I highly recommend the use of LaTeX for writing survey papers, project reports, and theses. I have prepared LaTeX skeletons for both a survey paper and a Master's thesis. Further tips for using LaTeX and for writing academic works are contained within the content of the skeletons.
Install and use the latest TexLive distribution
from an ISO image:
http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/Images/
Do not use online LaTeX environments such as Overleaf or ShareLaTeX, or install using apt-get under Linux, since neither of these typically use/install the most recent versions of LaTeX packages and may be incompatible with my example LaTeX skeleton.
Use a plain text editor and the command line.
Do not use LaTeX editors such as TeXworks, TeXmaker, or TeXstudio. They obscure what is really happening when you compile. The only exception is to periodically spell-check your LaTeX source files.
Make sure that LaTeX is set up to produce a two-sided PDF for duplex printing:
\documentclass[11pt,onecolumn,twoside]{report}
This is the default in the skeleton provided.
Make sure that each chapter (and main part such as Table of Contents and References) starts on a fresh right-hand-sided (odd-numbered) page. [for two-sided printing]
This is the default in the skeleton provided
(\cleardoublepage
).
Draw any diagrams as vector graphics (with Illustrator or Inkscape) and hand in the original source files (.ai or .svg) as well. Then, export the diagram as vector PDF and include the PDF into LaTeX.
Use the listings
package to inlcude any
code listings, like in the skeleton provided.
Do not use the minted
package for listings,
since that requires additional external installation of Python and
various Python libraries.