thesis section subsection

• University of Michigan Library
• Research Guides

Microsoft Word for Dissertations

• Chapter and Section Numbering
• Introduction, Template, & Resources
• Formatting for All Readers
• Applying a Style
• Modifying a Style
• Setting up a Heading 1 Example
• Images, Charts, Other Objects
• Footnotes, Endnotes, & Citations
• Cross-References
• Appendix Figures & Tables
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures/Tables
• Page Numbers
• Landscape Pages
• Combining Chapter Files
• Commenting and Reviewing
• Tips & Tricks
• The Two-inch Top Margin
• Troubleshooting
• Finalizing Without Styles
• Preparing Your Final Document

Page Contents

Microsoft Word can automatically keep track of your chapter, section, and sub-section numbering for you. Using these numbering schemes will also allow your figure/diagram/table/equations to be automatically numbered, as well.

In this part of the Guide, you'll learn:

• How to set Word to automatically number your Chapters and Sections
• How to customize your number style ( Section 1.1 vs. Section 1.a or Section 01.01 )
• How to automatically number Appendices

Automatic Chapter and Subsection Numbering

Important Note: Not everyone needs this type of numbering; if your discipline doesn’t require it, skip this section!

Word can automatically number sections (Chapter 1, 1.1, 1.2, etc.) of your document and include the chapter number in the captions (Figure 1.2, 2.2, etc.).

• Make sure each of your chapter titles are in the Heading 1 style, and then click on one of your chapter titles.
• Click OK when you are finished.
• If you typed in the text “Chapter #”, and now it is duplicating your efforts, delete the text you typed and leave the automatically generated chapter number.
• To follow the automatically generated chapter number with the title of your chapter on a new line, click just before the text of your title, hold down the Shift key on the keyboard, and then press the Enter key.

Note: If you have any problems with word automatically adding outline numbering to parts of your front matter, simply delete it.  Your chapter numbers will reset to show the correct number of chapters.

Removing the section numbering from our template

• Place your cursor in the title of your Chapter 1 (which is styled with the Heading 1 style)

In some cases, you may find that Word has added "Chapter X" before some of your Heading 1 sections that aren't chapters (like Acknowledgements or Bibliography). All you need to do is go to each of those sections, place your cursor after "Chapter X", and press Backspace to delete it.

Customizing Your Numbers

If you want to change anything about the numbers – for example, you are using the 1.1, 1.2 , etc... style but would like it to be 1.a, 1.b , etc..., or you want to change Arabic numbers (Chapter 1) to Ordinal (Chapter One), or you want to put a colon or a tab after the numbers, you can.

• Use the Number style for this level: pulldown menu (A) to choose from various numeral or letter styles.
• Under "Click level to modify" (B), in this screenshot we've selected level 1 (the Chapter level) and added the word “Chapter” and a space afterwards to the "Enter formatting for number" (C) field. 
• Then you can modify the other levels (Level 2 would be for a section in a chapter and Level 3 for a sub-section, and of course Level 4 for a sub-sub-section). You can, for example, change the period in between the level and sub-level numbers to a dash or anything you want by making the change in the "Enter formatting for number" (C) field.
• In the "Follow number with:" field (D), you may also see that a tab follows the number. We suggest you change that to a space. 

Graduate College Formatting Guide

• Page Numbers (Microsoft Word)
• Page Numbers (Google Docs)
• Page Breaks and Section Breaks
• Headings, Subheadings, and Table of Contents (Microsoft Word)
• Headings, Subheadings, and Table of Contents (Google Docs)
• Inserting Tables and Figures
• Comments and Track Changes
• References, Bibliography, Works Cited
• Landscape Pages & Special Materials

Setting the Normal Style

Set the "normal" style of font.

Before we can set up headings, we'll need to define the format of the text that  isn't  a heading. The "styles" in word set some default formatting for text. Setting up the "Normal" style will create a default font setting to keep the text uniform throughout the document. The Styles pane is located under the HOME tab.

Right click on the "Normal" style to open the Modify option.

This will open a Modify Style Dialog Box. Start by changing the Paragraph formatting. This is located by selecting the Format drop down in the bottom left of the Dialog Box.

There are two things that should be set under the Paragraph settings. Under the INDENTS AND SPACING tab, check to turn on "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style." Under the LINE AND PAGE BREAKS tab, check to turn on the "Widow/Orphan Control."

Once both of those have been set and you click "okay," you'll be returned to the Modify Style Dialog Box. Now we can set the font formatting. Select the font you wish to use throughout the document, change the font size to 12 point, ensure the line spacing is double spaced, and select the option to remove space between paragraphs (this is indicated by two lines pointing towards each other).

Adding Headings & Subheadings

Inserting headings and subheadings.

Using the same technique we can create a standard for the various types of headings and subheadings used across the thesis. The Thesis & Dissertation Manual generally follows APA style for heading levels. In order to keep headings consistently correct and link the Table of Contents, the Styles function in Word is used. This is going to show you some examples of the formatting required for the headings and how to use the various heading levels. We'll also see how to use styles and update your Table of Contents. 

Modifying Heading Levels to Match Required Formatting

Level 1 headings.

Chapters will be linked to Heading Level 1. If you choose not to have chapters, you will use level 1 for your major headings (typically: Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, etc.). They should be typed in title case, center aligned, and bold. The number of the chapter can be in Arabic or Roman numerals or spelled out so long as it is consistently done throughout the document. The heading should be on one line, so if you are using chapters, it should look something like this:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Once you have formatted a chapter heading, select the text of the chapter heading then right click on Heading 1 in the Styles pane and select "Update Heading 1 to Match Selection." 

