research questions latex

LaTeX Ninja'ing and the Digital Humanities

The verb "to ninja" means "to act or move like a ninja, particularly with regard to a combination of speed, power, and stealth." latex adventures, demystifying digital tools for humanists, one tutorial at a time., formulating research questions for using dh methods.

In the feedback forms I did on the DH classes I have taught over the last years, I got one feedback I didn’t expect: People were extremely grateful I had practiced with them how to formulate valid research questions which, apparently, no one had ever (really) done with them before. I found that quite astonishing because the DH are all about methods and methods are like specizalized tools. You need to know what you can use them for. So here’s the crashcourse.

The Hammer and the Nail

I want to start off with an analogy. A hammer is a specialized but not an extremely specialized tool. You can use it for a range of tasks, however, not all tasks are going to work equally well. Some might work but would actually require a more specialized tool if you had one. You can really use the hammer on about anything and almost always, something is going to happen.

For example, you can use a hammer on an eggshell and something is going to happen. You can also use the hammer on steel and something is going to happen, although not much to be honest. And then you can use your hammer on a nail. That’s the sweet spot, that’s what it really works well for, what it was made for, that’s what it does.

A method is like a specizalized tool

So a method is like a specialized tool in a way that is it not equally apt for all sorts of uses. Not every method will work just as well on a given problem or research question. That’s why it’s so important that we first become aware of possible use cases for a method before we start trying to apply it to research questions.

I will mostly work with the example of quantitative text analysis here because that’s the class where I talked about this at length. But it would work the same with annotation or any other topic. I just thought text mining is an especially useful example because it can seem like some sort of magic to ‘outsiders’ or people who just don’t understand the method all that well. That’s also why they think “I can just magically apply it to any research question and get a valid result, right?” Wrong. 

Identifying ‘hooks’ for digital methods

Mostly when coming up with a valid research question for digital methods, you need a Humanities problem, a description of the data available and then a ‘hook’ in this data which a digital method can grab. That usually means you need to identify a feature (that how we usually refer to the hook) which will give you information (that you didn’t have before) and with which you’re able to answer your research question. It’s not good if the data you get after the analysis is as about as cryptic to you as the topic was to begin with. So essentially, what we want to do is come up with something really simple which, when observed in lots of detail and lots of quantity, will inform you about the possible answer to your research question.

And of course, you need to check and discuss whether this feature selection was a good choice to begin with when explaining this choice in the intro to your work as well as in the concluding section where you discuss those results. Because the choice of this ‘hook’ will largely determine your results. If it was a bad hook, at best you get no understandable/helpful result at all, at worst, you get misleading results. So maybe it will be easier to come up with an observable feature first and then wonder what questions this could help answer. When you’re more experienced, you’ll have a more intuitive grip of possible features, so this step is less important. Or maybe not less important but you don’t need to take the step this explicitly.

The importance of careful feature selection

The better we choose our research question, the easier the results will be to interpret. Meaning that it’s better to spend lots of time coming up with a good research question rather than jumping right in an ending up with a so-called result which really isn’t a result at all. Coming up with a good research question and methodology is a crucial part of research even when it doesn’t translate to many pages in text. It will save you lots of editing once the text is done, however, because you won’t end up having to gloss over all that inconsistency in your paper.

I think that especially in the DH, formulating the question is probably the most important part of good scholarship. In the Humanities, you can often get away with a sloppy research question and still write a readable and possibly even quite interesting paper. In the DH, the results are going to be grotesque at best. The more ‘computational’ or programming-oriented the questions, all the more so. Or you’re producing a result to a question that no one even asked in the first place. These are the fancy visualizations which are currently quite popular in the DH even though you often can’t see their contribution to any scholarly discussion whatsoever, apart from showing off that one had enough digital skills to pull it off. In early modern alchemy, such people would be called ‘puffers’, i.e. alchemists who put on one hell of a show but without ever really producing anything. Don’t be a puffer. They were considered frauds.

