ref{comedies}, Shakespeare wrote
seventeen comedies.
which would be typeset as
As we see from Table 0.1, Shakespeare wrote seventeen comedies.

14
 To set up a figure is only a bit more complicated than setting up a table, provided
you have a figure handy. Figure 0.1 is an example.

Figure 0.1 Donald Knuth, Creator of

TEX

To include Figure 0.1 in this document, I used the following pieces of LATEX that
I typed into my computer.

\begin{figure}[hbt]\centering\SingleSpacing
\begin{threepartfigure}
\begin{tabular}{c}
\includegraphics{knuth}
\end{tabular}
\caption{Donald Knuth, Creator of \TeX}\label{knuth}
\end{threepartfigure}
\end{figure}

The actual file with Donald Knuth’s picture is called knuth.jpeg and is in the
directory on my computer where the file for this document is also located.
Maybe you will want to make your own figures. LATEX, with the help of some
style packages, has a lot of the facilities to support this. The package tikz.sty is
particularly useful. Figure 0.2 found on page 16 was made with the help of this
package.
The actual LATEX typing that has to be done to create Figure 0.2 might be a
bit intimidating at first since it is essentially a set of instructions for drawing the
diagram, but I include it here anway.

15
 K

C
H
D

A B

G
L F
E

Figure 0.2 Euclid’s Proposition II,

Book I

\begin{figure}\centering\SingleSpacing
\begin{threepartfigure}
\begin{tabular}{c}
\begin{tikzpicture}
[thick,help lines/.style={thick,draw=red!66},scale=1.27]
\def\A{\textcolor{orange}{$A$}} \def\B{\textcolor{input}{$B$}}
\def\C{\textcolor{input}{$C$}} \def\D{$D$}
\def\E{$E$} \def\F{$F$}
\def\G{$G$} \def\H{$H$}
\def\K{$K$} \def\L{\textcolor{output}{$L$}}
\colorlet{input}{blue!80!black} \colorlet{output}{black}
\coordinate [label=left:\A] (A) at ($ (0,0) + .2*(rand,rand) $);
\coordinate [label=right:\B] (B) at ($ (1,0.2) + .2*(rand,rand) $);
\coordinate [label=above:\C] (C) at ($ (1,2) + .2*(rand,rand) $);
\draw [input] (B) -- (C);
\draw [help lines] (A) -- (B);
\coordinate [label=above right:\D] (D) at ($ (A)!.5!(B) !
{sin(60)*2} ! 90:(B) $);
\draw [help lines] (D) -- ($ (D)!3.75!(A) $)
coordinate [label=-135:\E] (E);
\draw [help lines] (D) -- ($ (D)!3.75!(B) $)
coordinate [label=-45:\F] (F);
\node (H) at (B) [help lines,circle through=(C),draw,label=135:\H] {};

16
\coordinate [label=right:\G] (G) at (intersection of B--F and H);
\node (K) at (D) [help lines,circle through=(G),draw,label=135:\K] {};
\coordinate [label=below right:\L] (L) at (intersection of A--E and K);
\draw [output] (A) -- (L);
\foreach \point in {A,B,C,D,G,L}
\fill [black,opacity=.5] (\point) circle (2pt);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{tabular}
\caption{Euclid’s Proposition~II, Book~I}\label{euclid}
\end{threepartfigure}
\end{figure}

There are many software packages that can produce graphical output and that
have nothing particular to do with LATEX. Most of these software packages offer ways
to export their graphical output in a variety of formats—some even offer formats
intended for LATEX documents. Because your thesis or dissertation will have to be
presented to the Graduate School as a pdf file, it is crucial that any graphics you
export from a second program and then import into your dissertation (say with
the \includegraphics command) be acceptable by the pdflatex processor. About the
only common format the is unacceptable to pdflatex is Postscript (that is with file
extensions like .ps or .eps). There is also one other thing to keep in mind.
Some outside graphics software packages will export graphics that have
letters or numerals as labels. Sometimes these labels will be in fonts that
turn out not to be embedded fonts. The Graduate School requires that
in your final pdf file all fonts be embedded. The notion of embedded fonts is
technical. To find out whether your thesis has any, open it in Acrobat Reader, click
of the file button (upper left)—then on the drop down menu select properities. In
the window that opens click on the font tab. The list of fonts displayed should all
have the remark “embedded subset”. If some font does not, it has probably snook
into your document via some imported graphics.

