simple latex template for homework

12 February 2014

Doing your homework in latex.

It is a common occurrence for other students to comment on my homework whenever I turn it in for one of my classes.

The complete LaTeX file (and the pdf output) can be found in my repository, latex-homework-template .

Below are a few screenshots of problems that I’ve done in the past:

If I didn’t know how easy it was and the benefits that I get from typesetting my homework, I’d probably ask as well. However, I’d argue that using LaTeX to type up homework has made me a far better student than when I used to handwrite my homeworks.

And that is something that I care a lot about.

The Benefits

I can summarize the benefits like so:

It can be kept in Source Control. Handwriting can’t be stored in a version control system; once you erase something, it’s gone.

You can see your homework materialize in front of you. Seeing the results and the equations in their complete LaTeX-glory is a very powerful way to conceptualize things. There’s just something different about the way things look so perfect that makes the subject easier to understand.

You’ll do better in your classes. This one goes with the previous point, but having the ability to see your homework helps you understand it. By understanding it well, you’ll do better on tests. You will maximize how much you can learn as well as maximize your grade (if that matters to you).

It’s very neat & tidy. Although my handwriting has improved quite a bit, I still find myself slipping back into a rushed, messy script from the past. LaTeX gives zero doubt that the professor/TA will be able to read my solutions.

About LaTeX

A very short history.

Donald Knuth , a legendary Computer Scientist as well as one of my favorites, is well known for the system that he created called just TeX .

It is a piece of typesetting software that aids in writing documents and formulas. The power comes from the fact that the document that you write is plain source code.

The code that you write is then “typeset” into the final document in whatever form you wish.

Here’s an example of some basic LaTeX code:

With the output looking like below:

Using the Template

I’ve created a GitHub repository, latex-homework-template , just for my homework template that I’ve been using ever since I started. I found it online and used it as a base to start my template.

To use it, just download the homework.tex file and start editing. Once you need to typeset it, you’ll need LaTeX here .

After that, you just need to compile it and you’ll get your output. There are tons of different resources that I’ve found useful in learning LaTeX:

TeX StackExchange

LaTeX Wikibook

Effect on Performance

I have a solid set of anecdotal evidence in favor of using LaTeX for writing up my homework.

In all the classes that I’ve used LaTeX, I’ve come out of the class with a very strong understanding of the material as well as a good grade. Although I’m not a big fan of grades (like at all), I know it matters to some people.

This might have to do with the fact that doing the homework in LaTeX takes longer. It might have to do with the fact that I perfect the appearance and spend a lot more time looking at the subject.

The most likely reason is a combination of all that I previously mentioned plus other factors. I’m usually one to always want to quantify something, but in this case, I know it helps; that’s all I need.

Learning Curve

There definitely is a learning curve when it comes to trying to use LaTeX for homework. I felt that it was definitely worth the effort unlike how it might seem to some students.

I reasoned that when I go to graduate school, I will want to use it there. I also know how pervasive it is in textbooks. Since I love to read textbooks so much, I wanted to see what it took to write them so elegantly. I may even want to write one in the future; we’ll have to see =]

To me it seemed like a small tradeoff for the great benefits that it provided.

I cannot recommend using LaTeX for your homework enough.

The benefits go a long way. It helps you learn the material and in a way that isn’t as easily achieved when just using pencil and paper.

LaTeX is also widely used in academia and learning about the tool is almost essential if you wish to go to graduate school.

Once I graduate from university, I plan on releasing all my code for the last three semesters as open source. It includes all my LaTeX code which has really accumulated over the last year. It should provide a nice resource for others.

In the meantime, hopefully if you start using LaTeX for your homework, you won’t be able to resist doing it early because of how fun it is. Well, at least it was fun for me =]

LaTeX Templates

If you would like to use LaTeX for homework, you can start by copying one of these templates, and then filling in your responses. This should prevent you from having to spend time on formatting.

To get up-and-running quickly, you can use the Overleaf online editor, which is essentially Google Docs but for LaTeX. They also have tutorials . You may prefer to install LaTeX to your computer, in which case you can use any text editor. For Emacs users, the AUCTeX plugin is very popular.

A LaTeX Homework Template

October 4, 2014

Writing a LaTeX document from scratch for every assignment is tedious. Especially for homework assignments, a lot of the structure is repetitive. Read on to learn about the homework template I’ve adapted for use in all my technical classes.

