Fall 2023  
0413155 LaTeX and Academic Writing

Course information

Instructor Dr. Bruno Bentzen

Office Location Chengjun Complex 4, 306

Office Hours by appointment

Email bbentzen at zju.edu.cn

Credits 32 hours (8 weeks)

Language English

Course description

This course is an introduction to the use of LaTeX to typeset academic documents, covering topics such as the software installation, the use of classes for writing articles, books, or slide presentations, the typesetting mathematical equations, enumerated lists, tables, figures, and the use of packages for specialized additional features such as drawing natural deduction proofs in Fitch-style or tree style and pictures and diagrams in TiKz.

Course materials and resources

This course is roughly based on the freely available textbook:

• The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2ε
  Tobias Oetiker Hubert Partl, Irene Hyna and Elisabeth Schlegl
  https://ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/?lang=en

Course objectives

Upon the successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

1. write well-structured documents in LaTeX;

2. typeset complex mathematical formulas in LaTeX;

3. typeset lists, tables, include figures;

4. create labels for in-text cross-reference;

5. use BibTeX to manage bibliographies;

6. use beamer for slide presentations;

7. create basic TiKz pictures;

Assessment and grades

• Project 50%

• Problem sets 25%

• Presentation 20%

• Participation 5%

Grades are awarded on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is the best grade and 60 is the minimum passing grade.

Project: There will be one major project in this course. I will assign you a sample scientific article and you will be required to typeset it using the article class in LaTeX. Your project will be judged not by how the output resembles the article given but by the efficiency of your code. The TEX file of the project can be sent to me digitally by email in a compressed folder also containing all auxiliary files needed to compile it. There is no need to include the PDF output.

Problem sets: Each problem set must be completed and turned in on time electronically only. If you missed the deadline due to illness or other valid reasons, please send me an email explaining your situation. I wish to evaluate your performance, so your homework should reflect your own efforts. Since LaTeX is also a programming language printed assignments are not allowed. I can only compile the code in your assignments if it is sent to me in digital format. Please double-check that the code you are submitting can be compiled without any errors and that all auxiliary files needed for the compilation are sent too.

Presentation: You will be required to give oral presentations using beamer slides. The slides need to contain original material and the code has to represent your own work. Presentations will be given in class during the course of the semester and should last for about 5 minutes. I will make some brief additional comments after each presentation. The topics of the presentations will be chosen from other aspects of LaTeX not covered in full-length in class. I will give some topic suggestions in class and you are free to suggest other topics of your choice. The first presentation will start one week after I introduce you to the use of beamer in class and continue each class meeting with one or two student presentations per time.

Participation: I will not require you to speak up in class, but any form of engagement with the lectures is highly encouraged. The use of mobile phones, computers, and other portable devices is permitted for taking notes and class-related activities only. 

Attendance policy

You are expected to attend every lecture and be on time. If you cannot come to class due to an emergency please let me know as soon as possible. If you miss a class it is your responsibility to make up the material missed and catch up with your classmates. 

Plagiarism and AI policies

I wish to evaluate your performance, so your work should reflect your own efforts. You can discuss the problem sets with other students, but do not copy their solutions and submit them as your own. Any form of cheating and plagiarism is prohibited and will be taken as a serious offense by the university. The use of AI editing tools such as Grammarly or Hemingway Editor as language aids is permitted. However, the submission of assignments based on AI-generated solutions (such as those generated by ChatGPT prompts) is considered cheating. To submit AI-generated text as your own is no different from plagiarism and I will reserve the right to run AI writing detectors and request an impromptu oral explanation of your solutions whenever the suspicion arises.

Feedback

I always welcome feedback, be it positive or negative. If you wish, you can do this by speaking to me directly after class, sending me an email, or, if you prefer, sending me an anonymous note. Giving feedback will not have any effect on your grade, either positively or negatively. But it will help me to see my lectures from different angles and develop new ways of improving them.

Special Accommodations

Please contact me if you have a disability or other circumstances that require special accommodations.

Schedule

The following schedule is tentative and subject to change with fair notice:

Week 1: Overview and installation, WYSIWYG attitude adjustment, packages

Week 2: Typesetting text, lists, tables, figures, and structuring documents

Week 3: Entering math mode

Week 4: Managing references with BibTeX

Week 5: Creating slide presentations with Beamer

Week 6: Getting your first publication, journal templates, typesetting books and CVs

Week 7: Drawing formal proofs

Week 8: Drawing diagrams with TiKz

Past instances

• Fall 2022

Please let me know if you find any broken links.