0.6 Making the Bibliography

Standard LATEX provides an environment, thebibliography, which can be used to
make your bibliography. This is a reasonable choice if your bibliography is very short.
On the other hand, a huge bibliographic database of mathematics is available
online (MathSciNet from the American Mathematical Society). Databases for other
disciplines may also be available. For example, the MLA bibliographic data base
can export information in BibTEX format. It is possible to take advantage of such
databases using either BibTEX or a version of the amsrefs.sty package modified to
reflect the desires of the Graduate School.
There are basically two issues concerning bibliographic matters: the layout of the
bibliography itself and how citations within the body of your work will refer to the
bibliography. Each item in the bibliography will have a citation key. This citation
key is used in the body of the work when referring to an item in the bibliography.

17
0.7 Using BibTEX
Using BibTEX in the Traditional Manner
If you are working in the mathematical or physical sciences, or in engineering, you
could include in the LATEX preamble of your main.tex file the line
\bibliographystyle{amsplain}
This invokes the amsplain style for laying out the bibliography, which is the style used
by the American Mathematical Society—the world’s largest publisher of mathemat-
ical research. Another alternative is to use the plain style in place of the amsplain
style. (Many professional journals in these disciplines have developed bibliography
layouts of their own.) The Graduate School expects references to be enumerated by
author in alphabetical order. Both of the styles mentioned above do that. Both these
styles provide the command \cite to use within the body of your work for making
citations.
Almost the last thing in the template was the line
\include{biblio}
The file biblio.tex should contain a single line
\bibliography{\jobname}
Finally, you will need a file named main.bib (or frame.bib if you named your
coordinating file frame.tex or . . . ). This is the file that contains all the specific
information that goes into your own bibliography. This file has a very structured
appearance. Moreover, it is not really a LATEX file. Fortunately, the entries in this
file can mostly be downloaded and only need a bit of easy editing once you download
them. Here is what a part of this file might look like:

@article {perkins69,
AUTHOR = {Perkins, Peter},
TITLE = {Bases for equational theories of semigroups},
JOURNAL = {J. Algebra},
FJOURNAL = {Journal of Algebra},
VOLUME = {11},
YEAR = {1969},
PAGES = {298--314},
}
@incollection {shallonfb,
AUTHOR = {McNulty, George F. and Shallon, Caroline R.},
TITLE = {Inherently nonfinitely based finite algebras},
BOOKTITLE = {Universal algebra and lattice theory (Puebla, 1982)},
SERIES = {Lecture Notes in Math.},
VOLUME = {1004},
PAGES = {206--231},

18
 PUBLISHER = {Springer},
ADDRESS = {Berlin},
YEAR = {1983},
}

The corresponding entries on MathSciNet are

@article {MR0233911,
AUTHOR = {Perkins, Peter},
TITLE = {Bases for equational theories of semigroups},
JOURNAL = {J. Algebra},
FJOURNAL = {Journal of Algebra},
VOLUME = {11},
YEAR = {1969},
PAGES = {298--314},
ISSN = {0021-8693},
MRCLASS = {20.93},
MRNUMBER = {MR0233911 (38 \#2232)},
MRREVIEWER = {T. Tamura},
}
@incollection {MR716184,
AUTHOR = {McNulty, George F. and Shallon, Caroline R.},
TITLE = {Inherently nonfinitely based finite algebras},
BOOKTITLE = {Universal algebra and lattice theory (Puebla, 1982)},
SERIES = {Lecture Notes in Math.},
VOLUME = {1004},
PAGES = {206--231},
PUBLISHER = {Springer},
ADDRESS = {Berlin},
YEAR = {1983},
MRCLASS = {08B15 (03C05 08B05)},
MRNUMBER = {MR716184 (85h:08011)},
MRREVIEWER = {Sheila Oates-Williams},
}

