Document Structure

A formal academic thesis is highly structured. It must follow a specific sequence of sections, each with distinct page numbering, header styles, and formatting rules. fduthesis provides semantic commands to handle these transitions automatically, so you never have to manually reset page counters or fiddle with fancyhdr.

The Three Pillars of a Thesis

A standard thesis is divided into three main environments: \frontmatter, \mainmatter, and \backmatter.

1. Front Matter (\frontmatter)

The front matter occurs immediately after \begin{document}. It uses lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii) for page numbers. Chapters in this section are automatically unnumbered but are still added to the Table of Contents.

Typically, it contains:

  1. Auto-generated covers and declarations (handled by fduthesis)
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Lists of Figures / Tables
  4. Abstracts (Chinese and English)
  5. List of Symbols / Notation
\frontmatter

% 1. Table of Contents (Required)
\tableofcontents

% 2. Lists of Figures and Tables (Optional, usually for PhD)
\listoffigures 
\listoftables  

% 3. Abstracts
\begin{abstract}
  中文摘要内容...
\end{abstract}

\begin{abstract*}
  English abstract content...
\end{abstract*}

% 4. List of Symbols (Optional)
\begin{notation}[ll]
  $x$ & Spatial coordinate (m) \\
  $p$ & Momentum ($kg \cdot m/s$) \\
  $\hbar$ & Reduced Planck constant \\
\end{notation}

The notation Environment

The notation environment is a custom wrapper around the longtable package, designed specifically for lists of symbols.

  • It takes an optional argument to define column formats (default is lp{7.5cm}).
  • Use & to separate the symbol from its definition, and \\ for new rows.
  • Because it uses longtable, it will automatically and cleanly break across multiple pages if your symbol list is long.

Note for English Theses: In the fduthesis-en document class, the abstract* environment does not exist. Use the standard abstract environment for your English abstract.

2. Main Matter (\mainmatter)

Calling \mainmatter signals the start of the core thesis. It automatically resets the page counter to 1 and switches numbering to standard Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3).

\mainmatter

\chapter{Introduction}
This is the start of chapter one.

\section{Background}
Provide context here.

\subsection{Historical Context}
Even deeper structure.

File Modularization (Best Practice)

For a thesis spanning 50 to 200 pages, writing everything in main.tex is unmanageable. You should separate chapters into distinct .tex files and include them.

% In main.tex
\mainmatter
\include{chapters/01-introduction}
\include{chapters/02-literature-review}
\include{chapters/03-methodology}

\include vs \input:

  • \include{file} automatically inserts a \clearpage before processing the file. This is perfect for chapters, which must start on a new page.
  • \input{file} acts as a raw copy-paste mechanism without page breaks. Use it for splitting massive tables or complex TikZ diagrams into separate files to keep your chapter code clean.

3. Appendices (\appendix)

If you have supplementary material (e.g., long mathematical proofs, raw survey data, code listings) that interrupts the flow of the main text, place them in an appendix.

The \appendix command does not generate a new page or heading itself. Instead, it reconfigures the \chapter command to use letters (Appendix A, Appendix B) instead of numbers.

\appendix

\chapter{Derivations of Equation 3.4}
Detailed step-by-step math goes here.

\chapter{Survey Questionnaire}
The raw questions provided to participants.

4. Back Matter (\backmatter)

The \backmatter command turns off chapter numbering but maintains Arabic page numbering. This section is strictly for the bibliography, publications list, and acknowledgements.

\backmatter

% 1. Bibliography
\printbibliography

% 2. Acknowledgements
\begin{acknowledgements}
  I would like to thank my supervisor...
\end{acknowledgements}

The acknowledgements Environment

fduthesis provides this dedicated environment to automatically format the title correctly ("致谢" in Chinese, "Acknowledgements" in English) and add it to the Table of Contents without a chapter number.