basic essay template latex

Minimalist LaTeX Template for Academic Papers

The template produces an academic paper with LaTeX . The paper adheres to typographical best practices and has a minimalist design. The template is particularly well suited for research papers. It is designed so the papers are easy to scan and to read, both in print and on screen.

• LaTeX template for academic papers
• Research paper produced by the template
• Online appendix produced by the template
• The font for text, roman math, and numbers is Source Serif Pro.
• The font for monospaced text (including URLs) is Source Code Pro.
• The font for Greek and calligraphic math is Euler.
• The font for blackboard bold is Fourier.
• The font for mathematical symbols is MnSymbol.
• No colors are used in the text (only black) to reduce distraction and so the paper prints well; colors are reserved for graphs.
• Margins, spacing, and font size are set for comfortable reading.
• Headings and captions are designed so the paper is easy to scan.
• Formatting is specified for figures and tables.
• Formatting is specified for appendix and a separate online appendix.
• Formatting is specified for references.
• All labels are set to make cross-referencing easy.

Text font #

The font determines the appearance and readability of the entire paper, so choosing a good font is key. Following Butterick’s advice , the template uses Source Serif Pro for the text. Source Serif Pro is a serif font—a typical choice for long-form writing. Source Serif Pro is not part of typical paper templates (unlike Times New Roman or Palatino), so it has a new, fresh feel. And since Source Serif Pro was designed in the last decade, it also has a modern feel.

Moreover, the Source Pro family includes a nice monospaced font: Source Code Pro . The template uses Source Code Pro as monospaced font—giving the monospaced text and regular text a similar look. The monospaced font is used in particular to typeset URLs.

Another advantage of Source Serif Pro is that there is a sans-serif font in the Source Pro family: Source Sans Pro . This presentation template uses Source Sans Pro, which gives presentations and papers produced by the two templates a similar look.

Math fonts #

LaTeX uses one font for text and other fonts for math. For consistency, the template sticks with Source Serif Pro for roman math . It also uses Source Serif Pro for all the digits in math and basic punctuation (such as . , ? , % , ; , and , ), so very basic mathematical expressions look the same in math and text. For example, the commands 3.5\% and $3.5\%$ produce the same results.

Greek letters #

For the Greek letters in math, the template uses the Euler font . These Greek letters look good, have the same thickness and height as the text letters, and are distinctive. For consistency, neither uppercase nor lowercase Greek letters are italicized.

All the standard Greek letters are available. A few variants are available as well: \varepsilon , \varpi , \varphi , and \vartheta . The variants \varrho , \varsigma , and \varkappa are not available with the Euler font.

Calligraphic letters #

The template also uses the Euler font for calligraphic letters in math. These calligraphic letters fit well with the other fonts and are very readable. The calligraphic letters are produced with the \mathcal command.

Blackboard-bold letters #

The template uses the Fourier font as blackboard-bold font. It is cleaner than the default blackboard-bold font as it does not have serif. And it is slightly thicker than the default font so it matches well with Source Serif Pro and the Euler letters. The blackboard-bold letters are produced with the \mathbb command.

Bold characters #

In the template, it is possible to bold any mathematical character (except blackboard-bold letters). This can be done using the \bm command in math.

Mathematical symbols #

Finally, the template use the MnSymbol font for the symbols used in math mode. The default Computer Modern symbols are too light and thin in comparison to the Source Serif Pro and Euler letters, and as a result do not mix well with them. The advantage of the MnSymbol font is that its symbols are thicker, so they mix better with the letters. The symbols are also less curly, which gives them a more modern feel. 1

Font size #

The font size is 11pt, as recommended by Butterick . It is easily readable but not too big. (This is also the font size that Donald Knuth chose as default for TeX articles.)

Line spacing #

The line spacing is 150% of the point size. This is in line with Butterick’s advice . Such spacing avoids that the text is too cramped or too spread out, and makes readings more comfortable.

Text margins #

The left and right margins are 1.3 inch. With such margins, there are always 85–90 characters per line, just as Butterick recommends . Longer lines are harder to read. The top margin is 1 inch, which is standard. The bottom margin is 1.2 inch so the text appears centered in the page .

