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Technical University of Munich

Writing Your Thesis

General Information

Approximate number of pages to be written:

(core content, number of pages excluding abstract, table of contents, references, list of figures/tables, etc.)

  • Diplomarbeit / Master's Thesis: 60-80 pages
  • Bachelor's Thesis: 30-40 pages
  • IDP: 30-40 pages
  • Research Internship (Forschungspraxis): 20-30 pages

You may write your thesis in German or English.

Key criteria for grading a thesis:

Work
(organization, perception, creativity, duration*, ...) 		 40%
Results
(compared to the initial goals, quality and accuracy of the results, ...)		 30%
Paper written
(structure, documentation of own contributions, layout, ...)		 30%

* E. g. the student is expected to work 6 months full time for his master's thesis.

The final version of your thesis has to be given to the supervisor seven days prior to your final presentation. If you miss this deadline, the final presentation may be postponed to the next available date.

Please hand in 2 copies and the PDF version of your thesis.

Document Structure

Your thesis should comprise the following parts:

  • Title Page
    The title page should state
    • Type of this thesis (Master's Thesis, etc.)
    • Its Topic
    • Name of university, institute, and professor
    • The author's name,
    • matriculation number,
    • address, and
    • Email address.
    • Name of the supervisor(s)
    • Begin
    • End (usually the day of the final presentation)
  • Abstract
    Present in short the problem and solution your thesis is about. Must not be more than half a page.
  • Kurzfassung
    German version of the abstract. May be omitted when writing in English.
  • Contents
  • Introduction
    The introduction should explain the field of research you are working in and describe in more detail what your thesis is about. At the end, a short overview of the thesis should be given.
  • Main Part
    The main part should comprise a discussion about the state of the art, based on references to current literature. Then, the results of your own work should be presented. Intermediate steps that were important for the final result may be included. The main part should be organized in several chapters in a way that reveals best the intention of the thesis.
    The core part should represent - in conjunction with the introduction - a comprehensive exposition that does not require additional literature in order to be fully understood.
  • Conclusion
    The most vital parts of the thesis have to summarized in the conclusion. Essential experiences may be decribed as well. At the end, the author may describe his own view about future developments in the research field covered by this thesis.
  • Appendix (if necessary)
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Glossary (optional)
  • List of Symbols (optional)
  • List of Abbreviations
  • Bibliography
    A complete list of all literature and Internet references. The entries have to be consistent and complete:
    Author(s), full title, how resp. where published (name of magazine, conference, URL, etc.), date of publication.
    References are denoted by the abbreviation of the authors' names, followed by the year of publication. (LaTeX style "alpha").

    An article from a magazine:
    [GLL90] Griswold, J. S.; Lightle, T. L.; Lovelady, J. G.: Hurricane Hugo: Effect On State Government Communications. IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 28, Nr. 6, S. 12-17, 1990.

    A book:
    [EV97] Eberspächer, J.; Vögel, H.-J.: GSM - Global System for Mobile Communication. Vermittlung, Dienste und Protokolle in digitalen Mobilfunknetzen. Teubner, Stuttgart, 1997.

    A URL:
    [Arn99] Arnaud, B. St.: Gigabit Internet to every Canadian Home by 2005. www.canet2.net/archeng/home.html, 1999.

    Throughout the thesis, literature is referenced as follows:
    "..., as shown in [EV97], ..." or
    " ... there are several solutions [Arn99,GLL90] ..."
  • Index (optional)

Layout

Please use the LMT LaTeX template for your thesis. A description of LaTeX is available at the computer center LRZ. Alternatively, you may want to use the graphical editor lyx for editing, which allows export in LaTeX.

The copies of your thesis should be perfect-bound ("Klebebindung"): Use a transparent front cover so the title page can be easily read; and if possible a blue paper for the back cover. The pages should be single-sided.

The pages should be numbered (using Arabic numerals) starting with the introduction as page "1". The preceding pages may be numbered using Roman numerals. Page numbers are not shown on the title page and the first page of each chapter. Figures and tables should be numbered (numbers should include the chapter) and apropriately captioned. Use Arial or Roman fonts, a character size of 12pt, and single spacing.

Please note that symbols for physical quantities and their respective units have a defined typography:

  • Italic Style:
    Physical Quantities (e.g. U for voltage), variables (e.g. x), as well as variable functions and operators (e.g. f(x)).
  • Upright Style:
    Units and their prefixes (e.g. kg, pF), numbers, and well defined functions and operators (e.g. sin, lg).
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