Writing Your Thesis

At this page, we provide some information necessary while writing a thesis. Basically, the same rules can be applied for any other scientific paperwork. We must admit that this information collected here is neither complete nor represents it a general rule set. Nevertheless, we try to keep it up-to-date and comprehensive.
If you have comments or suggestions, please drop me a short note.

Please note also important rules for the Use of Generative AI at the bottom of this page.

Presentation Templates

  • The FAU provide templates for your presentations here

LaTeX Template

General Rules and Hints

  1. Structure of the document
    The main document should be organized as follows. The ratio between the main sections (2.-4.) is 1/3 to 1/3 to 1/3! Regarding the size of the thesis, a rough measure might be 60-80 pages for a bachelor thesis and 80-90 for a master’s thesis.
    • Abstract / Kurzfassung: each about 1/2 page
      • How to write an abstract
      • Motivation (Why do we care?)
      • Problem statement (What problem are we trying to solve?)
      • Approach (How did we go about it)
      • Results (What’s the answer?)
      • Conclusion (What are the implications of the answer?)
    • 1. Intoduction (general motivation for your work, context and goals): 1-2 pages
      • Context: make sure to link where your work fits in
      • Problem: gap in knowledge, too expensive, too slow, a deficiency, superseded technology
      • Strategy: the way you will address the problem
    • 2. Fundamentals / environment and related work: 1/3
      • comment on employed hardware and software
      • describe methods and techniques that build the basis of your work
      • review related work(!)
    • 3. Developed architecture / system design / implementation: 1/3
      • start with a theoretical approach
      • describe the developed system/algorithm/method from a high-level point of view
      • go ahead in presenting your developments in more detail
    • 4. Measurement results / analysis / discussion: 1/3
      • whatever you have done, you must comment it, compare it to other systems, evaluate it
      • usually, adequate graphs help to show the benefits of your approach
      • caution: each result/graph must be discussed! what’s the reason for this peak or why have you ovserved this effect
    • 5. Conclusion: 1 page
      • summarize again what your paper did, but now emphasize more the results, and comparisons
      • write conclusions that can be drawn from the results found and the discussion presented in the paper
      • future work (be very brief, explain what, but not much how)
    • 6. References
      • all papers and articles used in the thesis must be cited (and each reference must be used in the thesis!)
      • a rough number is 20 references for a bachelor thesis and 30-40 for a master’s thesis
      • avoid to cite web sites
      • We highly recommend to use Endnote or BibTeX for creating the references and citings
      • Further information: IEEE Rules, BibTeX
  2. Writing style
    • Avoid passive voice, active voice is easier to read. There is nothing wrong saying I (or we) did it
    • Avoid negative sentences: write in a positive (affirmative) voice, they are easier to understand.
    • Always use vector graphics for figures (PDF, EPS, …)
  3. Last minute checks
    • Did I spell out the main points of the interpretation of results?
    • Are all equations, figures, tables numbered?
    • Do all graphs, tables, diagrams have descriptive captions?
    • Are all axes and scale carefully chosen to show the relevant effects?
    • Are all axes labelled? Do the labals include the measurement units?
    • Are citations in the caption (if a graph is borrowed)?

Further reading

 

Rules for the Use of Generative AI

You must be fully familiar with the university’s guidelines regarding the use of generative AI tools in your thesis. Unless explicitly approved by your supervisor, the use of any generative AI is strictly prohibited. Exceptions are often the case, but must be granted upon prior discussion with your supervisor.
You address this early in your research process and provide a complete disclosure of all intended applications of generative AI, as their use may extend beyond the writing part (e.g., code generation).

For additional information, refer to https://www.fau.eu/studying/organizing-your-studies-and-where-to-go-for-advice/examinations/#general-information-the-use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-examinations
and
https://www.lehre.fau.de/files/2025/10/FAU_Leitlinien-KI-in-der-Lehre_Stand-September-2025.pdf
(only available in German). Should you have any questions or require clarification, consult your supervisor.

Your thesis must include both German and English versions of the Declaration of Originality (“Eigenständigkeitserklärung“). If generative AI was used in any part of your work, this declaration must be adapted. The provided LaTeX template includes a standard declaration that can be used unchanged when generative AI was used. A current version of this declaration is also available at
https://www.fau.eu/studying/organizing-your-studies-and-where-to-go-for-advice/examinations/#general-information-template-of-declaration-of-originality-for-examinations.
If your supervisor grants permission to use generative AI, you must additionally complete the extended AI usage declaration at
https://www.lehre.fau.de/files/2025/12/20252010_Beispiel_Erklaerung-zur-Nutzung_DE.pdf together with your supervisor and attach it to your thesis submission.

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