For academic research, we use a lot of tools. The tools we use help us in formatting, grammar and plagiarism check. One of the major concerns in academic research is to present tables and formulas in a right way. LaTeX is one such tool used by researchers to format their research papers and dissertations. The software helps you to format your formulas, tables and figures in the correct way. You can use this tool since the beginning of your dissertation till final completion. If you want to develop some real expertise on this software, then give this article a read.
Markup Language
You may have heard many times about markup languages. LaTeX is one of them. It is one the most used markup languages in academic research. In LaTeX you can tag any paragraph from your text. Whatever you add, just label it. For example, you have added one portion of text. You need to tag that portion in the right categories. Like ‘title’, ‘introduction’ and ‘author’. You need to be very careful while organising all such parts. LaTeX interprets all text and its different parts.
LaTeX for academic research helps a lot in right formatting. The best thing about this tool is that you do not have to waste plenty of time on required formatting. This tool provides you standard research style. In this way, you get so much time for your actual research work. Here you can find many ‘style files’. Each style file is from a different publisher and association. You can download any style file that is required for any particular academic research.
Subject Types for LaTex
LaTex for academic research is best suitable for subjects like
- Calculus
- Finance
- Engineering
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Social sciences
- Geometry
- Algebra
In all such subjects, you have to write many equations. While using LaTeX for academic research on such topics, you would not have to insert images of equations. But you can write equations by yourself in the form of descriptive text. If you find it hard to format your dissertations on LaTeX, you can always get help from the UK dissertation writing service. They have LaTeX professionals who can definitely help you out in this regard. All such technical expressions can be written with the help of LaTeX in academic research. If you are using British Columbia or Yukon Open Authoring Platform. In both cases, MathJax will provide you with LaTeX functionalities automatically.
MathJax
A JavaScript that assists LaTeX to show human-readable content is termed as MathJax. It turns your content into high-quality material. You can take it as a reader-friendly feature. It ensures the right format and size for reader. You can make your complex text easy to type. You can go for other alternates too. Like WordPress or Pressbooks. Use WordPress or Pressbooks for descriptive text. And then use LaTex for examples having all mathematical terms. This way, it becomes easy to let your technical and mathematical terms to stand out from the descriptive text.
You can even use Pressbooks for formula and equation writing. In Pressbooks, you can find a ‘special character bank’ feature. With this feature you don’t face any problem in writing mathematical terms. LaTeX for academic research has so much worth. You can write a journal, book, or dissertation full of mathematical terms using LaTex. For this, it is necessary to learn about LaTex properly. Otherwise, you will end up confused and stressed.
How to Learn LaTex
If you are supposed to use LaTex for academic research, you must learn about it. It will be best for you to go for BCcampus. It is already working with so many support resources. One of these support resources is LaTeX. The best suggestion is to start learning LaTeX by reading frequently asked questions. You can fund these frequently asked questions on BCcampus Pressbooks Guide. Read questions and their answers. It will really help you as an initial stage. Like,
- How to write on LaTeX
- How to add expression by using LaTeX
- How to add symbols while working on LaTeX
All such questions serve as a perfect guide for beginners. If you still have another question, you can join the Questions Answer forum of LaTeX. You can post your question in this section, or you can ask the question on email ID of latexsupport@bccampus.ca. The support team responds actively to your questions and guide you accordingly.
Features of LaTex
For learning and working on LaTeX, you have to understand the following features of LaTex for higher education academic research
- The feature of Typesetting can be used for dissertation writing and book writing. Furthermore, it assists in journals and presentations. With the help of Typesetting, you can deal with all complex expressions and formulas.
- Another important feature of LaTeX is controlling. Here you can have control from small to large documents. It includes all the tables and references. In the same way, you can control everything related to figures added in your academic research work.
- AMS-LaTeX is the best feature of LaTeX. The combination of different classes and packages by the AMS comes under the category of AMS-LaTeX. Here AMS stands for American Mathematical Society. This feature works very well for many Typesetting. It includes Typesetting of multi-line. Also, you can use different fonts, symbols and statements.
- Babel is a feature that is used for special characters. And you also use it for translation purposes. You have to choose the language, and it will activate standards of selected language. LaTeX has multi-lingual Typesetting.
- The artwork feature is also used in Latex for academic research. It can be an image of a map or any other picture. Or this you have to select the required command and insert the image. Then press the upload option. And you will have an image in your document. For that image, you are supposed to add a caption. For this, go to the ‘insert’ and add caption. Just like the caption of image, the caption of table is also important.
- LaTex for academic research has features that assist you in adding references. And then create a bibliography of those references. In the same way, you can ensure proper indexes.
- PostScript in LaTex requires a graphic package. You have to add a graphic at the start of the tex file. The same file turns into PS file if you draw something in your document.
LaTeX for academic research is really important for social sciences students. The software makes your life easy by organising your dissertations, research papers in an organised way. If you are planning your PhD or master’s in social sciences then you can get some help from this guide.