Dr. Algebra

When it comes to anything math, having good penmanship skills can make a tremendous difference.  Sloppy writing with math will lead to simple mistakes and an inability to figure out what those mistakes are.  

Here are several tips you can use to make your writing legible and easy to follow.

1. Avoid using lined paper as you will be tempted to shrink fractions into a single line.
2. Use blank paper, or graph paper, and don’t be afraid to use the space.  Some people tend to try and write super small as if they are trying to conserve paper.
3. When writing equations, keep the ‘=’ signs vertically lined up. 
4. When writing equations, keep exponents with the same exponents vertically lined up.
5. Avoid using ‘/’ (slashes) when writing fractions, instead try to use ‘–‘ bars.  
6. When writing words, print neatly, don’t use cursive.
7. Be super clear when distributing or factoring terms with “negative” signs.
8. When re-writing a homework problem, start by re-stating the problem.
9. Make a mistake?  just cross out the bad section and continue on the next line.