Science disciplines have historically used a document preparation system called TeX, or LaTeX. From a professional typesetting standpoint it is far superior to Microsoft Word. (Though Word has gotten much better in the past years.) Mathematics equations for instance almost require LaTeX.
If you are a CSUN graduate student and would like to produce your thesis using LaTeX then I have long ago provided a template for use that will take care of most of the formatting requirements needed by the Office of Graduate Studies.
You would be interest in the following files:
- Class File: CSUNThesis.cls
Microsoft Word now available
- Word Template: CSUNThesisTemplate.docx