The 5 questions exercise

An easy exercise I did with my students was that I asked them to formulate 5 random research questions. They didn’t need to necessarily make sense to pursue or appeal to the students at all. These questions had two be formulated twice each: Once in a way that can be answered using the chosen method and one which cannot be answered using the chosen method (in this case by using some sort of quantitative text analysis). This exercise is difficult for students but with lots of hints and help, as well as examples they can use as models for their solutions, they can come up with something. Once they try to come up with the real research questions they will answer in the seminar, however, you’ll have to go through the whole process again because they likely didn’t fully understand it yet. In my experience, students will develop this ‘judgement’ by putting one of their questions into practice. Then they usually realize when a question didn’t make sense or they just can’t answer it with the process they had planned. Or you have to be strict with them and remind them that they didn’t actually produce any tangible ‘proof’ of their claims or didn’t really answer the question they aksed.

I want to share a few of the questions from a particularly good homework I received. I translated them into English, modified them slightly and made them more detailed or into multiple questions to be more specific:

• Possible to answer with DH methods: Which words appear in the novel which are classified as positive or negative by a sentiment dictionary? How is the proportion between negative and positive? Does this proportion vary significantly when we use different sentiment dictionaries? Does this evaluation comply with our feeling from the close reading (not to be answered objectively but can be explored by identifying errors in classification, such as ‘miss’ being classified as negative in Jane Austen ). Not possible:  Are Jane Austen novels pessimistic?
• Possible to answer with DH methods: When do words classified as positive or negative appear in the novel?  Not possible: Which effect does this have on the reading experience?
• Possible to answer with DH methods: Which words are frequent in the novel? Which words are frequent after elimination of stopwords and some other operations? Not possible to answer: What did the author want to convey by using these specific words? Why did they use them and how did they come up with this vocabulary?
• Possible to answer with DH methods:  Which personal names appear most frequently in the novel? Maybe also relatively frequent per chapter, not only frequent because of certain peaks. Not possible to answer: Which people are most important in the novel?
• Possible to answer with DH methods  (possibly using annotation rather than QTA): Which individuals have most direct speeches in the novel? Not possible to answer: Why do some people have lots of direct speeches? Are people more important or central only because they have more direct speech?
• Possible to answer with DH methods: In which books do the author signals resemble each other significantly so that there is a high probability they could be the same author? Not possible to answer: Did one particular author write a given book? 

What we can learn from the exercise

As you can see, the differences between ‘possible to answer’ and ‘not possible’ are quite minute in many cases. They might seem like it’s only me being pedantic about the choice of words. But no, these differences are quite consequential, especially to one who is not aware of them. They can make the difference between a successful project and spurious one. These are mistakes you are bound to make when you don’t pay close attention, especially if you feel closer to the Humanities than the Digital or Computational part! It’s important that you not only write out the ‘possible’ part but also very explicitly the ‘not possible’ part even though sometimes, the ‘not possible’ might seem obvious. This is not always the case (see the subtle differences above!). Only by formulating both sides can you make it clear to yourself where those minor differences might be in your project.

When formulating these questions, be sure to use the vocabulary of the method and not the terminology of the field of origin. If your subject is literary studies, don’t use concepts from literary studies. Like in example 1, write out the answer very closely to what the technical method actually does (i.e. “check if a word is labelled positive or negative in a sentiment dictionary and whether you get a varied result using another dictionary”). This sounds very unromantic to the field of origin but that way, you can’t get a false sense of what’s possible or confuse ‘ what the program really does’ with ‘ what you would like the program to do’ .  This is probably the most common mistake with formulating research questions for quantitative methods. Don’t start from what you want to do. Start from what’s possible with a given method and the data you have.

Coming up with a research question

Now that you know how to judge whether a method is useful for a given research question, you might want to know how to come up with a research question in the first place.