Adding More Level 1 Headings

Once you have formatted the first heading and updated the style, you simply need to type the new level 1 heading in title case and then, with your cursor in line with the heading, click on the heading 1 button in the styles pane to format it and link it for your table of contents. Make sure to use this feature every time to ensure all headings are properly linked to your table of contents.

Level 2 Headings

Subsections of your major headings should be the next level down. Level 2 headings will be left aligned, bold, and title case. They should look like this:

Level 2 Heading

Once you have formatted a level 2 heading, select the text of the heading then right click on Heading 2 in the Styles pane and select "Update Heading 2 to Match Selection." 

Adding More Level 2 Headings

Once you have formatted the first heading and updated the style, you simply need to type the new level 2 heading in title case and then, with your cursor in line with the heading, click on the heading 2 button in the styles pane to format it and link it for your table of contents. Make sure to use this feature every time to ensure all headings are properly linked to your table of contents.

Level 3 Headings

If you wish to further subsection your paper, you will use level 3 headings. Level 3 headings will be bold italic, left aligned, and title case. They should look like this:

Level Three Heading

Once you have formatted a level 3 heading, select the text of the heading then right click on Heading 3 in the Styles pane and select "Update Heading 3 to Match Selection." 

Adding More Level 3 Headings

Once you have formatted the first heading and updated the style, you simply need to type the new level 3 heading in title case and then, with your cursor in line with the heading, click on the heading 3 button in the styles pane to format it and link it for your table of contents. Make sure to use this feature every time to ensure all headings are properly linked to your table of contents.

Level 4 & 5 Headings (and beyond)

It is common to find the first 3 heading levels in papers that are as long as a thesis or dissertation. Occasionally, you may find the need to go beyond those levels. It is important to note that for the thesis and dissertation, only the first 3 headings should be included in the table of contents. It is also recommended that you only use the styles function for the first 3 headings because they stand alone on their own line of text. The next heading levels will begin on the same line as the paragraph that starts that section which means that the style function will not work properly. If you were to link the heading, the entire paragraph will appear in your table of contents.

This means that you will need to, carefully, ensure you are formatting the headings manually. Each level should be consistently formatted the same way. APA has standards for levels 4 & 5 which are described here. For heading levels beyond level 5, you should pick a consistent formatting that clearly indicates they are a subsection of the level 5 heading. It is also recommended that you carefully evaluate if this level of heading is truly necessary for your writing.

Level 4 Heading

Level 4 headings will begin on the same line of the paragraph that makes up the section. It will be indented 0.5", much like a normal paragraph indent. The heading will be in title case and bold font with a period at the end of the heading:

            Level Four Heading Here.  Start the first sentence of the paragraph that follows the heading on the same line and continue typing. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc at pellentesque massa. Sed nec urna nec est efficitur iaculis. Etiam efficitur velit id dignissim eleifend. Duis euismod, nisi sed cursus sodales, sem nisi porttitor ante, eu dignissim justo tortor nec mauris.

Level 5 Heading

Level 5 headings will begin on the same line of the paragraph that makes up the section. It will be indented 0.5", much like a normal paragraph indent. The heading will be in title case and bold italic font with a period at the end of the heading:

            Level Five Heading Here.   Start the first sentence of the paragraph that follows the heading on the same line and continue typing. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc at pellentesque massa. Sed nec urna nec est efficitur iaculis. Etiam efficitur velit id dignissim eleifend. Duis euismod, nisi sed cursus sodales, sem nisi porttitor ante, eu dignissim justo tortor nec mauris.

Table of Contents

Once you have added headings and used the styles feature, you will be able to use the word function to "generate" a table of contents. You will need to type "Table of Contents" in bold font, centered at the top of the page you will be inserting your table of contents onto. Then, place your cursor on the next line

From the References tab, click on Table of Contents and select Custom Table of Contents...

From the pop up window, you will want to change the tab leaders to (none) rather than the default. The rest of the default settings will be fine, so click ok once you've done so.

This will populate your table of contents.

From here, you will need to open the style pane to modify some of the formatting of the table of contents.

You will need to locate TOC 1 and click on it, and select "modify" from the drop down list.

TOC 1 style should be bold. If you've properly set up your "normal style" of font (see above), this should be the only modification to your TOC styles that you need to make. If the text is not properly set up and you need to further format it, you can do so from this window.

If set up correctly, your table of contents should look like the image below.

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Formatting Research Paper Headings and Subheadings

Different style guides have different rules regarding the formatting of headings and subheadings in a paper, but what information you should actually put into your subheadings is a different question and often up to personal taste. Here we quickly summarize general guidelines, different approaches, and what not to do when choosing headings for a research paper.

Does it matter how I name my sections and subsections?

The main sections of a research paper have general headers and are often journal-specific, but some (e.g., the methods and discussion section) can really benefit from subsections with clear and informative headers. The things to keep in mind are thus the general style your paper is supposed to follow (e.g., APA, MLA), the specific guidelines the journal you want to submit to lists in their author instructions , and your personal style (e.g., how much information you want the reader to get from just reading your subsection headers). 

Table of Contents:

• Style Guides: Rules on Headings and Subheadings
• What Sections and Subsections Do You Need? 
• How Should You Name Your Sections and Subsections?
• Avoid These Common Mistakes

Style Guides: Research Paper Heading and Subheading Format

Headers identify the content within the different sections of your paper and should be as descriptive and concise as possible. That is why the main sections of research articles always have the same or very similar headers ( Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion ), with no or only small differences between journals. However, you also need to divide the content of some of these sections (e.g., the method section) into smaller subsections (e.g., Participants, Experimental Design, and Statistical Analysis ), and make sure you follow specific journal formatting styles when doing so. 

