New and Altered Commands

Redefined Commands New Commands Obsolete Commands

Redefined Commands

Several LaTeX commands defined for the report class are redefined to provide different behavior in thesis class, conforming to the Grad School Specifications.

{\em ... } and \emph{ ... }
The Graduate School forbids italicized text, except in certain specific circumstances, so the ``\em'' and ``\emph{}'' commands are redefined to produce boldface text. If you use the ``typewriterstyle'' class option, then underlined text is used instead.
\begin{itemize} ... \end{itemize}
\begin{enumerate} ... \end{enumerate}
The labels for both these lists are different from the LaTeX report defaults.
\newtheorem{...}{...}[...]
The text of the theorem will be in the default font, not italicized.
\begin{verse} ... \end{verse}
\begin{quote} ... \end{quote}
\begin{quotation} ... \end{quotation}
\begin{thebibliography} ... \end{thebibliography}
These environments have been changed so that they use single-spacing instead of double-spacing. The bibliography environment is defined to underline titles, rather than using italics or boldface, even when you don't choose typewriterstyle.
\subsection{...}
\subsubsection{...}
\paragraph{...}
The thesis class does not recognize optional arguments for these commands, nor their starred versions (e.g., \subsection*).

New Commands

The singlespace environment, \begin{singlespace} ... \end{singlespace}, permits you to do single-spacing inside the abstract or body of the thesis, where the default is double-spacing. Two other commands, \singlespacing and \doublespacing, are provided as an inelegant but effective last-resort way to switch spacing modes.

Page numbering is something that isn't fully programmed in the thesis class macros. In a thesis, one-page chapters must be numbered (except for the dedication page), and you must do this manually. Issue the \OnePageChapter command immediately after a ``\chapter'' command if the chapter (or appendix) is only a page long. Issue the command inside the \acknowledgements{} or \abstract{} definition if either is only one page long.

Page numbering in the automatically-generated prologue pages (contents page, etc.) is controlled with other commands.

Obsolete Commands

Most of the formatting commands and length definitions possible in LaTeX are disallowed in thesis class. For example, margins lengths are prescribed by the Grad School Specifications, so none of them may be redefined with the \setlength{}{} command.

In addition, many of the class options which are valid for report class are disallowed in thesis class: titlepage, notitlepage, twoside, twocolumn, landscape, legalpaper, a4paper, a5paper, b5paper, and executivepaper.

Finally, these four LaTeX commands are disabled in thesis class, and will generate warning messages if you try to use them: \theindex, \thepart, \twocolumn, and \part.

Back: Class Options INDEX