Well, firstly, it will work best if you understand the optimal use case for the method before you come up with a research question. Mostly, people will come up with questions which are not fit for their chosen method at all if they don’t start thinking about it already coming from/with a good understanding of the method.

But, of course, you also need to have enough Humanities skills and background knowledge to be aware of the ‘adjacent possible’ (a term used by Cal Newport in So Good They Can’t Ignore You ). That means that you know what’s going on, which trends currently exist and how you could recombine those into something cool and new.

If you’re just looking for a topic for the next seminar paper, this might be somewhat overkill. However, this is the reason many DH people don’t think it makes sense to teach (full-time) DH on a Bachelor level. People need to get the skills and knowledge from their ‘domain of origin’ first before they can apply digital methods to them.  It’s extremely difficult teaching DH skills early in the Bachelor, or trying to teach DH skills to people who aren’t even Humanities scholars in the strict sense (such as information science or the like, speaking from my own teaching experience) because they just don’t have ‘the content’ to apply the metohds to. They have lots of their own theory, but not so much the material to work with. Furthermore, even when you do have the Humanities skills, the transfer process between digital skills and application to your Humanities problems is non-trivial, yet hardly ever addressed explicity in teaching. I have a post lined up about this in the queue already (Edit: Obviously, it’s out in the meantime, see Looking at data with the eyes of a Humanist: How to apply digital skills to your Humanities research questions ).

If you’re interested in how to come up with a research question for any seminar paper (even if you’re really not all that interested in the topic of the class), please let me know, I’m happy to write something up.

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Getting Started with LaTeX

• Installation
• Creating a document
• A sample document
• Library Workshop Files

Introduction

The best way to learn LaTeX is by writing your own code and working through different situation.  In this section of the guide there are several samples problems, as well as their solutions.  The problems build off the previous ones and tend to get harder as you move along.  Feel free to reference back to the guide, use the hints. or use Google if you are stuck.  Remember there can be more than one way to answer some of these questions so if your solution doesn't match what is given but the code compiles correctly that is ok.

Exercise 1: Hello World!

Create a document with the title Hello World!, your name, and todays date.  Include in the document the following text " Hello World!  Today I am learning LaTeX."  The solution should look like this (but with todays date):

• Remember the first part of any document is the preamble and it must begin with \documentclass{} an article is a good document class for this exercise.
• To make the title look nice use the command \maketitle , but make sure you put it in the body of the document
• For \maketitle to work correctly you will want to use \title{} , \author{} , and \date{} , but they don't belong in the document body.
• What happens if you don't include \date{} ? What happens if you use \date{} with no argument? What if you use \date{\today} ?
• To start the body of your document use the command \begin{document}.  To end your document use the command \end{document}
• Try the command \LaTeX

\documentclass{article} 

\title{Hello World!} \author{Your Name} \date{January 1, 1831} \begin{document}     \maketitle          \textbf{Hello World!} Today I am learning \LaTeX. \end{document}

Exercise 2: Adding some simple math

Add to the document you created in exercise 1 the following text: 

"LaTeX is a great program for writing math.  I can write in line math such as a^2 + b^2 = c^2.   I can also give equations their own space: gamma ^2 +theta^2 = omega^2 "  

Your final document should look like this:

• Is there a problem with the spacing after the second \LaTeX ?  Try using \LaTeX{} an empty argument can improve spacing with some commands.
• To write in line math mode you need to include a $ before and after the text that should be written as math.  
• $$ before and after an equation or \[ and \] will cause LaTeX to entire a display environment
• If you don't know how to create Greek letters check out the resources tab.
• Use ^ for superscripts.  Use _ for subscripts.

\title{Hello World!} \author{Your Name} \date{January 1, 1831} \begin{document}     \maketitle          \textbf{Hello World!} Today I am learning \LaTeX. \LaTeX{} is a great program for writing math. I can write in line math such as $a^2+b^2=c^2$. I can also give equations their own space: \[ \gamma^2+\theta^2=\omega^2\] \end{document}

Exercise 3: More Difficult Math

In this exercise you will build onto the document created in exercises 1 and 2 with more complicated math and structures.  This is a much more difficult exercise so take your time. 