The chief difference between these two is in the key. The citation key is, in each
entry, what lies between the first opening brace and the next comma. For the first
reference this is “perkins69” while on MathSciNet it is “MR0233911”. This last is
the Mathematical Review number. My advice is to use keys that make sense to you.
In this case the key “perkins69” recalls that this is a paper of Perkins published in
1969. It is these keys which you will use in the body of you thesis to refer to items
in the bibliography.
So the process is to go to the MathSciNet webpage (either from within the Mathe-
matics Department using our webpage or from the Thomas Cooper Library webpage).
Get the items you need using MathSciNet’s clipboard. Select the BibTEX format and

19
then save as a text file (not an html file). You will have to edit the result, removing
stuff at the top and bottom as well as changing the keys to something more suitable.
There are many systems for making citations in the body of your dissertation.
LATEX itself provides the command \cite. If you write

In the old times Minkowski \cite{Henry} described manifolds...

then the output will look like

In the old times Minkowski [24] described manifolds. . .

Here, Henry is the citation key and LATEX has calculated that Minkowski’s paper
occurs as the 24th item in the bibliography.
The author-date method of citation is also very common, particularly outside the
technical disciplines. In fact, this is the method put forward in the Chicago Manual
of Style that is preferred by the Graduate School. To use it you should put in the
LATEX preamble of your main file the following lines

\usepackage{natbib}
\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
\usepackage{uscnatbib}

replacing the \bibliography{amsplain} suggested above. You can also replace plainnat
by chicago. This repositions the dates in each bibliographic reference. Both styles
are acceptable in the Chicago Manual of Style. You will need to get uscnatbib.sty
from the Graduate School. The package natbib.sty provides a number of commands
to use when you want to make citations in the body of your thesis. The two main
commands are \citet and \citep. The first is for use, mostly, when the citation is
itself the subject of a sentence, while the second is used in a more parenthetical sense
when the work cited is referred to.

In the old times \citet{Henry} described manifolds...

then the output will look like

In the old times Minkowski (1907) described manifolds. . .

Here LATEX has figured out that the author with citation key Henry is Minkowski and
that work cited was published in 1907.

In \citep{Henry} we find some interesting manifolds...

then the output will look like

In (Minkowski 1907) we find some interesting manifolds. . .

Here LATEX has figured out that the author with citation key Henry is Minkowski and
that work cited was published in 1907, but it displayed it differently in the text. To
find out more about the other citation commands, look in the LATEX Companion.

20
Using BibTEX with the biblatex.sty Package
The package biblatex.sty offers a simpler and more flexible way to interface with the
BibTEX database than the traditional manner. It will probably become the preferred
method in the reasonalbly near future.
In this method, you would include, in place of \bibliography{amsplain} in the
L TEX preamble of you main.tex file the lines
A

\usepackage[style=uscnumeric]{biblatex}
\bibliography{\jobname}

or the lines

\usepackage[style=uscauthoryear]{biblatex}
\bibliography{\jobname}

depending on whether you want your bibliography to be an enumerated list and the
in-text citations to be numbers in brackets or to have the bibliography as a specially
indented list and the in-text citations to mention author and year. The first is like
the plain bibliography style in the traditional approach to BibTEX while the second
conforms to the guidelines in the Chicago Manual of Style.
You will need to download from the Graduate School the files

uscnumeric.bbx and
uscnumber.cbx

to use the first alternative and the files

uscauthoryear.bbx and
uscauthoryear.cbx

for the second.

Almost the last thing in the template was the line

\include{biblio}

When using biblatex.sty the file biblio.tex should contain the following line

\printbibliography

There are a number of citation commands. The most commonly used are \cite
and \textcite. Under the numeric option the first produces square brackets with the
appropriate number, while the second prints the name of the author or editor followed
by the appropriate number in square brackets. Under the authoryear option, the
first command prints the author’s name and year of publication, while the second
command prints the author’s name and then the year of publication in parentheses.
A third command, \parencite, puts the authors name and the year of publication all
inside parentheses. Adding an “s” to any of these commands, for example \textcites,
allows the input of several citation keys. The command \fullcite places in the text

21
the essential bibliographic information itself. Finally, there are a number of command
like \citeyear or \citeauthor which print the corresponding information when given
the citation key.