If the journal you submit to follows APA style , for example, you are allowed to use up to five levels of headings, depending on the length of your paper, the complexity of your work, and your personal preference. To clearly indicate how each subsection fits into the rest of the text, every header level has a different format – but note that headers are usually not numbered because the different formatting already reflects the text hierarchy.

APA style headings example structure

Level 1 Centered, Bold, Title Case

Text begins as a new paragraph.

Level 2 Left-aligned, Bold, Title Case

Level 3 Left-aligned, Bold Italic, Title Case

Level 4     Indented, Bold, Title Case, Period . Text begins on the same                    

                                 line and continues as a regular paragraph.

Level 5     Indented, Bold Italic, Title Case, Period. Text begins on the                           

                                 same line and continues as a regular paragraph.

If you only need one section header (e.g. Methods ) and one level of subsection headers (e.g., Participants, Experimental Design, and Statistical Analysis ), use Level 1 and Level 2 headers. If you need three levels of headings, use Levels 1, 2, and 3 (and so on). Do not skip levels or combine them in a different way. 

If you write a paper in Chicago style or MLA style , then you don’t need to follow such exact rules for headings and subheadings. Your structure just has to be consistent with the general formatting guidelines of both styles (12-pts Times New Roman font, double-spaced text, 0.5-inch indentation for every new paragraph) and consistent throughout your paper. Make sure the different formatting levels indicate a hierarchy (e.g., boldface for level 1 and italics for level 2, or a larger font size for level 1 and smaller font size for level 2). The main specifics regarding Chicago and MLA headings and subheadings are that they should be written in title case (major words capitalized, most minor words lowercase) and not end in a period. Both styles allow you, however, to number your sections and subsections, for example with an Arabic number and a period, followed by a space and then the section name. 

MLA paper headings example structure

1. Introduction

2. Material and Methods

2.1 Subject Recruitment

2.2 Experimental Procedure

2.3 Statistical Analysis

3.1 Experiment 1

3.2 Experiment 2

4. Discussion

5. Conclusion

What research paper headings do you need?

Your paper obviously needs to contain the main sections ( Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and maybe Conclusion ) and you need to make sure that you name them according to the target journal style (have a look at the author guidelines if you are unsure what the journal style is). The differences between journals are subtle, but some want you to combine the results and discussion sections, for example, while others don’t want you to have a separate conclusion section. You also need to check whether the target journal has specific rules on subsections (or no subsections) within these main sections. The introduction section should usually not be subdivided (but some journals do not mind), while the method section, for example, always needs to have clear subsections.

How to Name Your Sections and Subsections

The method section subheadings should be short and descriptive, but how you subdivide this section depends on the structure you choose to present your work – which can be chronological (e.g., Experiment 1, Experiment 2 ) or follow your main topics (e.g., Visual Experiment, Behavioral Experiment, Questionnaire ). Have a look at this article on how to write the methods for a research paper if you need input on what the best structure for your work is. The method subheadings should only be keywords that tell the reader what information is following, not summaries or conclusions. That means that “ Subject Recruitment ” is a good methods section subheading, but “ Subjects Were Screened Using Questionnaires ” is not.  

The subheadings for the result section should then follow the general structure of your method section, but here you can choose what information you want to put in every subheading. Some authors keep it simple and just subdivide their result section into experiments or measures like the method section, but others use the headings to summarize their findings so that the reader is prepared for the details that follow. You could, for example, simply name your subsections “ Anxiety Levels ” and “ Social Behavior ,” if those are the measures you studied and explained in the method section. 

Or, you could provide the reader with a glimpse into the results of the analyses you are going to describe, and instead name these subsections “ Anxiety-Like Behaviors in Mutant Mice ” and “ Normal Social Behaviors in Mutant Mice .” While keeping headings short and simple is always a good idea, such mini-summaries can make your result section much clearer and easier to follow. Just make sure that the target journal you want to submit to does not have a rule against that. 

Common Heading and Subheading Mistakes 

Subheadings are not sentences.

If your heading reads like a full sentence, then you can most probably omit the verb or generally rephrase to shorten it. That also means a heading should not contain punctuation except maybe colons or question marks – definitely don’t put a period at the end, except when you have reached heading level 4 in the APA formatting style (see above) and the rules say so.  

Be consistent

Always check your numbering, for example for spaces and periods before and after numbers (e.g., 3.2. vs 3.2 ), because readability depends on such features. But also make sure that your headings are consistent in structure and content: Switching between short keyword headings (e.g., “ Experiment 2 ”) and summary headings (e.g., “ Mice Do not Recognize People ”) is confusing and never a good idea. Ideally, subheadings within a section all have a similar structure. If your first subsection is called “ Mice Do not Recognize People ,” then “ People Do not Recognize Mice” is a better subheader for the next subsection than “Do People Recognize Mice? ”, because consistency is more important in a research paper than creativity. 

Don’t overdo it

Not every paragraph or every argument needs a subheading. Only use subheadings within a bigger section if you have more than one point to make per heading level, and if subdividing the section really makes the structure clearer overall.

Before submitting your journal manuscript to academic publishers, be sure to get English editing services , including manuscript editing or paper editing from a trusted source. And receive instant proofreading and paraphrasing with Wordvice AI, our AI online text editor , which provides unlimited editing while drafting your research work.

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• Sections and chapters
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Basic example
• 3 Document sectioning
• 4.1 Unnumbered sections in the table of contents
• 5.1 The report class
• 5.2 The book class
• 6.1 titlesec commands
• 7 Further reading

Introduction

Documents usually have some form of “logical structure”: division into chapters, sections, sub-sections etc. to organize their content. LaTeX supports the creation of a document structure and also enables customization of sectioning and numbering. The commands available to organize a document depend on the document class being used, although the simplest form of organization, sectioning, is available in all formats.