First give the display environment equation from exercise 2 an equation number.  Second add the following line of text (make sure there it is not indented as a new paragraph: 

"Maxwell's equations" are named for James Clark Maxwell and are as follow:

Now write Maxwell's equations (as seen below), use an align environment and align the equations at the = signs and at the equations names.

• Did you include the amsmath package command, \usepackage{amsmath} ?  Some symbols and advanced math environments such as align will not work with out it!
• The equation environment, \begin{equation} , automatically puts you in display mode and includes equations numbers.  If you want to use this mode but don't want equation numbers use equation*
• To create quotation marks in LaTeX use the symbol ` (the ~ key) twice on the left and use the ' key twice on the right.   Using " on the left and right will not work properly.
• In the align environment you use the & to denote points of alignment.  If you want a second alignment point use && .
• If you are having trouble with spacing use around = use the command \quad this adds extra horizontal space.
• When adding text in math mode you need to use the command \text{} where the text you want added is the argument.  This command tells LaTeX to use regular text at that location.
• \vec{} will create vector notation. \partial will give you partial derivatives, and remember for fractions use \frac{numerator}{denomonator} .
• If you are having trouble getting your parenthesis to look right use the command  \left( and \right) this will automatically fit the parenthesis to the equation within.  This also works with   \left[ ,  \left{ , and \left| , but you always need a \right to go with it.

\usepackage{ amsmath}

\title{Hello World!} \author{Your Name} \date{January 1, 1831}

\begin{document}     \maketitle          \textbf{Hello World!} Today I am learning \LaTeX. \LaTeX{} is a great program for writing math. I can write in line math such as $a^2+b^2=c^2$. I can also give equations their own space:      \begin{equation}      \gamma^2+\theta^2=\omega^2     \end{equation}     ``Maxwell's equations'' are named for James Clark Maxwell and are as follow:     \begin{align}                  \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{E} \quad &=\quad\frac{\rho}{\epsilon_0} &&\text{Gauss's Law} \\           \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{B} \quad &=\quad 0 &&\text{Gauss's Law for Magnetism}\\     \vec{\nabla} \times \vec{E} \quad &=\hspace{10pt}-\frac{\partial{\vec{B}}}{\partial{t}} &&\text{Faraday's Law of Induction} \\      \vec{\nabla} \times \vec{B} \quad &=\quad \mu_0\left( \epsilon_0\frac{\partial{\vec{E}}}{\partial{t}}+\vec{J}\right) &&\text{Ampere's Circuital Law}     \end{align} \end{document}

Exercise 4: Creating Sections and Referencing Equation

Labels and reference are very simple to execute in LaTeX, can be used with any numbered object such as figures, equations, and sections, and are automatically updated whenever the document is complied.  If, for example, you realized you forgot an equation somewhere in the middle of your document, between 10 other equations, all the equations after the newly inserted equation would automatically be renumbered and proper references to them will reflect this new numbering!

For this exercise take the document made in the previous exercise and create two sections one at the beginning (Getting Started) and one after all your texts (What about Matrix Equations?).  Also add to your document references to each of Maxwell's Equations, and then write a sentence that references each equation.  You will need to use the commands \label{} and \ref{} .

It is common practice in LaTeX when labeling to use the format eq:name , fig:name , tab:name , and so on depending on the type of object you are labeling. If you are confused by this look at the labels in the solution

Also, if you would like your citations to act as hyperlinks you need to use the package hyperref ,  \usepackage{hyperref} , remember with this package you can change the default hyperlink settings with the command \hypersetup{} in the preamble i.e.  \hypersetup{colorlinks=true, linkcolor=blue, urlcolor=blue, citecolor=blue} .

