As a graduate student from the University of Alberta, I understand the daunting task that is associated with writing a Thesis that conforms the the guidelines outlined in the FGSR Minimum Thesis Formatting Requirements. It can also be very frustrating to write long, equation and figure heavy, document in a word processor that is prone to crashes, file corruption, seemingly random changes to the formatting, and that do not output a document in the required PDF/A format for submission to FGSR.

Due to these problems, lots of students attempt to use an alternative to traditional word processors: LaTeX.

LaTeX allows students/researchers to focus on either the writing of the document or the formatting. Because the writing is separated from the formatting, the writing of the documents can be performed in much more lightweight text editors, or TeX editors (that also allow for the compilation of the documents) that are able to constantly save the work and due to the plaintext nature, are not generally susceptible to file corruption. 

LaTeX has the added benefit of providing a consistent and professional look and feel throughout the document. However, there does not appear to be a template for LaTeX that provides all the necessary formatting and packages to ease the formatting of documents written in LaTeX, while also adhering to the FGRS Thesis Formatting Requirements.

During my Master's program, I had worked with writing my thesis in LaTeX and though I was able to generate all the formatting I needed to submit my thesis, I knew it would be better if a proper thesis template existed. So after I finished submitting my thesis to FGSR, I started work on a template that would meet the requirements above and make the process of formatting your thesis more trivial.

Included in my template are examples of how to layout specific element of a thesis, as well as a LaTeX class file that automatically generates the title and prefatory pages, allows for the inclusion of List of [Tables, Figures, Plates, and Symbols], Glossaries, Indices, provides a tool for generating tables in excel and exporting them to LaTeX, and generates a PDF/A output without the need of a paid program.

Example Thesis