I’ve been using LaTeX for assignments in college for over a year now, and from the get-go I loved it; It’s a powerful way to transform plain text (which is editable in Vim!) into beautiful documents. In fact, I use LaTeX + Vim or Google Docs exclusively–no Microsoft Office. People often don’t understand why I prefer this combination, claiming that LaTeX is time consuming and tedious. But with a good template and some Vim-foo, editing LaTeX is a breeze. In a later post, I’ll elaborate how I use Vim + Unix as an IDE for LaTeX. For now, though, let’s take a look at my template!

The Template

For those who like to learn by doing, I invite you to jump over to GitHub where you can see the source, download the template, and start tinkering. The source isn’t that long, and it comes with tons of examples to get you going.

The rest of this post goes into some fancy use cases for how to get the best out of this template. If you don’t read it now, check it out later if you want to take advantage of it’s more powerful features. You can also leave comments here asking how something works, and issues on GitHub if something’s broken.

Here’s a quick overview of what the theme looks like. You’ll have to use your imagination a bit: this outline is more of a list of examples. I’d show you how nice one of my actual homeworks looks, but then I’d be giving out my homework!

My main use case for LaTeX is (unsurprisingly) to typeset homeworks for math and CS classes. In these classes, the questions are either numbered or have specific names, and they ask for your name, lecture, recitation section, student ID, email address, etc. It turns out that there are some pretty simple ways of modularizing each of these desired features.

Personal Info

To solve the issue of entering personal information, the template defines a bunch of commands at the top of the file that enumerate all the fields you’ll likely want to include on your homework.

This is where forking comes in particularly handy . You’d like to be able to define your own defaults and push them somewhere, but you also want to be able to update the template as new changes become available. If you fork the repo, you can both have a repository where you can include your own changes as well as pull any updates as they become available. (If you’re new to forks, you should definitely check them out ).

Whenever I have an assignment to do, the questions generally come down to one of two forms: named or numbered questions. As such, there are two environments in the template that let you easily create a space to put your answers for each type of question. These are named namedquestion and numedquestion ( not numberedquestion ).

The namedquestion environment takes one required argument: the name! This environment is handy any time the questions don’t have numbers attached to them, or if the ordering of the questions doesn’t conform nicely to a sequential numbering.

The numedquestion environment takes no arguments, but that doesn’t mean you can’t configure it. By default, numedquestions begin counting at 1 and go up sequentially from there. To change this, you manually set the contents of the questionCounter counter. Using

Before the first question will start the numbering at 0. You can use this pattern (set the questionCounter to one less than the next question) to arbitrarily skip around with your numbering. There’s an example of this in the source.

There are also times when you’d like numbered questions to be of the form “X.y”, where “X” is the section number that the question comes from, and “y” is the number of the question within that section. The template tracks the value of “X” in \writtensection . By default, the template sets this to 0, which causes the section number to be omitted. If you manually set \writtensection to a non-zero value, this number will be prepended to all questions. When you do this, the value of “y” is determined by questionCounter .

Similar to what we could do with questionCounter , you can manually turn on the section counter for certain questions by including something like

in front of that particular question. Use \renewcommand{\writtensection}{0} after that question if you’d like to turn it back off.

Question Parts

All in all, these two environments will take care of 90% of what you need to do in your homework. Sometimes, though, questions have multiple parts. To handle this, there are two environments, alphaparts and arabicparts , that take care of alphabetic and numeric question parts, respectively.

The uses of these environments are pretty straightforward and have no real special cases. Each environment wraps around the enumerate environment. This means you can just use a normal \item to indicate a specific part of the question.

Induction Proofs

There’s one more thing that I’d like to mention here. Different people have different ways of typesetting induction proofs, with varying degrees of success. Personally, I like the description environment for outlining the base case, induction hypothesis, and inductive step of the proof. It works well for basically every induction proof, and looks nice and clean.

Be sure to let me know how you like this template! It works for me, but obviously I’m only using it for a small number of things on exactly one system. If something doesn’t seem to work, or if you’d like to see a particular feature implemented, comment or create a GitHub issue to let me know!

Syracuse University

Mathematics graduate organization (mgo), latex resources.

