Writing about Math for the Perplexed and the Traumatized by Steven Strogatz.
From the introduction:
In the summer of 2009 I received an unexpected email from David Shipley, the editor of the op-ed page for the New York Times. He invited me to look him up next time I was in the city and said there was something he’d like to discuss.
Over lunch at the Oyster Bar restaurant in Grand Central Station, he asked whether I’d ever have time to write a series about the elements of math aimed at people like him. He said he’d majored in English in college and hadn’t studied math since high school. At some point he’d lost his way and given up. Although he could usually do what his math teachers had asked of him, he’d never really seen the point of it. Later in life he’d been puzzled to hear math described as beautiful. Could I convey some of that beauty to his readers, many of whom, he suspected, were as lost he was?
I was thrilled by his proposition. I love math, but even more than that, I love trying to explain it. Here I’d like to touch on a few of the writing challenges that this opportunity entailed, along with the goals I set for myself, and then describe how, by borrowing from three great science writers, I tried to meet those challenges. I’m not sure if any of my suggestions will help other mathematicians who’d like to share their own love of math with the public, but that’s my hope.
If you are looking for tips and examples of how to explain computer science topics, you have arrived!
Not only is this essay by Strogatz highly useful and entertaining, you can also consult his fifteen (15) part series on math that appeared in the New York Times.
The New York Times series ended in 2010 but you can following Steven at: @stevenstrogatz and at RadioLab.
I first saw this in a tweet by Michael Nielsen.
BTW, if you have contacts at the New York Times, would you mention that including hyperlinks for Twitter handles and websites is a matter of common courtesy? Thanks!
That’s very odd about the lack of Twitter links at the Strogatz series at the NYT. All of the posts in the Disunion Opinionator series have social media sharing links…. I wonder why they’d be inconsistent about that.
Comment by marijane — February 18, 2014 @ 5:22 pm
It may be inconsistency between departments. Not like that happens elsewhere. 😉
Comment by Patrick Durusau — February 22, 2014 @ 2:09 pm