Using the uscamsrefs.sty package

To use this method, you would include, replacing the \bibliographystyle{amsplain}
command, in the LATEX preamble of your main.tex file the line
\usepackage{uscamsrefs}
You will need to obatin a copy of uscamsrefs.sty from the Graduate School.
It is a version of the amsrefs.sty package modified to produce a bibliography that
meets to specifications of the Graduate School.
Finally, you will need a file named main.ltb (or frame.ltb if you named your
coordinating file frame.tex or . . . ). This is the file that contains all the specific
information that goes into your bibliography. This file has a very structured appear-
ance. But this time, it is really a LATEX file. Fortunately, the entries in this file can
mostly be downloaded (at least for theses and dissertations in mathematics. . . ) and
only need a bit of editing once you download them. Here is what a part of this file
might look like:

\bib{MR0233911}{article}{
author={Perkins, Peter},
title={Bases for equational theories of semigroups},
journal={J. Algebra},
volume={11},
date={1969},
pages={298--314},
issn={0021-8693},
review={\MR{0233911 (38 \#2232)}},
}

\bib{MR716184}{article}{
author={McNulty, George F.},
author={Shallon, Caroline R.},
title={Inherently nonfinitely based finite algebras},
conference={
title={Universal algebra and lattice theory},
address={Puebla},
date={1982},
},
book={
series={Lecture Notes in Math.},
volume={1004},

22
 publisher={Springer},
place={Berlin},
},
date={1983},
pages={206--231},
review={\MR{716184 (85h:08011)}},
}

This time the citation key is in the first set of braces following the \bib command.
You should again change these keys to something understandable. For example, you
could change the key of the first entry to Perkins1969.
An important difference between BibTEX and the amsrefs method is that BibTEX
arranges things in alphabetical order automatically whereas the amsrefs constructs
the bibliography in the order it appears in the .ltb file. This means that you must
be sure that the .ltb file is ordered alphabetically to satisfy the Graduate School.
If you want to use an author-date system as described in the Chicago Manual
of Style (the Graduate School’s nonexclusive preference), then you should use that
author-year option. You get this by slightly modifying a line in the main.tex file to
obtain

\usepackage[author-year]{uscamsrefs}

This will ensure that your bibliography is typeset in the author-date fashion. It also
gives you access to a few more citation commands. Here is an example of how to use
some of them in the author-year system for citation.
In \cite{Perkins1969}, one finds a lot of interesting
observations. Peter Perkins \ycite{Perkins1969} proved
that every commutative semigroup is finitely based.
There were many related developments in the years
following, but \ocite{Perkins1969} led the way.
This bit of input would be typeset of LATEX as
In (Perkins 1969), one finds a lot of interesting observations. Peter Perkins
(1969) proved that every commutative semigroup is finitely based. There
were many related developments in the years following, but Perkins (1969)
led the way.
If you want to learn more about the amsrefs.sty package and its additional com-
mands, you should read the package documentation available online.
Whether you use BibTEX or the uscamsrefs method, you must first run LATEX to
make sure that all the citation keys from the body of your thesis are stored in the
.aux files. After that you run BibTEX (if that’s what you are using) or LATEX (if you
are using the amsrefs method). Then you have to run LATEX a couple of more times

23
to resolve all the references. If you are using the method with biblatex.sty, then
one run of LATEX followed by one run of BibTEX followed by only one more run of
LATEX should do the job. The other methods require one additoinal run of LATEX.