• 1 TeX Templates
• 2 Introduction to TeX
• 3 LaTex Symbols
• 4 Introduction to Beamer
• 5.1 LaTeX & Beamer Templates
• 5.2 TeX Packages
• 5.3 Beamer Themes

TeX is a wonderful way to typeset Mathematics beautifully. TeX can be used to make course materials, typeset homework or notes, create posters, write books, produce figures or posters, and more! Though the initial learning curve is steep, TeX is essential to producing beautiful documents in Mathematics and is worth the effort! Note that one nice website for LaTeX is Overleaf . Overleaf lets you create, edit, and download your TeX files and PDFs from anywhere, online. Overleaf also allows you to share your files for collaboration and download already made templates, see the templates section below.

TeX Templates

The MGO has a number of LaTeX templates. These have been uploaded to Overleaf so that you can view them without having to compile them. To download any of the templates to use yourself, click on the ‘Menu’ in the upper-left and download the source code. This can then be uploaded to Overleaf for your own use!

In some cases where one would create many different similar documents, e.g. quizzes where one would have many different quizzes but all having the same preamble coding, it is more efficient to use a style sheet. This way, you can keep all the quizzes in the same folder and have them all compile from the one style sheet. This avoids lots of unnecessary clutter at the start of each quiz. Templates that have versions with this design have an extra ‘Multi-use’ template.

Exam Templates

Quiz Templates

Homework Templates

Worksheet Templates

Syllabi Templates

A special thanks to Erin Griffin for contributing the ‘Respect Policy’ for the syllabi.

Mental Health Services Templates

Feedback Card Templates

Assignment Templates (for your homeworks)

Beamer Templates

CV Templates

Note Templates

Flashcard Templates

Conference Poster Templates

Introduction Sheet Templates

For ease of download, all of these templates can be downloaded all at once at the following link:

LaTeX Templates – GoogleDrive

You can also find many LaTeX projects, especially notes from Syracuse University Mathematics courses at the following GitHub page:

GitHub – Caleb McWhorter

Finally, a number of other wonderful LaTeX templates can be found at David Mehrle’s page . He has an especially wonderful course note templates.  

Introduction to TeX

For those only just starting in TeX, here are a number of links to help you along the way.

LaTex Symbols

A few links to help those looking for that one symbol they just cannot seem to find how to typeset!

Introduction to Beamer

TeX can create presentation slides. The advantage of doing this, other than the beautiful rendered Mathematics, is that the output is a PDF so that there is never an issue with the computer system not having a program to open your file or other compatibility issues. Here are a few links to help those getting started in Beamer.

Finding Templates & Packages

There are a number of places to obtain LaTeX and beamer templates as well as LaTeX packages for expanded TeX capabilities! A few of these can be found below.

LaTeX & Beamer Templates

Tex packages, beamer themes.

LaTeX Example :: Homework Assignments (and Similar)

– I've put together additional resources relevant to homeworks and reports. Check out: résumé/CV template. source for . help sections (which include ) at the course web pages for , , , and . I've also created a public repository for the source code to these files at .

All of the writing that I do in graduate school is done in LaTeX and typeset in TeX . In order to rapidly learn LaTeX , I decided to submit all of my homework assignments using it. At first, this made assignments take a little longer, but once I got used to it, there were lots of benefits, and, of course, I definitely learned a lot about LaTeX and TeX .

During this time, I put together a LaTeX template for homework assignments (and other similar papers). I'm posting that here in the hope that it will make it easier for others to get started using LaTeX in their homeworks (and then hopefully also in their research publications).

In the templates posted below, I use Stephen Riehm's bracketing rules to mark places where user text should be merged into the template. In other words, wherever you see a <+ place holder +> , replace it with the appropriate text. Example text will be given in the caption of the place holder. If you are like me and use VIM , then you should be able to use <C-j> to move from place holder to place holder. (just like moving from bullet to bullet with <C-space> in WinEdt ; in fact, I used to use bullets in these files instead, but I started using VIM more than WinEdt, and VIM place holders are more descriptive than WinEdt bullets)

• homework_tex.ascii – click here to view homework.tex in browser
• homework_tex_example_tex.ascii – click here to view homework_tex_example.tex in browser
• homework_tex_example.pdf – a pdf rendered from the example

NEW!!  – I have made two additional similar homework templates that may also be helpful. Both of these include a subtitle that will be excluded if the subtitle is left blank. Both also include a \matlabscript and a \scalefig macro for including MATLAB scripts and figures easily. Otherwise, the first is almost identical to the original template. The second uses a different type of homeworkProblem that is a macro rather than an environment. This macro allows for subtitles to be used on each homework problem. The titles of the homework problem will be included in the header and footer information while the subtitles will only be shown at the beginning of each problem.

