Mathematical writing
by Donald Knuth · first published 1988
69% recommend31% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Practical guide to clear mathematical writing, drawn from Knuth's Stanford course lectures. It is useful for writing theses and papers, and is freely available as notes.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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I did find Knuth's "Mathematical Writing" to be helpful when writing my thesis, and that's on this list. (Even a free .pdf link on that one.)
on “Books and papers every graduate student should read” ↗Anything by Rachel Carson. Anything by Donald Knuth. He even teaches good writing in Mathematical Writing. I always thought IBM held a high standard for their writing. So anything from the IBM System/370 Principles of Operation to their IBM Journal of Research and Development would be good. Lately, I've…
on “Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?” ↗Two resources which helped me improving my writing, when I was writing my thesis were "How to Write Mathematics" by Paul R. Halmos and "Mathematical Writing" by Donald E. Knuth et al. I would always start with Halmos to get into the spirit of perusing clear and precise communication. The "Bad/Better/OK" suggestions especially reminded me of the discussions…
on “My PhD advisor rewrote himself in bash (2010)” ↗There are lots of good books on writing mathematics: 1. How to Write Mathematics — Paul Halmos 2. Mathematical Writing — Donald Knuth, Tracy Larrabee, and Paul Roberts 3. Handbook of Writing for the Mathematical Sciences — Nicholas J. Higham 4. Writing Mathematics Well — Steven Gill Williamson
on “Weighting an average to minimize variance” ↗…of taking famous programs and re-writing as a Literate Program, e.g., http://literateprogramming.com/adventure.pdf - Knuth _Digital Typography_ (and not just because I have a reward check) - Knuth _Mathematical Writing_ --- if you do any work in math, you probably already have a copy --- if you don't, you probably need one - Dewdney _The Planiverse_ --- response to the classic _Flatland_, this has a real charm and…
on “Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025” ↗Of, course there is Knuth's version of "Mathematical Writing" as well. http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/reviewing-papers/knuth_mathematica... which seems a bit more nut-and-bolts. This post seems a good compliment.
on “How to write Mathematics (1970) [pdf]” ↗While I don't think anyone would object to precision being a good thing when it comes to papers, I would definitely object that readability is more important. A paper is not source code - it is a tool for scientists to share their discoveries with fellow humans, and fellow humans will always appreciate clearly expressed ideas. After all, what good is a tool for knowledge sharing that's accessible
on “Cormac McCarthy on how to write a science paper” ↗You have the powerful blessings of both Knuth and Halmos [0]. On p. 3 of the PDF: > 1. Symbols in different formulas must be separated by words. > 2. Don't start a sentence with a symbol. [0] http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/reviewing-papers/knuth_mathematica...
on “Cormac McCarthy on how to write a science paper” ↗Donald Knuth wrote the criminally under-appreciated Mathematical Writing [1] [2] which was the collected lectures from a class at Stanford. One of the guest lectures was Jeffrey Ullman On Getting Rich. In it, he discusses the economics of book writing and compares its pay with that of other 'professions'. [1] https://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/reviewing-papers/knuth_mathematic... [2] https://www.youtube
on “Programming Book Profits (2008)” ↗There is also “Mathematical Writing” by Knuth: https://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/reviewing-papers/knuth_mathematic...
on “A Guide to Writing Mathematics [pdf]” ↗I like the notes on Knuth lecture “Mathematical Writing” https://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/reviewing-papers/knuth_mathematic...
on “Cormac McCarthy’s tips on how to write a great science paper (2019)” ↗I'd also like to recommend Knuth's lecture notes on mathematical writing [0]. [0]: https://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/reviewing-papers/knuth_mathematic...
on “Space Math” ↗I find Donald Knuth an awesome technical writer: https://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/reviewing-papers/knuth_mathematic... Skip the math stuff if you don’t need it, the rest is still worth it. However, much better than reading about writing is getting direct feedback on your own writing. Maybe offer mentoring to your juniors?
on “Ask HN: Any great books about technical writing?” ↗This stood out to me reading the notes from Knuth's Mathematical Writing seminar, linked elsewhere on this comment page. An example from page 21: > He recently spent four hours looking through the collected works of Lagrange trying to find the source of “Lagrange’s inequality,”…
on “Cormac McCarthy on how to write a science paper” ↗…a look at this outstanding list on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/R2ECKRZ... Reading through that list has sent me off to find a out-of-print paper copy of Don Knuth's Mathematical Writing (Mathematical Association of America Notes), much of the content of which can be found on his website. And if you really want to improve your writing, spend a bit of money and hire a good editor and…
on “Ask HN: Effectively improving your writing ability” ↗