As a result, many of the rules and suggestions found in writing style manuals are inadequate and/or do not apply. We propose an approach to mathematical writing, based on a set of simple composition rules. These rules are outlined in a slide presentation from an April 2002 lecture at MIT (edited later), and focus on the structure of the entire document (the content and the interconnections of different parts):
* Organize in segments
* Write segments linearly
* Consider a hierarchical development
* Use consistent notation and nomenclature
* State results consistently
* Don't underexplain - don't overexplain
* Tell them what you'll tell them
* Use suggestive references
* Consider examples and counterexamples
* Use visualization when possible
The lecture slides can be freely downloaded and used for personal or educational purposes.
Dimitri P. Bertsekas (dimitrib@mit.edu)