Color scheme #

As Butterick says , it is better to use color with restraint. A lot of colors, especially bright ones, is distracting. Furthermore, many colors are hard to read when they are printed in black and white. To reduce distraction, and to have a paper that prints well, the template only uses the color black for text. In particular hyperlinks—to sections, references, equations, figures, tables, results, and footnotes—are not colored. The typical, bright boxes surrounding hyperlinks should be avoided as they are distracting without adding any information. At this point everyone knows that LaTeX documents include such hyperlinks.

Title page #

The template’s title page contains all the required information: title, authors, date, abstract, affiliations, and acknowledgements. It is otherwise pretty minimalist. There are no “thanks” symbols, no “abstract” title, no indentation, no page numbers. These elements are common in papers, but they do not convey any useful information, so the template gets rid of them.

The title is bold, centered, and with a 24pt font size. Authors and date are centered and 12pt. Abstract is 11pt. Affiliations and acknowledgements are 9pt, just like the footnotes in the text.

An URL for the paper can be placed at the bottom of the title page by adding the command \available{URL} to the preamble of the document. Such URL allows readers to go easily to the latest version of the paper. With an optional argument, the command can also indicate where the paper has been published: \available[Journal]{URL} places both the journal name and URL at the bottom of the title page. The URL is displayed in small font (9pt) and gray so as not to be too obtrusive.

The template’s headings follow Butterick’s advice . Section headings are a bit larger than the text (12pt) and bold. Section headings are also centered to clearly separate sections. Subsection headings are bold. And paragraph headings are in italic, so they are noticeable but not too prominent. These headings are produced with the usual commands: \section , \subsection , and \paragraph .

The template does not tailor formatting for subsubsections and smaller headings. Such small headings are a sign that the paper’s organization is too messy, and should be avoided.

Theorems and other results #

As is standard, the text of theorems is in italic—providing subtle emphasis. The theorem label is in small caps—again providing subtle emphasis. For consistency, propositions, lemmas, assumptions, definitions, and so on, are formatted just like theorems.

The template comes with the following predefined items:

• Theorems: \begin{theorem} ... \end{theorem}
• Propositions: \begin{proposition} ... \end{proposition}
• Lemmas: \begin{lemma} ... \end{lemma}
• Corollaries: \begin{corollary} ... \end{corollary}
• Definitions: \begin{definition} ... \end{definition}
• Assumptions: \begin{assumption} ... \end{assumption}
• Remarks: \begin{remark} ... \end{remark}

A figure should be placed at the top of the page where it is first mentioned—not in the middle of the page, and especially not at the end of the paper. Figure panels are centered by default. The figure label is in small caps—just like the theorem label. The figure caption is placed bellow the figure. An advantage of avoiding colors in the text is that the colors in figures stand out.

The figure environment is set up so it is easy to reference a figure (figure 1) or directly a panel in a figure (figure 1A).

With the command \note{Text} , it is easy to enter a note below the figure caption with details about the figure and sources. The note’s font size is 9pt, just like footnotes.

The code for a basic figure with one panel is the following:

The code for a figure with two panels is the following:

Finally, the code for a figure with six panels is the following:

With the above code, a specific panel in a figure can be referenced with figure \ref{1} , which produces figure 1A, and the entire figure can be referenced with figure \ref{7} , which produces figure 1. A panel can also be referenced without mentioning the figure: panel \subref{1} produces panel A.

A table should be placed at the top of the page where it is first mentioned—not in the middle of the page, and especially not at the end of the paper. Tables are centered by default. The table label is in small caps—just like the figure label. The table caption is placed above the table, as usual. Top and bottom table lines are thicker to clearly demarcate the table. The text in the table has a font size of 9pt. The text is spaced vertically to be easily readable (spacing is insufficient in standard tables).

The command \note{Text} can also be used to enter a note below the table, to provide details about the table and sources.

The code for a basic table is the following:

The code for a more sophisticated table with panels is the following:

Itemized and numbered list are customized to fit well with the surrounding text. The text after the items is aligned with indented text (the start of a paragraph). All items (bullet points and numbers) are grey so as not to be too prominent. All extra vertical spacing is removed so spacing between list lines is exactly the same as spacing between lines of text.

Citations and references #

The format of citations and references follow the guidelines from the Chicago Manual of Style , which are followed by most scientific journals in the US.

