Manifold Atlas:Instructions for writing
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<!-- This page outlines the scientific conventions and goals for writing in the Atlas: it also explains the open-editing and author-based options.-->{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{NAMESPACE}}: {{PAGENAME}}}} | <!-- This page outlines the scientific conventions and goals for writing in the Atlas: it also explains the open-editing and author-based options.-->{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{NAMESPACE}}: {{PAGENAME}}}} | ||
− | This page describes the scientific writing style of the Manifold Atlas. | + | This page describes the scientific writing style of the Manifold Atlas. You may also wish to read about [[Manifold Atlas:Writing groups|writing groups]]. |
== Scientific style == | == Scientific style == | ||
* The Manifold Atlas aims to be an '''reliable scientific reference''' for researchers and students of manifolds. | * The Manifold Atlas aims to be an '''reliable scientific reference''' for researchers and students of manifolds. |
Revision as of 15:49, 24 September 2009
This page describes the scientific writing style of the Manifold Atlas. You may also wish to read about writing groups.
Contents |
1 Scientific style
- The Manifold Atlas aims to be an reliable scientific reference for researchers and students of manifolds.
- Please write rigorously and clearly for a topologically literate audience:
- i.e. assume that your reader has taken relevant introductory graduate level courses for the area you are covering.
- Please give proofs or references to peer-reviewed journals for all non-elementary statements.
- As far as possible define the terms and concepts you use:
- For articles in the Manifolds chapter please review the suggested structure.
2 The evolution of a page
- It will typically take many edits for a page to reach maturity.
- New and young pages bear the Stub template indicating that they are under development.
- After a page reaches maturity, the editorial board will organise for it to be refereed.
3 Hyperlinks
- A well-written article will find a good balance between the following extremes:
- too few hyperlinks and your document is somewhat of a dead-end,
- too many hyperlinks make texts hard to read and can distract the reader.
- Here are some guides for hyperlinking:
- you can use hyperlinks to both defined and emphasis key concepts,
- you only need to link a give page once per page or section, unless emphasis is sought,
- broken hyperlinks, appearing in red, can be useful: they indicate pages you think should exist but don't right now.
- for ease of writing on your first draft, simply write your hyperlink as intended link: later on you, or other users, can fill in the links to make them active.
3.1 Linking to Wikipedia
- Wikipedia:Wikipedia already contains a great wealth of mathematical articles and there is not point in duplicating this content in the Atlas.
- Atlas articles will differ from Wikipedia articles in that they assume a higher level of mathematical background and will typically discuss manifolds in greater depth and with greater precision than Wikipedia.
- A good heuristic for linking to Wikipedia is the following:
- use Wikipedia links to define terms and concepts but,
- do not use Wikipedia as a reference: refer to peer-reviewed mathematical literature.
- We hope that there will be a positive synergy between Wikipedia and the Atlas:
- Atlas authors may wish to improve to and to Wikipedia articles to define the terms they use,
- hopefully in time, Wikipedia can link and refer to articles in the Atlas.