Basic example

Let’s begin with a basic example to demonstrate the \section{ section title } command, which marks the beginning of a new section called section title . Section numbering is automatic and can be customized, or disabled.

 Open this example in Overleaf.

This example produces the following output:

Document sectioning

LaTeX can organize, number, and index chapters and sections of document. There are up to 7 levels of depth for defining sections depending on the document class:

Usually, \section is the top-level document command in most documents. However, in reports or books, and similar long documents, this would be \chapter or \part .

Numbered and unnumbered sections

To get an unnumbered chapter, section, subsection, etc. add an asterisk ( * ) at the end of the command, before the opening curly brace. These will not go into the table of contents. Here is our first example (above) but this time using \section* instead of \section :

Unnumbered sections in the table of contents

To add an unnumbered section to the table of contents, use the \addcontentsline command like this:

Here is an example using \addcontentsline but see the article Table of contents for further information and examples.

Document chapters and sections in a book/report

As mentioned before, \chapter can be used in books and reports.

The report class

Below you can see an example report using text taken the Overleaf article An Introduction to LuaTeX (Part 1): What is it—and what makes it so different?

 Open this example in Overleaf (using lualatex )

This example produces the following output—here we show pages 2–4, where the page images have been overlapped to ease presentation:

The book class

The following example reproduces text from the report example but with \documentclass{book} , containing parts, chapters, sections, subsections and sub-subsections. If you open the example in Overleaf you should see that sub-subsections produced by \subsubsection are not numbered. That is by design of the book class: if you want to change this behavior, add the following command to your document preamble:

 To see the output, open this example in Overleaf (it uses lualatex )

Customize chapters and sections

You can use the titlesec package to customize chapters, sections and subsections style in an easy way.

 Open this titlesec example in Overleaf.

titlesec commands

There are two general commands:

where [<shape>] and [<after-code>] are optional parameters, and:

• <command> is the sectioning command to be redefined: \part , \chapter , \section , \subsection , \subsubsection , \paragraph or \subparagraph .
• <shape> is sectioning paragraph shape; possible values are: hang , block , display , runin , leftmargin , rightmargin , drop , wrap and frame .
• <format> is the format to be applied to the title, label, and text; for example \normalfont\Large\bfseries
• <label> specify sectioning label.
• <sep> is the horizontal separation between label and title body and it must be a length and not be empty.
• <before-code> is code preceding the title body.
• <after-code> is code following the title body.
• <left> increases the left margin.
• <before-sep> is the vertical space before the title.
• <after-sep> is the separation between title and non-sectioning text.

The starred version of this command ( \titlespacing* ) kills the indentation of the paragraph following the title.

Further reading

For more information see:

• Creating a document in LaTeX
• Bold, italics and underlining
• Table of contents
• Cross referencing sections and equations
• Management in a large project
• Multi-file LaTeX projects
• Page numbering
• Single sided and double sided documents
• Multiple columns
• Font sizes, families, and styles
• titlesec package manual
• Documentation Home
• Learn LaTeX in 30 minutes

Overleaf guides

• Creating a document in Overleaf
• Uploading a project
• Copying a project
• Creating a project from a template
• Using the Overleaf project menu
• Including images in Overleaf
• Exporting your work from Overleaf
• Working offline in Overleaf
• Using Track Changes in Overleaf
• Using bibliographies in Overleaf
• Sharing your work with others
• Using the History feature
• Debugging Compilation timeout errors
• How-to guides
• Guide to Overleaf’s premium features

LaTeX Basics

• Creating your first LaTeX document
• Choosing a LaTeX Compiler
• Paragraphs and new lines

Mathematics

• Mathematical expressions
• Subscripts and superscripts
• Brackets and Parentheses
• Fractions and Binomials
• Aligning equations
• Spacing in math mode
• Integrals, sums and limits
• Display style in math mode
• List of Greek letters and math symbols
• Mathematical fonts
• Using the Symbol Palette in Overleaf

Figures and tables

• Inserting Images
• Positioning Images and Tables
• Lists of Tables and Figures
• Drawing Diagrams Directly in LaTeX
• TikZ package

References and Citations

• Bibliography management with bibtex
• Bibliography management with natbib
• Bibliography management with biblatex
• Bibtex bibliography styles
• Natbib bibliography styles
• Natbib citation styles
• Biblatex bibliography styles
• Biblatex citation styles
• Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using polyglossia and fontspec
• Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using babel and fontspec
• International language support
• Quotations and quotation marks

Document structure

• Cross referencing sections, equations and floats
• Nomenclatures
• Lengths in L a T e X
• Headers and footers
• Paragraph formatting
• Line breaks and blank spaces
• Text alignment
• Page size and margins
• Code listing
• Code Highlighting with minted
• Using colours in LaTeX
• Margin notes
• Font typefaces
• Supporting modern fonts with X Ǝ L a T e X

Presentations

• Environments

Field specific

• Theorems and proofs
• Chemistry formulae
• Feynman diagrams
• Molecular orbital diagrams
• Chess notation
• Knitting patterns
• CircuiTikz package
• Pgfplots package
• Typesetting exams in LaTeX
• Attribute Value Matrices

Class files

• Understanding packages and class files
• List of packages and class files
• Writing your own package
• Writing your own class

Advanced TeX/LaTeX

• In-depth technical articles on TeX/LaTeX

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Put text between section and subsection headings?

Are there rules about whether or not to put text between section and subsection headings (in scholarly works)?

