Review of Chapter 2 of Primer of Mathematical Writing by Stephen Krantz
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1 Review of Chapter 2 of Primer of Mathematical Writing by Stephen Krantz
There is a lot of best practices information in Chapter 2: Topics Specific to the Writing of Mathematics of Stephen Krantz's book on the arXiv 1, which tells how to approach a mathematical paper meant for submission to a peer-reviewed journal or book format.
2 Chapter 2, Part One (Mathematical Exposition)
The first half of that chapter informs how the actual meat-and-potatoes part of good mathematical exposition – theorems, proofs, definitions, and how these components ought to fit together. In doing so, the reader's point-of-view is emphasized in deciding how this is best carried out. A paper is more approachable if it's organization is clear, and the explanatory material precedes technical detail. 2 Krantz highlights useful ``devices'' which help achieve this. For example, in making a proof of a theorem more palatible for the reader, he suggest making a ''Claim'' as a tool to set up pieces of a proof. Then the reader knows what will be proven later because the groundwork has already been laid out. This idea follows Krantz's "Technical stuff at the back, explanatory stuff at the front" approach. 3
3 Chapter 2, Part Two (Ancillary Aspects of Writing)
The second half focuses on how to write abstracts, bibliographies, and collaorative work. I appreciate this advice, because whereas these topics may be known to seasoned professionals, they are usually nowhere spelled out for new scientific workers as here (and instead must be discovered). To me, collaborating with brilliant and hard working people is the most rewarding part of working in science, math, and engineering. Krantz's advice serves as fodder for approaching all these aspects as a better informed worker.
Created: 2018-09-01 sáb 22:20
1 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1612.04888.pdf Accessed 9-01-2018↩
2 Krantz 73.↩
3 Krantz 72↩
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