Notes about Technical Writing

basic latex

• extra spaces between words and extra blank lines between passages will be ignored.

  • spaces in the front will be ignored.

  • newline is regarded as an extra space, adding % at the end will remove it.

  • note: space before macros will not be ignored, e.g., \TeX ing. But spaces at the rear will be ignored. Adding brankets {} will resolve it, e.g., {\TeX} ing or \Tex{} ing.

• \qquad: as wide as about two M s

• double hyphen: -- denotes number range, en dash; triple hyphen: --- denotes punctuation dash, em dash. en and em denotes the width

• float environment: e.g., figure, table. accept an optional arg (h: here; t: top; H: here and not float, extended from package float)

• \eqref is specified for math equations from package amsmath

• avoid setting font or controlling indents, etc., within the document environment. try to replace them with meaningful commands or environments.

  • \newenvironment{myenv}

  • \newcommand

• ellipsis: \ldots or \dots. instead of \cdots or ...(three dots).

  • H\dots. (OK)

  • H \ldots H (not good), H $\ldots$ H (recommended, math env)

• escape chars in the main body.

  • \_ for _; \textbackslash for \

• non-breakable space.

  • Question~1

  • Donald~E. Knuth within names

  • Mr.~Knuth

  • function~$f(x)$

  • 1,~2, and~3

• period after capital is regarded as a abbreviation. use \ or \@ to resolve it. E.g., Roman number XII\@. Yes.

• BibTeX

  • \citep (index) and \citet (author) are recommended. remember to use package natbib and use plainnat bibliography style

• force line break

  • \\ accepts an optional argument for vertical space. e.g., \\[2cm]. Often used for in equation environment

• special chars used in main body

  • §: \S

  • : \dag

  • : \ddag

  • ¶: \P

  • ©: \copyright

  • £: \pounds

  • \(\bullet\): \textbullet (\bullet in math env)

  • go check the book The Comprehensive LATEX Symbol List, 2009 by Scott Pakin for more

fonts

font family

• roman family: \textrm{font family} font family

• sans-serif family: \textsf{font family} font family

• typewritter family: \texttt{font family} font family

declaration, {\rmfamily font family} font family

font shape

• upright shape: \textup{Font Shape} Font Shape

• italic shape: \textit{Font Shape} Font Shape

• slanted shape: \textsl{Font Shape} Font Shape

• small captical shape: \textsc{Font Shape} Font Shape

declaration: {\itshape Font Shape} Font Shape

font series

• medium series: \textmd{font series} font series (default in main body)

• bold series: \textbf{font series} font series

declaration: {\mdseries font series} font series

font typeface

• The default font family of \(\LaTeX\) is Computer Modern

• Serif Times Roman (i.e., Times New Roman) is recommended for papers, magazines and books. Use package txfonts

• Concrete is recommended for presentation. package combination ccfonts, eulervm is great. (also arec ,cmbright)

we can specify three font family individually

\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Times New Roman}
\setsansfont{Verdana}
\setmonofont{Courier New}

emphasis

make upright or make italic upright

• this is \emph{emphasis}: this is emphasis

• \textit{this is \emph{emphasis}} this is emphasis**

underline

\underline{Emphasized} text and \underline{another}: Emphasized text and another

use package \usepackage[normalem]{ulem}

\uline{Emphasized} text and \uline{another}: Emphasized text and another

font size