1 section heading text / no text here? 1.1 subsection heading more text 1.2 subsection heading ...

• What's the context? An informal outline, or perhaps a non-fiction work edited to style guide? –  Goodbye Stack Exchange Commented Mar 28, 2011 at 4:12

3 Answers 3

If it makes sense, by all means put text there. It’s not strange at all. Neither is not having text there and just starting a subsection immediately.

If you feel like the section needs an introduction, go ahead and put a little text there. If the heading is comprehensible on its own, then don't bother.

Example: 1.1 has introductory text; 1.2 does not.

1. Star Trek

Star Trek was a television show which originally aired from 1966 to 1969. It struggled in the ratings and was eventually canceled despite a small but ferociously loyal fanbase. Years of repeats and syndication proved that the concept had legs, and four sequel series have aired to date.

1.1 Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry and pitched as "Wagon Train to the Stars." It starred William Shatner as the charismatic Captain James T. Kirk. Leonard Nimoy as the half-Vulcan Mr. Spock, and DeForrest Kelley as the cantankerous Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.

1.2 Star Trek: The Next Generation.

After years of anticipation, several movies, and a failed "Star Trek II" series, Star Trek finally returned to the (syndicated) small screen. Led by Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart, a diverse ensemble cast including LeVar Burton from "Roots" once again walked the decks of the Enterprise . Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.

A quick check of a dozen nonfiction books from my bookshelf suggests that it's unusual to start a section with a subsection. In all but one book (an economics book from 1956), each chapter and section begins with some text that introduces the topic and sets the stage for what follows.

So it's not against the rules to start a section with a subsection, but it's unusual.

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How to make chapter*, section* and subsection* appear in the table of contents

I need to produce a PDF document in which I need some "chapters" (along with its sections and subsections) to be non-numbered but still included in the ToC.

This is for my master thesis. I'm using the book document class, because I don't like memoir defaults.

If I use \chapter* , then LaTeX remove the chapter from the ToC. But I'm required to have those as well in the ToC. Furthermore, the headings (fancy) are not changed with \chapter* .

The overall structure of the thesis is:

How can I make \chapter* , \section* , and \subsection* to appear in the ToC and to modify the headers?

I think I may be using some packages that interfere with the way headers and footers are generated. The answer of smilingthax gets the first part of the question responded: I have now my \chapter*s on the TOC.

This is my full preamble:

5 Answers 5

I don't think an specialized command exists for that. But you can use

to add it to the TOC. BTW, I didn't have problems with \chapter* and fancy, so I used:

• 4 This works almost as expected. I have the chapters on the TOC, but headers are not updated. I have a \chap{Introduction}, but the pages of that chap get the "List of figure" header. –  manu Commented Nov 10, 2010 at 21:54
• 4 Try adding \chaptermark{#1} resp. \leftmark / \rightmark. See also: en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/… –  smilingthax Commented Nov 11, 2010 at 21:46
• 1 Thanks to all. I solved all my problems with \chaptermark and also with \phantomsection. –  manu Commented Feb 16, 2011 at 15:51

Variations on this question have been asked and answered several times on the TeX-specific sister site :

• Creating unnumbered chapters/sections (plus adding them to the ToC and/or header)
• \tableofcontents does not list the unnumbered chapter
• How to use \section*{something} without removing it from the Table of Contents?
• Redefine \section* so it behaves exactly as \section except leaves out the number

I'm going to copy over Werner's answer to the last of those, because it demonstrates a different technique from any of the existing answers to this question: redefine \section so that the only effect of \section* is to skip printing the section numbers. This will work even when sectioning commands are being issued from the guts of packages you don't control.

[...] Redefine \section to capture and condition on when the starred-version is used. Upon finding \section* , issue it just like you would \section , but remove the number-printing mechanism through an appropriate setting of the counter secnumdepth .

xparse provides an easy interface for (re)defining commands that may have a s tarred version, as well as an o ptional argument.

(To do the same thing to \chapter , \subsection , etc., search-and-replace section appropriately, and adjust the temporary value used for secnumdepth .)

I have solved it using the following:

I have just added this line \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Introduction} after the \chapter {Introduction}*. Then I have written my writings of this chapter. Now it appears in the table of contents perfectly.

I had the same problem and solved it with smilingthax' answer and comments. As it didn't work to use only \leftmark or \rightmark , here is a command that you can use to (i) make a chapter non-numbered (ii) add it to the TOC and (iii) have a correct page header.

The same works for sections (and subsections respectively):

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{-1}

worked for me as a solution if you used the un-asterisk version of \chapter{} etc for the book class. Hyperref works as well if you wanted a linkable ToC along with my solution. Make sure to compile it twice to get it to work on both the ToC and inline.

Unfortunately however, your preamble killed my TexStudio attempt to check to see if it worked for your exact code, but I have faith.

Used TeXstudio 2.6.2 (SVN 4110M) Using Qt Version 4.8.5, compiled with Qt 4.8.5 R On Windows 7 64-bit

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Should I refer to "Section 2.3" or "Subsection 2.3"?

When writing a document that is divided into numbered sections and subsections, sometimes I would like to refer a certain subsection that has been numbered 2.3, for example. Here the 2 represents the section number and 3 is the subsection number within section 2.

Question : Should I refer to "Section 2.3" or "Subsection 2.3"?

To me, the latter seems tautological (or at least not completely necessary) since the "sub-" component of "subsection" is implied by the number 2.3 itself.

• word-choice
• syntactic-analysis

• 1 This may be defined by your company/organization's style manual. For example, perhaps it tells you to put in simply "2.3". –  Spencer Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 15:10

5 Answers 5

I have to agree with you.