0.8 Making a PDF File

The Graduate School expects you to submit your thesis or dissertation online as a pdf
file. For many it will be enough to process your main file using pdflatex. Important
exceptions are if you have used the pstricks package or if you import graphics
in .ps or .eps format, say using the \includegraphics command. The pstricks
package makes use, down underneath, of PostScript commands that do not work in
the Portable Document Format (pdf). The same applies to including files that have
PostScript commands in them. If you fall into this case, in essence you must first
produce a .dvi file, translate to a .ps file and then translate the .ps file to a .pdf file.
Moreover, this must be done with care, since the Graduate School (at the insistence of
the Proquest company that archives the theses and dissertations in pdf form) requires
that the pdf file that results involve only embedded fonts. The programs that do
the transformations that change main.dvi to main.ps and then to main.pdf on your
particular TEX system may not be set up to lead to all fonts being embedded. So you
might have to reconfigure your particular TEX set up to achieve an acceptable result.
Moreover, this might not entirely fix things. Fortunately, there is a LATEX package
that helps a lot, namely pst-pdf. This package offers what amounts to an automatic
fix for almost all of the pstricks commands. To learn how to use this package, see
the package documentation.
Still, sadly, this may not be entirely successful. After you get your main.pdf
file you should view it using the Acrobat Reader (acroread on linux). You will see a
button at the top of the Acrobat Reader screen labelled file. Clicking on this button
brings down a menu and one of the options is properties. Clicking on this option
brings up another screen with some buttons at the top. Click on the fonts button.
This brings up another window showing a list of fonts. Scroll down this list. If all
the fonts are type 1 and labelled embedded or embedded subset, then everthing is
okay. Otherwise some fonts will show up as type 2 or type 3 and will not be labelled
as embedded.
If this happens to you, it is probably because you used one of the pstricks
commands that are problematic or you have used a font (perhaps even a font based
on different characters, like Cyrillic) which is not embeddable. The remedy is simply
not to use these.
Another difficulty can arise if you have used one of the many programs available to
construct graphics and then export them for inclusion in a LATEX document. Some of
these programs put labels on figures using their own system of fonts. These may turn
out not to embed, as required. Even the more sophisticated of these programs, which
employ LATEX’s font system to make most of the labels, might still label somethings,
like axises of coordinate systems with little numerals from fonts that will not embed
properly.

24
0.9 Printing Your Work
The simplest method to print your thesis is to use a printer driver like dvips or
whatever is provided on your computer set up to print .dvi files. An alternative is to
ask your TEX system to produce a pdf file (say by running pdflatex) and then print
the pdf file using the Acrobat Reader program acroread. If you elect this method
you should be careful to turn off all the special features on acroread’s print menu.
This menu pops up when you click the print button. On the left side of this menu
you should find a section labelled Print Handling. BE SURE to set the Page Scaling
to NONE and uncheck the Auto-Rotate and Center checkbox. If you just blindly
click the OK button at the bottom of the print menu (as perhaps you have always
done in the past) it is probable that acroread will try to make your document look
pretty according to its standard. This means it will likely rescale things and attempt
to center them on the page. THIS WILL DESTROY the careful work LATEX has
done to make things conform to the desires of the Graduate School. Of course, since
the Graduate School only requires an acceptable pdf file (with the right page layout
and other similar stuff), you no longer have to worry about whether the print out
looks correct to the Graduate School. On the other hand, your department and you
yourself might want a nicely bound version printed on real paper.
There is another problem that sometimes manifests itself when you print out your
thesis. Many of the TEX systems available free online were designed in Europe (many
in Germany). This means that by default they might be setup for A4 paper. This is
like the letter size paper we are familiar with in the US, but it is somewhat longer
and narrower. If you install such a system on your computer, be sure to set the paper
size to letterpaper (as opposed to blindly clicking the OK button all through the
installation process). If you have already installed a system and its default setting is
wrong, you may have to reconfigure it.
To conserve paper (and trees) and toner you should keep your printing to a min-
imum. Usually this means relying mostly on the computer display when reading
drafts of your work. Depending on which screen driver (a piece of software that is
part of your TEX setup) you use and the kind of graphics that occur in your work,
this reliance on the computer screen can work very well. But there will be times when
printing out a page or two is necessary. All of the programs used for printing allow
you to print out just a few designated pages (rather than all 157 pages of your thesis
to see just a few). Because there are pages without a number appearing on them (like
the title page) and others where the number is in lower case Roman numerals, you
have to be a bit clever about this. The page with number 33 on it might actually be
the 49th page of your thesis.
Two commands, \SuspendPrologue and \includeonly, which are described in
the next section, can also be used to help you conserve printing.
Finally, occasionally adding color might really help your exposition. In this re-
gard, you should let restraint and simplicity be your guides. No one wants a garish
dissertation. If the rare use of color is helpful in your case, you should be aware that
color printing in VERY much more costly than black and white. Thus, if you have
three pages where color appears you should print only those three pages on a color

25
printer and the balance of the 157 pages on an ordinary printer.

0.10 Commands Provided by uscthesis.cls

Here are some commands provided for your use by uscthesis.cls—all but the last
three are intended for use in the main file before the \begin{document} line.

