Here is a quick guide for writing your final paper in Word and Latex.

Word: APA Template

If you want to use Word, we recommend starting with an APA template. You can get these from Ilias. However, now you’re going to spend a lot of time typing citations and writing your bibliography. Instead, why not try Latex?!?!

What is Latex?

Latex is a programming language for typesetting (making text look nice). It was originally designed by mathematicians to make it easier to create mathematics equations, but since then it has been adopted by scientists in every field of research. Latex does not come pre-installed on your computer. To use it, you need to either download the necessary files (from miktex.org) or use an online LaTeX editor.

Why should you use LaTeX instead of Word?

Imagine you’re just started taking a 2 hour long math test. 10 minutes into the test, the instructor hands a funny looking device to one student in the class. The student then starts pushing buttons on the device and writing what he sees on his paper. After another 10 minutes, the student is finished with a 2 hour exam, turns it in, and heads to the bar for happy hour. The rest of your struggle for the next two hours trying to remember how to use all those equations you spent all semester learning about.

Using LaTeX is like bringing a calculator to a math test. If you know how to use it, it can make things so much easier - so much easier it feels like cheating. When you know how to use LaTeX, you’ll won’t have to remember anything about APA formatting. LaTeX will take care of everything for you.

Latex does take some time to learn - mainly because it’s very different from using programs like Word that people are more used to. In LaTeX, instead of using menus to format your document, you’ll specify everything with commands that start with a backslash (\). It will take some time to learn at first, but once you do, you’ll laugh at all the other students frantically trying to remember how to write a citation in APA style. When you’re using LaTeX, citation and references are a breeze.

In the next few paragraphs I’ll explain the main commands you’ll be using. For further help, check out https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Creating_a_document_in_LaTeX

Creating and editing LaTeX documents online

When you get started with LaTeX, it’s best to start using an online editor. When you get more comfortable with LaTeX, you can download all the necessary LaTeX files and an editor of your choice to your computer. For now, we’ll use www.sharelatex.com. Go to the website, create an account and log in.

Unlike Word, you won’t be starting new documents from a blank page. Instead, you’ll start with templates that set up the basics of the document for you. In sharelatex, we’ll use the APA template. TO get this, start a new project and select the Journal Article Template. Then, select the APA Template. This template contains the basics of an APA style document. Additionally, I have a slightly expanded template available at: https://goo.gl/jzHZCQ. Feel free to copy and paste from this document.

When you open the basic APA template this, you should see the following window(s) open.

The editor window

The editor window is in the middle column. You will do all of your typing and editing in the editor. As you can see in the example, you’ll enter your main text in addition to all your commands here.

At the beginning of the editor window, you’ll see places to put the main information about your paper (e.g.; your name, the name of the article, the abstract). Replace the existing values in the template with your own.

Commands in latex always begin with the backslash (\). To do things like start a new section, enter a table, or change text formatting (e.g.; to bold or italic), you’ll enter the corresponding command. In sharelatex, these commands will be highlighted in blue text. You can see that in the APA template, many of these commands are already set up.

Here are some important commands

Command Description Example
\cite{} Cite an article \cite{hertwig2004decisions}
\textbf{} Write bold text \textbf{bold text}
\textit{} Write italic text \textit{italic text}
\section{} Start a new section \section{Method}
\subsection{} Start a new subsection \subsection{Participants}
\begin{table}, \end{table} Start and end a new table See https://goo.gl/jzHZCQ
\begin{figure}, \begin{figure} Start and end a new figure See https://goo.gl/jzHZCQ

Starting sections

As you know from the APA manual, there are 4 main sections in an APA paper: Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion. Some sections are likely to also have subsections - for example, the Method section should have subsections for Participants and Procedure. To start a new section, use \section{Section name}. To start a new subsection, use \subsection{Subsection name}. For example, to start your Results section, use the following code;

  • \section{Results}

To start your Participants sub-section, use the code

  • \subsection{Participants}

After starting a new section, go to the next line and start writing your text.

Citing articles

To cite an article in your text, use the \cite{} command. For example, you could write

  • There are some important theories relevant to this paper. For example, \cite{hertwig2004decisions} did some important things.

When you’ve cited an article, LaTeX will do all of the formatting automatically and even include the full reference in your reference section! To learn more about citing articles, check out https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Bibliography_management_in_LaTeX

Including figures (e.g.; plots)

To include a figure in your document use the following template:

\begin{figure}

\centering

\includegraphics[width=5in]{histogram}

\caption{Put your own figure caption here!}

\end{figure}

In the code above, the name of the figure file is called histogram. You’ll need to change the name for your own figure file. Make sure to also include your own caption between the braces after the \caption{} command.

Including Tables

Tables are a bit of a pain (at the beginning) in Latex. My best advice is to start with a sample example like the one I provided in https://goo.gl/jzHZCQ. To learn how to make more complicated tables, see the tutorial at https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Tables

The file manager window

The file manager window is on the left column. By default, it contains your .tex document (everything in the editor window), and your bibliography file (.bib).

Your .bib bibliography file

Your bibliography file should contain the bibtex citations for all of the references in your paper. These citations follow a specific format. For example, the following is the reference for Hertwig et al. (2004)

@article{hertwig2004decisions,

title={Decisions from experience and the effect of rare events in risky choice},

author={Hertwig, Ralph and Barron, Greg and Weber, Elke U and Erev, Ido},

journal={Psychological Science},

volume={15},

number={8},

pages={534–539},

year={2004}

}

You can either type the bibtek reference for each source manually, or you can get them online at scholar.google.com: go to scholar.google.com and search for the article using keywords (like the article title and authors). When you find the article, click “cite” under the article, then click the “bibtek” link. A new page should open up with the bibtek reference. You need to include a reference for each of the articles that you cite in your paper.

For more information about creating bibliographies, check out https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Bibliography_management_in_LaTeX and https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Natbib_citation_styles

Figures

To include images (.e.g; plots) in your document, you’ll need to upload the image (either in jpeg or pdf) to this window using the upload button. Once you’ve done this, you can insert the figure into your main text using the \begin{figure} command. For example, the following command inserts a file called histogram.pdf into the document:

\begin{figure}

\centering

\includegraphics[width=5in]{histogram}

\caption{Put the caption for your figure here. For example: “Histogram of total points earned by participants.”}

\end{figure}

For more tips, check out https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Inserting_Images

The viewer window

The viewer window is in the right column. Here is where you can see your actual final typesetted document once it has been compiled. To compile latex code into an actual pdf document, click the Recompile button. As long as you haven’t made any incorrect commands, your new compiled pdf should appear here.

When you are finished with your document you can download the final pdf file using the download menu icon next to the Recompile button.