Collins Dictionary defines "subsection":

a section of a section; subdivision

It is certainly grammatically correct to use either word, and I think it is semantically correct both ways as well. However, as you say, writing "Subsection 2.3" it introducing redundancy, as it is (as you say) blatantly obvious that section 2.3 is a subsection of section 2.

I would say, however, that "Section 2.3" does not imply a subsection, it seems rather explicit that it is a subsection, to me.

A quick search on Google for "Section 2.3" and "Subsection 2.3": Section has 1.2 million hits. Subsection has 46,000 hits. So it definitely makes much more sense to drop the "sub-".

If we have the document:

Birds 1.1. Parrots This is a bunch of information about parrots. 1.2. Hawks This is a bunch of information about hawks.

Both "Parrots" and "Hawks" are sections in their own right. They are simply sections within sections.

This is similar to the folder metaphor in computing. A folder contains many subfolders, but each subfolder is still a complete, and real, folder in its own right.

Princeton University's WordNet defines subsection :

(n) subsection, subdivision (a section of a section; a part of a part; i.e., a part of something already divided)

Furthermore, Merriam-Webster defines section :

a distinct part or portion of something written (as a chapter, law, or newspaper)

So if one takes a section, then takes another logical portion of that, that is another section–also a subsection–that happens to be inside the original section.

E.g. a chapter is a section of a book. A paragraph is a section of a chapter. A sentence is a section of a paragraph. We can logically divide anything into however we like.

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines subsection :

one of the smaller parts into which the main parts of a document or organization are divided    Further details can be found in section 7 subsection 4 of the report.

From the example, we can see that they have referred to section 7.4 as section 7, subsection 4.

My understanding of all this, is that we can call top-level sections, just "section". But we can call non-top-level sections either "section" OR "subsection".

• 3 What on earth does that Google search prove? If the things are broken into chapters, then that would mean that it actually was section 2.3 and not referring to a subsection at all. –  delete Commented Aug 13, 2010 at 6:01
• 1 The Google search proves common usage. Common usage is what makes English English. –  Vincent McNabb Commented Aug 13, 2010 at 6:09
• 1 @Vincent: you've missed my point - if the document is divided into chapter 1, 2, 3 and section 1.1, section 2.3 then "section 2.3" would be the correct name. If the document is divided into section 1, 2, 3 then one would expect subsection 1.1, subsection 2.3, etc. –  delete Commented Aug 13, 2010 at 6:11
• 3 So you would refer to C:\Users\Vincent\Documents as a sub-sub-sub-folder? Or would you simply call it a folder? –  Vincent McNabb Commented Aug 13, 2010 at 6:18
• 1 @Vincent: sorry you have completely lost me, what are you talking about? –  delete Commented Aug 13, 2010 at 6:21

In law, you clarify what you are talking about when referring to a subsection by saying "Subsection 23 (1)" or in spoken English you would say "subsection twenty-three, one". You can also say "Section twenty-three, Subsection one".

The purpose of saying "subsection" twenty-three (1) is to set in the mind of the listener or reader, that you are going to refer to a subsection, not the section the subsection you are referring to is subordinate to.

Statute Example:

Using the statute example above, a person who is reading this law could say that according to subsection twenty-three, one, a person with a seeing-eye-dog has to use a solid yellow leash.

They could also say that according to section twenty-three, subsection one, a person with a seeing-eye-dog has to use a solid yellow leash.

When referring to a section and a subsection (or a paragraph and sub-paragraph, etc) the abbreviation that corresponds to the highest 'level' of the section (or paragraph, etc) should be used -- for example, using the Section Designation Guidelines from DBSK_FAN and imagining that it was taken from 'Chapter 9 - Witty Examples', you would say 'chapter 9, section 4' - not 'sub-chapter 9, 4'; you would say 'section 4' not 'sub-chapter 4'; you would say 'section 4(a)' - not 'subsection 4(a)'; and you would say 'section 4(a)(i)' not 'subsection 4(a)(i)' nor 'sub-subsection 4(a)(i)' nor 'double-sub-section 4(a)(i)'.

The only times you say 'subsection' at all would be, eg, 'section 4, subsection (a)' (and that's only when actually saying it out loud - like in court or whatever - as opposed to typing or writing it); or when you are writing about section 4 in an essay and then, having made it very clear you are talking solely about chapter 9, section 4, you go on to discuss the correlation or contradiction or whatever between subsections (a) and (b).

Those are the rules you're supposed to abide by at Australian law faculties, anyway. Google the AGLC (Australian Guide to Legal Citation), it clarifies most things. Hope it helps!

Considering a section is already a "a distinct part or portion of something written", subsection can seem redundant at first.

But the definition of subsection states:

a subdivision or a subordinate division of a section

The notion of "placed in or occupying a lower class, rank, or position" is important, and distinct from the definition of "section". That is why you also find subsection used in sports ("subsection title")

"2.3" is not "a section within "Section 2". The full meaning of what is in 2.3 is "subordinate" to the general context presented at the beginning in section 2.