The reference list has a font size of 10pt, with the same spacing as the text. Each individual reference is indented for emphasis.

All standard citation commands are usable in the template:

• Textual citation: \citet{NameYear} gives Name (Year)
• Textual citation with details: \citet[p. 120]{NameYear} gives Name (Year, p. 120)
• Parenthetical citation: \citep{NameYear} gives (Name Year)
• Parenthetical citation with details: \citep[chapter 4]{NameYear} gives (Name Year, chapter 4)
• Author citation: \citeauthor{NameYear} gives Name
• Year citation: \citeyear{NameYear} gives Year

The template makes it easy to add an appendix at the end of the paper. The appendix starts with the command \appendix . The formatting of the appendix strictly follows that of the main text.

All the appendix sections are clearly marked Appendix and are numbered as Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, and so on. The appendix subsections are also numbered (for instance, A.1, A.2, B.1, B.2) so they can be referred to.

All labels in the appendix start with an A , so it is clear that they point to some material in the appendix: for instance, corollary A1, figure A2, table A3, or equation (A10). All counters are reset at the beginning of the appendix (tables, figures, equations, and theorems) so all the labels start at A1, A2, and so on.

Online appendix #

Once a research paper gets published, the appendix must often be transformed into an online appendix. To help with this task, the repository also includes a template for online appendices. In the appendix template, the abstract is replaced by a table of contents. In addition, all the labels from the main text (equation numbers, figure and table numbers, theorem numbers, section numbers) continue to be usable in the online appendix. So the cross-references from main text to appendix are not broken even though the appendix is now in a separate file. This requires the following :

• appendix.tex is in the same folder as paper.tex .
• paper.tex is compiled first.
• The auxiliary file paper.aux is available when appendix.tex is compiled.

Submission to arXiv #

The template is perfectly compatible with arXiv . In particular, the template works without problems under the TeXLive 2023 distribution, which is the LaTeX distribution currently used by arXiv .

A paper based on the template can be submitted to arXiv in just three steps once it has been compiled with pdfTeX:

• Adjust the preamble of the source file paper.tex : on line 3, replace \bibliographystyle{bibliography} by \pdfoutput=1 . The \bibliographystyle{bibliography} command is not needed because arXiv produces the bibliography directly from the paper.bbl file. The \pdfoutput=1 is required because the paper is compiled with pdfTeX .
• Collect the required files into a folder. There should be four files: the source file paper.tex , the bibliography file paper.bbl , the style file paper.sty , and the figure file figures.pdf .
• Zip the folder and upload the zipped file to arXiv.

The MnSymbol package is incompatible with the amssymb package. So it is not possible to load amssymb with the template. Neither should it be required since MnSymbol provides a vast collection of symbols.  ↩︎

An essay is a document written from the author’s point of view to convey a personal opinion. Essays often tie together multiple sources of information to support the central argument that the author is making. Typically structured in paragraphs without headings, essays are a very common method of academic assessment used in schools and universities.

Tufte Essay

This template uses the Tufte class to create an elegant layout for writing essays or other long-form texts. This class features a somewhat controversial wide margin on the right side of each page. The template starts with a clear title and summary then shows how a large amount of text (typical in an essay) looks in the layout. Pages 2 and on show numerous examples of common essay elements including: sectioning, referencing, figures and tables, typography options and a bibliography. Read the text and margin notes carefully as these include examples and instructions for how to implement these various elements in your own essay.

• View Template Information

This essay template is best used for literature essays containing mostly text. This is supported by a thin single column layout with clear unnumbered section titles to increase readability. The template contains an abstract, keywords and references, which makes it suitable for college/university essays but these elements can be easily removed for a simpler high school essay. Further examples of common essay components are included: referencing using a bibliography, an inline figure, a table and lists.

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Getting Started with LaTeX

• Installation
• Creating a document
• A sample document
• Library Workshop Files

Introduction

Before reading this section you should have a basic understanding of how to create a LaTeX document, as well as, the basic structure of a document.

This section is about creating templates for LaTeX documents.  Templates are meant to speed up the initial creation of a LaTeX document.  Often it is the case that the same packages and document structure will be applicable to many of the documents you are working on, in this case using a template will save you the time of having to input all of this information every time you create a new document.

