There are many books on writing mathematics and computer science. I'll bring some examples to class to show you resources that are available. We will use a set of notes on the topic. These notes originated from a course Don Knuth taught at Stanford in 1987. Please read at least the first six pages of those notes. After that, feel free to browse the later pages and pause to read any that look interesting to you. There are some good examples and some alternative perspectives from people other than Knuth. (In particular, polite disagreements arise over some of the rules stated in the first six pages.)
If you have questions about any of Knuth's rules from the first six pages, please come prepared to ask about them. Otherwise, we will spend our class time working on an example writing problem.
We will look at sample students' writing. I am linking here the displayable PDF version of Student 1's and displayable PDF versions of Student 2's writing. As preparation for class, please read them. In class we'll work on jointly writing improved versions.
As a class, we developed an improved solution to these writeups. Here's the LaTeX source and PDF version of student 1's proof, And here's the LaTeX source and PDF version of student 2's proof.
Here is a list of books on mathematics writing in our library. I have put them on reserve. I also own the first two titles in the list. I can loan you my copy if you would like.
Handbook of writing for the mathematical sciences
Author/Creator
Higham, Nicholas J., 1961-
Published
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 1998
Located
GAC Bernadotte Library General Collection
Call No.
QA42 .H54 1998
Writing mathematics well : a manual for authors
Author/Creator
Gillman, Leonard.
Published
Mathematical Association of America, 1987
Located
GAC Bernadotte Library General Collection
Call No.
QA42 .G45 1987
Mathematical writing
Author/Creator
Knuth, Donald Ervin, 1938-
Published
The Mathematical Association of America, 1989
Located
GAC Bernadotte Library General Collection
Call No.
QA42 .K58 1989
A primer of mathematical writing :
being a disquisition on having your ideas recorded, typeset, published,
read and appreciated
Author/Creator
Krantz, Steven G. (Steven George), 1951-
Published
American Mathematical Society, 1997
Located
GAC Bernadotte Library General Collection
Call No.
QA42 .K73 1997