Generating an Index or a Glossary

It is fairly straight-forward to create an index or glossary using LaTeX, and using the makeindex application makes it even easier. It is a good idea to include a glossary in a thesis, particularly if there are any symbols or abbreviations in your document, as there are a number of different ways some symbols can be interpreted. For example, $x'$ could mean the derivative of $x$ or it could mean an updated value of $x$ (or it could even mean the transpose of $x$, but in this case $x$ should be formatted as a vector.) It is not wise to assume that your reader uses the same notation as you. It isn't quite so common to include an index in a PhD thesis, however, the LaTeX user's guide [3] states that any nonfiction work of more than twenty pages ought to have an index.