There are comments within the templates that explain the usage of the new macros. See the simple examples for more help. The examples make use of \matlabscript and \scalefig .

• homework_new_tex.ascii – click here to view homework_new.tex in browser
• homework_new_example_tex.ascii – click here to view homework_new_example.tex in browser
• homework_new_example.pdf – a pdf rendered from the example
• NOTE: This example shows a subtitle being used and a caption on the MATLAB script.
• homework_type_2_tex.ascii – click here to view homework_type_2.tex in browser
• homework_example.m file used in source: (.m file)   (.ascii file for browser)
• homework_type_2_example_tex.ascii – click here to view homework_new_example.tex in browser
• homework_type_2_example.pdf – a pdf rendered from the example
• NOTE: This example shows the use of no subtitle and no MATLAB script caption.

Latex-homework-template

A multi-column, landscape-oriented latex template for homework assignments, latex homework template.

A LaTeX template that I used during graduate school for my homework assignments. Lays the problems out in a double-column landscape style.

• The main template file imports the actual markup for the problems from problems.tex . This is where each problem should be typed out.
• The syntax for laying out each problem using this template is:
• Example 1 and Example 2 show examples of the template used on two complete homework sets, including the use of figures.

Math Homework template for Latex

A custom .sty and template for college math homework.

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Math 341 — Theory of Analysis 1

Latex resources.

Under Construction!!

Getting started with \(\LaTeX\)

• Online LaTeX Editor Overleaf
• https://www.overleaf.com/latex/learn/free-online-introduction-to-latex-part-1
• Use 12 point font and 1" margins
• Here is a link for a homework template Math 341 Homework Template as a starting point for your homework assignments typed in LaTeX.
• Hint: Look at this example and its LaTeX source code .

Various reference sources

• LaTeX reference sheet by Dave Richeson (2 pages)
• Math 290 LaTeX reference sheet (2 pages)
• LaTeX reference sheet by Winston Change (2 pages )
• Darrin Doud's Short Introduction to LaTeX
• Lots of LaTeX symbols (4 pages)
• Learn LaTeX in 30 Minutes A tutorial at Overleaf.com
• AMS Math Users Guide How to typeset most formulas!
• The (Not So Short) Introduction to LaTeX   This is a book. It explains the overall philosophy of LaTeX, text mode, math mode, insertion of table of contents, images, figures, chapters, sections, appendices, index, and lots of other stuff.
• More Math into LaTeX by George Gratzer. A free PDF download for BYU students. This is an extensive textbook. You will need to log on through the BYU authentication page.

A few software options

• Pros of Overleaf:  Free. Several nice editor features. User friendly. Video tutorials.
• MiKTeX comes with TeXworks, which is a built-in text editor and previewer a lot like the online options.
• Pros:  Fast Compiling.  No dependency on internet connection.  Easier to use on a small screen than the online editors. You should turn on syntax highlighting and line numbers.
• When you install MiKTeX, you should set the paper size to "letter" (the default is the European A4 size).  Also, let MiKTeX download any missing packages automatically.
• Note: You can download other free text editors that are better than TeXworks that will still use the MiKTeX compiling engine.
• The MacTeX installer includes both a LaTeX compiler and a text editor called MacTeX. Go to the website and follow the instructions to download and install the latest version. MacTeX is very similar to TeXworks except that is runs only on Mac.
• TeXstudio (Windows, MacOsX, Linux) — My favorite freeware LaTeX editor. It has graphical pallets to help you if you don't remember all of the LaTeX command and environments. It has a built-in PDF previewer. You need to install a TeX/LaTeX system like MiKTeX first before installing this. If you have a 4K high resolution computer monitor, you will need to go to "Options|Configure TeXstudio|Show Advanced Options|GUI Scaling" and drag the sliders to make the symbol pallets larger.
• WinEdt + MiKTeX + Sumatra PDF (Windows only)  WinEdt is not freeware, but it is very versatile and infinitely customizable. For the programmer type, this might be the best Windows editor for LaTeX files.
• LyX (Windows, Mac, Linux) — A freeware graphical front end for LaTeX. As you edit documents, formulas actually look like formulas!!! LyX is difficult to use if you don't already understand basic LaTeX. Learn LaTeX using a simple editor first, then try LyX. I can type most documents more quickly with the old-school method of directly editing the *.tex file with a text editor and compiling to create a PDF file. However, I sometimes use LyX to type long, complicated, multiline formulas where the source code becomes very complicated.

Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote all support a genuine equation environment, called a Math Zone, similar to LaTeX math mode. Learning how to use Math Zones well is at least as difficult as learning LaTeX. However, since the amount you need to learn to type only calculus formulas is relatively small, it's pretty easy to get started. You will save a lot of time by learning the keyboard shortcuts rather than using the click-on pallets and icons. In an MS Math Zone, you can type many LaTeX commands and the autocorrect feature will convert the LaTeX command into a unicode math character. If you learn how to use math zones well, your equations will look quite good. If you prefer to use Microsoft software (for example if you become a public school teacher it might be more natural to use MS Word than LaTeX), I recommend Murray Sargent's excellent Math in Office Blog for tips. In one of his blog articles about unicode , he refers to Unicode Technical Note #28, UnicodeMath, a Nearly Plain-Text Encoding of Mathematics which explains many of the keyboard commands that make typing mathematics in MS Office documents much easier and better looking. I found the book Creating Research and Scientific Documents Using Microsoft Word to be quite helpful. (I purchased the book a few years ago for about $20.) Microsoft Word is actually pretty good at making all of the standard calculus formulas and symbols.

Although you won't use MS PowerPoint to type homework, you might use it to make a presentation at a conference or for another class. You can insert genuine LaTeX formulas into PowerPoint by using a plugin called IguanaTeX . It's very easy to use. Also formulas created in Microsoft Math Zones look good in PowerPoint.

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How do I create a simple page of homework in LaTeX?

I've been frustrated with using Microsoft Word for typing out equations, so I've decided to switch over to LaTeX to write all of my homework with. I've never used LaTeX before to typeset anything, so I'm a little overwhelmed right now.

At the moment, all I need to do is make a simple document that has the following format:

My Name My ID Number Class Name Document Title Multiple paragraphs of double-spaced text will go here. Another paragraph of text.

How can I typeset this simple document in LaTeX?

• 3 Relatively recently I was exactly like you. There is already an answer below, but I'll try to predict what is going to happen very soon: you will find yourself frustrated and looking for ways to create tables, add (and trim, and scale, and rotate) images, set up multiple columns and variety of other customizations and tweaks. So to avoid all this I started with "LaTeX Beginners guide" by Stefan Kottwiz (no need to read thoroughly, just things related to your work area) and "The TEXbook" by Donald Knuth is another excellent example. –  Pranasas Commented Mar 30, 2013 at 17:39
• 1 Check out this link: en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX ... It's a huge help on your everyday work with LaTeX –  Oliver Commented Mar 30, 2013 at 17:41
• 3 I would suggest you to start with a basic introduction to LaTeX; perhaps the lshort document. –  Gonzalo Medina Commented Mar 30, 2013 at 17:41
• Another good option to read is "LATEX for Word Processor Users" . –  kiss my armpit Commented Mar 30, 2013 at 20:18

2 Answers 2

• I'm accepting this answer because it looks more straightforward and does not have as many advanced features that I don't really understand yet. –  Peter Olson Commented Mar 30, 2013 at 17:51
• 2 @user1494845 ` \\ ` should never be used unless absolutely necessary. I suggest you look into \Author The OP will not have to go through hbox error in the future, if they do not use ` \\ ` –  Jeel Shah Commented Mar 30, 2013 at 18:07

Here's one possibility:

The first page of the resulting document:

I defined some commands \idnumber and \classname for the ID number and the class name; the \makeheader command typesets the information for these two commands and \author , \title with the desired formatting.

The setspace package was used to change the interline spacing.

The lipsum package was only used to generate text for the example.

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latex-homework-template

Here are 6 public repositories matching this topic..., jdavis / latex-homework-template.

🎓📄 The LaTeX file that I used as the base for all my homework in university.

• Updated Jan 12, 2023

jstrieb / homework-template

Typeset assignments and problem sets using LaTeX; typographically optimized for online submission

• Updated Oct 19, 2020

AntoineGagne / latex-homework-class

A class for homework assignments written in LaTeX.

• Updated Apr 17, 2018

hengxin / latex-templates

LaTeX templates.

• Updated Aug 10, 2019

frostybee / latex-homework

A LaTeX template for writing assignment/homework.

• Updated May 23, 2022

matchy233 / latex-hw-template

💾 General purpose homeowork template

• Updated Nov 30, 2021

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