Using and Creating Templates

A good front end LaTeX software package will contain at least some standard templates for different document types such as articles, beamers, and books, a great one will also let you create your own template.  Templates can be very useful when there are certain documents types you need to create often such as class notes, homework assignments, and lab reports.  In these cases a template will create consistency between documents and greatly simplify the creation of the document.

Using Templates

How to use a template depends on what program you are using to write your LaTeX code.  If you are not using any front end software a template would simply be an already written .tex file you used to start your document.  It is important to make sure that you do not save over the template as you create the new document as this would destroy the template file.  Different front end software have different methods for using templates.  In TexStudio for example under "File" there is a "new from template" option.  TexStudio comes with a number of preprogrammed templates but also allows you to add your own.  TexMaker on the other hand, under file, has the option "new by copying an existing file".  In this case you would need to create your own template file,  but you would not have to worry that you might accidentally save over it.

If the template you are looking for is not built into the software you are using there are online resources such as LaTeX Templates  where you can download templates for a variety of purposes.  A more advanced LaTeX user may also want to consider creating their own template. 

Creating Templates

When creating a template there are several important questions to ask yourself:

• It doesn't make sense to have a template if you will need to change the document class often.  It is also important to recognize which document best suits your needs (i.e. if you want sections use article but if you want chapters use book).
• One of the best reasons to have a template is that you won't have write the preamble every time you start a new document, therefore it is very important to include all the packages you will need.  Its better to have extra packages than not enough.
• You can save time by incorporating certain common elements into you preamble such as title, author, and date.  You may also want include certain structures in the document, for example if you were making a lab report you may already include all the sections the report requires (Introduction, Experimental Setup, Results, Conclusions, etc...).  
• Perhaps you are using your template for a certain class that often uses matrices or a mathematical symbol with a long name.  Creating a new command as part of the template can help simplify the writing process.

Sample Template Code

% This is a template for doing homework assignments in LaTeX

\documentclass {article} % This command is used to set the type of document you are working on such as an article, book, or presenation

\usepackage { geometry } % This package allows the editing of the page layout \usepackage { amsmath }   % This package allows the use of a large range of mathematical formula, commands, and symbols \usepackage { graphicx }   % This package allows the importing of images

\newcommand { \question }[2][]{ \ begin{ flushleft }         \textbf {Question #1}: \textit {#2}

\end{ flushleft } } \newcommand { \sol }{ \textbf {Solution}:} %Use if you want a boldface solution line \newcommand { \maketitletwo }[2][]{ \begin{ center }         \Large { \textbf {Assignment #1}                          Course Title} % Name of course here          \vspace {5pt}                  \normalsize {Matthew Frenkel   % Your name here                  \today }         % Change to due date if preferred          \vspace {15pt}          \end{ center } } \begin{ document }      \maketitletwo [5]   % Optional argument is assignment number     %Keep a blank space between maketitletwo and \question[1]           \question [1]{Here is my first question}           YOUR SOLUTION HERE          \question [2]{Here is my second question}          YOUR SOLUTION HERE          \question [3]{What is the \Large { $ \int_ 0^2 x^2 \, dx $ } \normalsize {. Show all steps}}           \begin{ align* }     \int_ 0^2 x^2 &= \left. \frac {x^3}{3} \right| _0^2 \\                  &= \frac {2^3}{3}- \frac {0^3}{3} \\                  &= \frac {8}{3}      \end{ align* } \end{ document }

Sample Template Output

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Upload or create templates for assignments, presentations, theses, posters, and student/faculty journals for your institution. Just create it as a project on Overleaf and use the publish menu.

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Write your thesis using the official ' Name of University goes here ' thesis template

Find your University's template on Overleaf here ( insert link to official LaTeX thesis template on Overleaf Gallery or custom Overleaf institutional portal template page ).

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Basic LaTeX2e essay template using Bibtex for backend with Harvard APA referencing and citation style.

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LaTeX2e essay template using Bibtex for backend with Harvard APA referencing and citation style.

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Here we provide a selection of homework assignments templates and examples for school, college and university use. These often include a question and answer section already set out, along with space for the student name, course title, date and any other required information. Teachers and lecturers may also find these templates useful for preparing material for their classes.

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