\title{}
Used to make the title page. Your title goes inside the braces. Put this in the
main file before the \begin{document} command.

\otherdegrees{}
Another part of the title page. Use like \title{}.

\degreename{}
This is for the degree you are working on. The Graduate School maintains a
list of approved degrees. Use the appropriate one.

\degreedate{}
This is for the year you will finish your degree.

\degreemonth{}
This is for the month you you will graduate.

\college{}
This is for your college. The Graduate School maintains a official list. Use the
appropriate one.

\field{}
The Graduate School maintains a list of official degree fields. Use the appro-
priate one.

\author{}{}
Your personal name(s) goes in the first set of braces and your family name goes
in the second.

\advisor{}{}{}
Put the person’s title in the first set of braces and the names in the second.
In the third put your advisor’s position on your committee. This depends on
your department. It might be Major Professor or Director of Dissertation,
or something else. There are two similar commands for the honors option:
\reader{}{} and \schcsigner{}{} which work the same way.

\readera{}{}{}
Put the person’s title in the first set of braces and the names in the second. In
the third put your reader’s position on your committee. This depends on your
department. It might be Committee Member or Second Reader or something
else There are three similar commands: \readerb{}{}{},\readerc{}{}{}, and

26
 \readerd{}{}{} which work the same way. Use as many as your unit requires
(up to four).

\dean{}{}
Put the name of the current Dean of the Graduate School here. Include what-
ever title the Graduate School requires in the second set of braces.

\copyrightpage
Use this once in the frontmatter if you want a copyright page.

\acknowledgments{}
This is optional. It should be used only before the \begin{document} line. Put
the text (without a title) of your acknowledgments in some file, say handlebar.tex,
and then use \acknowledgments{handlebar}.

\dedication{}
This is like \acknowledgments{}.

\abstract{}
Like \acknowledgments{}, these commands take the first part of a filename,
like handlebar, in the braces. Then you must put the contents in the file
handlebar.tex. The command \abstract{} is designed to work with mas-
ters theses and doctoral dissertations. The Honors College abstracts have a
different layout and, in addition, the Honors College requires a summary. The
commands \honorsabstract{} and \summary{} are provided with the docu-
mentclass option honors.

\listofabbreviations{} and \listofsymbols{}

These commands work like \dedication{}. They causeLATEX to search for and
load the file (with file extension .tex) whose name is enclosed in those braces.
You must devise those files. These lists are optional.

\makeLoT and \makeLoF

You might have tables (using the LaTeX table environment) or figures (using
the LaTeX figure environment) in your thesis or dissertation. The rule of thumb
is that if you have four or more tables, then there should be a List of Tables
following your table of contents. The same rule of thumb applies to a List
of Figures. The uscthesis documentclass produces a List of Tables (a List of
Figures) automatically if this command is included in the topmatter.

\SuspendPrologue
You can put this command before the \begin{document} line. The effect is
then that LaTeX will produce a .dvi file from which all the front matter (Title
page, abstract, acknowledgments, table of contents, etc.) have been eliminated.
This front matter is only really important near the end of the writing process.
And of course, you don’t want to print it out in the preliminary stages every
time you need to make a hard copy of some part of your thesis or dissertation.

27
\includeonly{}
Suppose that in your main.tex file you have lines like

\include{Introduction}
\include{Squares}

If you put \includeonly{Squares} before the \begin{document} line, then

when you process your file only the file Sqaures.tex will be included, but all
the numberings and cross references from the other files will still be honored.
In this way, you can arrange to view and print only the portion of your work
that is of current interest. This can also prove useful if you need to track down
some bug—for instance a font the is not embedding correctly in the .pdf file.
Within the \includeonly command you can list several filenames separated by
commas.

\tighttoc
It sometimes happens that a line or two of the Table of Contents leaks over onto
a second page. Such a tiny amount of text on an otherwise blank page looks
bad. To remedy this, in the final stages of polishing your thesis, you might try
putting the \tighttoc command in the topmatter. It might help.