• And yet, so many times, I have seen documents which refer to their subsections as sections. –  Vincent McNabb Commented Aug 13, 2010 at 6:37
• 1 @Vincent: I agree. I am simply trying to point out a specific difference between the two notions. –  VonC Commented Aug 13, 2010 at 6:44
• Does that mean the subsection is a section when the section is present but is a subsection in the absence of the section? I.E. if make a citation, I should refer to "subsection 2.3" in order to allude to there being more than just the subordinate section. I ask because the follow up question would be, under what circumstances can I use "section"? –  mfg Commented Oct 27, 2010 at 20:20
• @mfg: I believe the word "section" is appropriate whenever the global context in which that section is embedded is not necessary to understand the reference you make. But if your reference can be further enriched by the content of the parent section, then "subsection" can be a useful hint to that subordination link. –  VonC Commented Oct 27, 2010 at 20:25

Section Designations Guidelines: Refer to the above sections in text:

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Writing your thesis method section

Many students have trouble writing a proper method section for their thesis. What bits of information should be included in this section, and what bits shouldn’t? It obviously matters whether you’re pursuing a vocational or academic degree (and in what direction), but the following practical tips should get you well on the way to properly describing your research methods. We wish you good luck on writing your thesis’ method section!

Introduction

The purpose of your thesis’ method section is to describe what you’ve investigated and how you’ve conducted your investigation. The section often consists of several specific sub-sections and is intended to allow a reader to repeat (replicate) your study, so don’t forget to include all relevant details.

Firstly, it is a good idea to describe what specific research methods were used in your study, and what the (dis)advantages of those methods are. For the qualitative research method of interviews, there are multiple types, such as in-depth interviews, structured interviews and semi-structured interviews. Eventually, your supervisors will not only determine your grade based on whether you’ve made the right choices or not, but more so on whether you’ve correctly justified making these choices (so, it’s important to keep the purpose of your study in the back of your mind).

A solid textbook that covers research methods can really help write the section properly, especially if the book focuses on a method of research that you’ve used in your study. However, a common error is to paraphrase general descriptions from the textbook instead of applying them to your own study. These days, your supervisors will also grade you based on the  reasoning  behind decisions you’ve made about what to focus your study on, and not just on the decisions themselves. So, convince your audience by providing arguments in favor of the choices you’ve made.

 Use  past tense  when writing your method section, as your study has already finished.

A handy checklist for your method section

• As an expert of your own study, you are obviously aware of all the details and know what was done and what not. However, you should realize that your audience knows nothing at all. So, it is important to be complete in your descriptions and clearly state what was done, and for what reason. To help you along the way, we’ve created a checklist that should allow you to make sure you’ve included the essentials in your method section:
•  First, describe the  type of research  you’ve conducted. Some relevant jargon is: quantitative / qualitative, and explorative (descriptive) / experimental. Expand on your choices.
•  Next, write about the  respondents  (sample / participants) of your study. Address who participated, and where you got your respondents from (e.g., via social media or a school board advertisement). Do not just provide the number of respondents and your arguments for settling on this number (which can be calculated), but also describe what inclusion and exclusion criteria you applied to select your respondents. It is especially important to also list your sample’s  demographic characteristics  (such as age, native country, profession, and so forth). You can include the final number of respondents in this section, but you can also include this in the results section’s first paragraph.
•  Then, write about  when  your study took place: how long was your survey running? And during which months?
•  Provide a description about the  reliability and validity  of the study, in which you explain what steps you took to keep these aspects of research as high as possible. Do not forget to include some bits about the generalizability of the study.
• Also describe how many respondents there actually were (i.e., how many people actually finished the survey) and what methods you used to increase this. Several methods for increasing  response rates  are described in the literature; these mainly center on sending reminders, applying a personal approach to study recruitment and giving away monetary rewards or gifts.
• It is also important to describe the  instruments  that were used in the study. For the instruments section, you should, for example, discuss the survey you’ve used and provide sufficient detail to your description. Ask these questions: How many questions did the survey consist of? What do the questions measure? What sources did you use to formulate your questions?  Here,  you can provide a reliability analysis (cronbach’s alpha) of your survey if you’d like.
•  Next, describe the  procedure , which includes all steps that were undertaken to get your data and respondents. So, you should write something along the lines of:
• “Firstly, an online survey was created, next e-mail addresses of candidate respondents were gathered using ….. Also, an e-mail with a hyperlink to the survey was sent. Reminder e-mails were sent”, and so forth.
• You should not forget to, lastly, describe the  data analysis  (quantitative / qualitative) methods you’ve applied in your study. In this paragraph, you should explain what you’ve done with your data: usage of SPSS, steps undertaken for data cleaning, calculations of sum scores (for surveys), usage of specific statistical tests such as  t -tests, correlations and regressions, and so forth. For qualitative studies, you should include that you’ve transcribed and coded the data (and how you’ve done this).

 If applicable:

• For academic theses, you should also include the design of your study: what were the dependent and independent variables? Were there certain conditions? It is common to summarize your hypotheses in a conceptual model.

This page was written for all students who are writing their thesis, and it is therefore general and does not account for the specific details of your study and research. We’d love to help you write a great research method section.  Do you need help writing your method section?

Get in touch and we’ll happily provide you with more information!

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Is it okay to begin a chapter without an "introduction section"?

I'm writing my phd thesis. In some chapters I simply begin the chapter with one or maybe two (at most) paragraphs that mostly gives the outline, and then I begin the sectioning. That is, this paragraph has no section, the sections start right afterwards. I'm wondering if this is normal and acceptable or should I put it in a separate section?

This is how it looks in latex:

• writing-style

• 2 Were you given style guide when you started your thesis? Did you ask your advisor this question? –  Nobody Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 9:28
• In my University this is quite common to do, but like commented by @scaaahu I would ask first if there is a style guide. –  agold Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 9:31
• there is unfortunately no style guide. –  Ehsan Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 9:37
• What did your advisor say? You do have an advisor, don't you? –  Nobody Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 9:42
• Related question: Is it necessary that the the chapter introduction be made up of just one paragraph? –  Nobody Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 9:46

In general, sections should be organized to create a chapter just like subsections are organized to create a section and subsubsection should be organized to create a subsection. In other words, the important unit is the largest one, and the smaller elements (sections, subsections, etc.) are used only the assist and guide the reader in their understanding of a large chunk of narrative.

