Mathematics Writing Guide

Link to article: Mathematics Writing Guide.

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```
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=====
[[include component:preview
text=A guide for including mathematics in your articles.]]
=====

[[include :scp-wiki:theme:penumbra]]

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[[/module]]

[[>]]
[[module Rate]]
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Here is a guide to raising the mathematical standards of your articles without sacrificing comprehension and quality. To return to the main hub, click [[[math-department-hub|here]]]; for more guides, see [[[technical-words|Technical Words]]] and [[[technical-writing|Technical Writing & You]]].

Have some advice you think deserves to be here? Feel free to add it!

++ Consider the Layman
Any highly technical article will be in part geared towards technical readers, which is perfectly fine—but if you want people without that technical knowledge to enjoy it, you'll need to make it accessible to them. For instance, you can include footnotes, Wikipedia links, analogies, diagrams, and other explanations that detail certain technical concepts when appropriate; don't force a curious reader to hunt down a definition themselves.

However, the simple truth is that no matter how accessible you make it, there are plenty of readers who will not understand the math you put in your articles. This is okay! Even without full context, they can appreciate and enjoy your writing so long as its thematic core is still readily apparent. This can often be done through characters—while someone might not be good at math, they'll generally be able to instinctively see how the characters in your article (if any) react //to// the math. As long as they have a vague sense of what a blurb of math implies story-wise—and are continually hooked in by story elements that aren't necessarily predicated on math understanding—a layman that reads your article will probably be just fine.

++ Distinguish Fiction and Nonfiction
To many readers, mathematical jargon is equivalent to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technobabble technobabble]; as such, articles that include both real-life mathematics and anomalous phenomena without specifying which is which have the potential to confuse the reader. Even if comprehension of those concepts isn't necessary for the enjoyment of the article, it's important to delineate how much of it is your own creation versus how much is rooted in real-life mathematics.

For fictional mathematics, if it isn't obvious from the context, consider using footnotes or other asides to include the definitions you've come up with; for a particularly academic flare, you can use intra-Foundation citations[[footnote]]Harris, Judith. "From Conceptual to Mathematical: Topological Foundations of Noöspherics", //Journal of Esoteric Mathematics// (2019): 237[[/footnote]] to denote that fictional jargon is being used.

For real-life mathematics, if the surrounding context isn't enough to signify its nonfictional nature, try including a link to a Wikipedia page on the subject; citations to real-life papers aren't out of the question, but don't use those and fictional citations in the same article. That said, also don't use these as a crutch! Your articles should be enjoyable and within the average reader's realm of comprehension even without any links. (Not to mention, too many Wikipedia links is just plain distracting.)

++ Consider the Approach
Like any other technical detail, the use of mathematics in an article is meant to help support the story and its characters and themes. To that end, its inclusion must be purposeful, rather than superfluous (or worse, used only to sound smarter).

For example, precise measurements of an anomalous object's dimensions might be extraneous in some articles, but essential information in communicating the overall size and scale of an object in others. For large objects or areas, also consider how such measurements would be taken—for example, the Foundation would probably make use of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_rangefinder laser rangefinders] to measure long distances.

The Foundation is a highly-advanced organization with advanced academic knowledge and cutting edge technology beyond that which exists in the nonanomalous world—if needed, you can invent fictional techniques or equipment involving math. That said, unless you're going for a hard sci-fi or fantasy theme, try to keep it at least somewhat rooted in concepts that exist in the real world.

++ Do Your Research
There is no way around it: just like any other subject, if you're going for something particularly math-heavy, you're probably going to need to do some research on it. To that end, open access resources like Wikipedia and [https://math.libretexts.org/ LibreTexts] are great places to look, so long as you know what you're looking for.

The goal of Project Athena, as discussed on the main hub, is to lower the barrier of entry for this research. Beyond that, feel free to reach out to others in the community for math help!

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[[div class="bottom-rating-module"]]
[[module Rate]]
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Mathematics Writing Guide

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