\Chaptero{}
Some of the parts of the main body of your work may have the stature of
chapters but require different headings or different treatment in the table of
contents. Maybe most people would treat the introduction as Chapter 1 (or
even Chapter 0), some might not want the word “Chapter” nor any number to
appear in the heading or in the table of contents. The same might apply to a
portion of your thesis concerning conclusions. Indeed, the Honors College allows
such a portion. To acheive this effect use \Chaptero{Introduction} instead of
\Chapter{Introduction}.

\appendix
If you have one appendix, insert this command in the operative part of your
main.tex file just above the line where the appendix is included. If you have
more than one appendix, use \appendices instead. After issuing and appendix
command, use the \input command rather than the \include command.

\SingleSpacing
This command makes everything following it set in sinlge spacing rather than
the double spacing that dominates theses and dissertation. This command
should only be used in restricted settings, in order to conform with the Graduate
School requirements. There are three kinds of such settings that can crop
up. First is the various LATEX environments that display several lines. This
includes such environments as quote,quotation, and verse as well as those
environments that display several lines of formulas. In general, the vertical
spacing of formulas that LATEX calculates is designed to work with single spacing.

28
 This means that the ratio between vertical and horizontal spacing in displayed
equations will not be correct in the prevailing double spacing setup. So you
should enclose such display environments something like this

{\SingleSpacing
\begin{align*}
...
\end{align*}
}

The { preceding the \SingleSpacing command and the } following the \end{align*}
ensure that the single spacing is only in effect for that particular range of text.
The other two common cases are the tabular environments (and its variations)
and the picture environments (and its variations). These should also be en-
closed with a leading \SingleSpacing—BUT \SingleSpacing should not be used
if you enclose the tabular-like enviroments within LATEX’s table environment,
nor should \SingleSpacing be used when the picture-like environments are
enclosed within LATEX’s figure environments. The reason is that the table
and figure environments already automatically force single spacing. So using
\SingleSpacing with the other tabular and picture uses will make all your
figures and tables come out alike. The command \SingleSpacing acts like a
switch. The similar command \DoubleSpacing is also available.

There are more commands that you can use. The uscthesis.cls documentclass
automatically loads the memoir.cls documentclass and the following standard La-
TeX packages: array.sty, amsmath.sty, amssymb.sty, ifthen.sty, latexsym.sty,
amsfonts.sty, amssymb.sty, and amsthm.sty. This means that the commands pro-
vided by these packages are already available when you use the uscthesis.cls doc-
umentclass. You should be careful with commands that change the spacing between
lines, which change the font sizes, and which alter the ways in which chapter headers,
section headers and captions are displayed. The Graduate School has requirements
about these matters. The documentclass is set up to adhere to these requirements.

0.11 Some Things Left for the Future

The automatic generation of a List of Plates (as well as a new float environment to go
along with this) will not be found in the current version. For the more venturesome,
a look at the documentation for the caption.sty package will show you how to do
this on your own. Perhaps in some future version of the documentclass, this will be
builtin.

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0.12 On the Origin of this Documentclass
The first version of this documentclass was put to use in the fall of 1998. Dr. Zoltan
Székely received his PhD in mathematics in December 1998, submitting the first
thesis or dissertation prepared using uscthesis.cls. This original version of the
documentclass was prepared while I was a visiting Ulam Professor at the Univer-
sity of Colorado. I modelled my documentclass on the documentclass Thesis.cls
developed in 1997–98 by John P. Weiss at the University of Colorado to meet the
design specifications for theses at that institution. While these two documentclasses
started out much the same, over the ensuing years they have diverged somewhat,
in part because the two universities have altered their layout requirements, but also
because the worldwide LATEX community has developed a lot of packages that offer
convenient ways to address the various typesetting problems that must be resolved
by any similar documentclass.
At a large number of universities around the world one can find similar efforts.
Some can be found in the Comprehensive TEX Archive Network (ctan.org). At least
three of these share the name uscthesis. The earliest I know about was launched in
1987 by Steven Cochran as USCthesis.sty (which has grown into USCthesis.cls)
and was developed to meet the needs of graduate students at the University of South-
ern California. A later effort at the University of Southern California was made by
physicist Zufar Mulyakov. It is called USC-Thesis.cls. Closer to home, Prof. José
M. Vidal at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering has devised the
package uscthesis.sty for graduate students at the University of South Carolina.

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