As such, I would consider it the normal and preferred case to begin a chapter with prose, setting forth an introduction to the chapter before the first section heading. In fact, a particularly short chapter might have no section headings at all, as it is a good rule of thumb to note use any textual subdivision until you need two of them (e.g., don't divide a chapter into one section, or a section into one subsection).

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Change size of section, subsection, subsubsection, paragraph and subparagraph title

I would like to increase the size of pretty much every headlines, so that it is more prominent than the normal text.

I read about the titlesec package, but can't seem to find good example how to use the package.

Using Gonzalo Medina does in fact change the font size, however, it changes the default font as well.

5 Answers 5

Standard classes.

Here's an example using titlesec :

I used the simplified version of \titleformat (i.e., \titleformat* ) since the only desired change was in size, but you can use the extended version if "bigger" changes are required. These are the default definitions for the standard classes (taken from the documentation):

so you can make bigger changes. The following image shows both the standard sizes and the ones obtained with the above modifications:

And here's an exampe using the sectsty :

According to an edit to the original question, the OP wanted also a sans serif font:

KOMA classes

The above approaches are to be used mostly with the default document classes ( book , report , article ); if the document class used is one of the classes of the KOMA-Script bundle, then it's not advisable to use titlesec (See Incompatibilities between KOMA-Script and titlesec ) but to use the features provided by the KOMA classes:

For the memoir document class, the situation is analogous: is also not advisable to use titlesec (See About memoir and titlesec incompatibility ) but to use the features provided by the class; in the case of the lower sectional units, the class provides the family of commands \setXheadstyle :

• Thanks. Works pretty good, except for the first modification. Because changing the size without further options, it changes to a different font. –  cherrung Commented Jun 13, 2012 at 21:49
• 2 @cherrung: How about just adding \sffamily to the list of corrections? –  Werner ♦ Commented Jun 13, 2012 at 22:22
• 1 @cherrung as Werner said, simply add \sffamily , as I did in the last code of my updated answer. –  Gonzalo Medina Commented Jun 13, 2012 at 22:43
• @cherrung which document class are you using? The standard classes don't use a sans-serif font by default, so your last requirement makes me wonder if you are using some non-standard document class. –  Gonzalo Medina Commented Jun 13, 2012 at 22:54
• 2 @cherrung that is crucial information that you should have mentioned in your original question. KOMA-Script and titlesec are incompatible, so titlesec is not advisable here; I've provided an example on how to proceed with the KOMA classes in my updated answer. –  Gonzalo Medina Commented Jun 13, 2012 at 23:35

titlesec package options

For simple cases, you can use \usepackage[<size>]{titlesec} , where <size> is big , medium , small , or tiny .

Example code

You can just modify the sectional commands with the appropriate font size. Here's a small example in the article document class:

For a different font, replace \normalfont with the appropriate definition. For example, using \sffamily will yield:

For completeness I'll give a ConTeXt solution also.

You can change the heading style using:

The font switch \tf equals the body fontsize, \tfa is 1.2 times \tf ; \tfb is 1.2 times \tfa and so on. If you want sans serif headings, then use

Here also the same logic applies. \ss is sans serif at body fontsize; \ssa is 1.2 times \ss , \ssb is 1.2 times \ssa , and so on.

• 5 This works fine, but it isn't how you are supposed to use LaTeX. Every \huge or \textbf after the titlepage in our document is most likely false user input. –  Johannes_B Commented Oct 28, 2016 at 14:07
• 5 This will totally mess up the Table of Contents. –  samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 10:15
• 1 This is actually useful for my special use case, which was not a normal document anyways. I just wanted to change one place. –  xji Commented Mar 23, 2017 at 15:59
• 1 Useful for me as well, I wanted to change it for one section only, thanks. –  OldMcDonald Commented Aug 1, 2018 at 1:29
• 3 A better simple solution is \section[Human]{{\huge Human}} ... –  Paul Gaborit Commented Nov 4, 2019 at 0:28

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• Were there engineers in airship nacelles, and why were they there?
• Predictable Network Interface Names: ensX vs enpXsY
• Are there paintings with Adam and Eve in paradise with the snake with legs?
• Next date in the future such that all 8 digits of MM/DD/YYYY are all different and the product of MM, DD and YY is equal to YYYY
• How to bid a very strong hand with values in only 2 suits?
• Is the FOCAL syntax for Alphanumeric Numbers ("0XYZ") documented anywhere?
• Is there a way to non-destructively test whether an Ethernet cable is pure copper or copper-clad aluminum (CCA)?
• Old book about a man who finds an abandoned house with a portal to another world
• How to make D&D easier for kids?
• How do you say "living being" in Classical Latin?
• Visit USA via land border for French citizen
• Weird behavior by car insurance - is this legit?
• Have there been any scholarly attempts and/or consensus as regards the missing lines of "The Ruin"?
• Have children's car seats not been proven to be more effective than seat belts alone for kids older than 24 months?
• What could explain that small planes near an airport are perceived as harassing homeowners?
• Where can I access records of the 1947 Superman copyright trial?
• Folk stories and notions in mathematics that are likely false, inaccurate, apocryphal, or poorly founded?
• Can I route audio from a macOS Safari PWA to specific speakers, different from my system default?
• What is the original source of this Sigurimi logo?
• Does "*some of the town council*" mean the same as "*some of the **members** of the town council*"?
• Fantasy TV series with a male protagonist who uses a bow and arrows and has a hawk/falcon/eagle type bird companion