• For sections use the \section{} command.
• Make sure you use the \label{} command at the end of each equation before the line break command \\ .
• You may need compile your document twice in order to get cross references to work.

\usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{hyperref} \hypersetup{colorlinks=true, linkcolor=blue, ur lcolor=blue, citecolor=blue}

\begin{document}     \maketitle     \section{Getting Started}     \textbf{Hello World!} Today I am learning \LaTeX. \LaTeX{} is a great program for writing math. I can write in line math such as $a^2+b^2=c^2$. I can also give equations their own space:      \begin{equation}      \gamma^2+\theta^2=\omega^2     \end{equation}     ``Maxwell's equations'' are named for James Clark Maxwell and are as follow:     \begin{align}                  \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{E} \quad &=\quad\frac{\rho}{\epsilon_0} &&\text{Gauss's Law} \label{eq:GL} \\           \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{B} \quad &=\quad 0 &&\text{Gauss's Law for Magnetism} \label{eq:GLM} \\     \vec{\nabla} \times \vec{E} \quad &=\hspace{10pt}-\frac{\partial{\vec{B}}}{\partial{t}} &&\text{Faraday's Law of Induction} \label{eq:FL} \\      \vec{\nabla} \times \vec{B} \quad &=\quad \mu_0\left( \epsilon_0\frac{\partial{\vec{E}}}{\partial{t}}+\vec{J}\right) &&\text{Ampere's Circuital Law} \label{eq:ACL}     \end{align} Equations \ref{eq:GL}, \ref{eq:GLM}, \ref{eq:FL}, and \ref{eq:ACL} are some of the most important in Physics. \section{What about Matrix Equations?} \end{document}

Exercise 5: Creating Matrix Equations

In this exercise add the matrix equation to your document as seen below:

• There are different matrix environments in LaTeX such as matrix , pmatrix , and bmatrix .
• In a matrix use the & character to denote new columns and the \\ command to start new rows.
• If you are having trouble creating the dots use the commands \dots , \ddots , and \vdots . 

\usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{hyperref} \hypersetup{colorlinks=true, linkcolor=blue, urlcolor=blue, citecolor=blue}

\begin{document}     \maketitle     \section{Getting Started}     \textbf{Hello World!} Today I am learning \LaTeX. \LaTeX{} is a great program for writing math. I can write in line math such as $a^2+b^2=c^2$. I can also give equations their own space:      \begin{equation}      \gamma^2+\theta^2=\omega^2     \end{equation}     ``Maxwell's equations'' are named for James Clark Maxwell and are as follow:     \begin{align}                  \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{E} \quad &=\quad\frac{\rho}{\epsilon_0} &&\text{Gauss's Law} \label{eq:GL}\\           \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{B} \quad &=\quad 0 &&\text{Gauss's Law for Magnetism} \label{eq:GLM}\\     \vec{\nabla} \times \vec{E} \quad &=\hspace{10pt}-\frac{\partial{\vec{B}}}{\partial{t}} &&\text{Faraday's Law of Induction} \label{eq:FL}\\      \vec{\nabla} \times \vec{B} \quad &=\quad \mu_0\left( \epsilon_0\frac{\partial{\vec{E}}}{\partial{t}}+\vec{J}\right) &&\text{Ampere's Circuital Law} \label{eq:ACL}     \end{align} Equations \ref{eq:GL}, \ref{eq:GLM}, \ref{eq:FL}, and \ref{eq:ACL} are some of the most important in Physics. \section{What about Matrix Equations?} \begin{equation*} \begin{pmatrix} a_{11}&a_{12}&\dots&a_{1n}\\ a_{21}&a_{22}&\dots&a_{2n}\\ \vdots&\vdots&\ddots&\vdots\\ a_{n1}&a_{n2}&\dots&a_{nn} \end{pmatrix} \begin{bmatrix} v_{1}\\ v_{2}\\ \vdots\\ v_{n} \end{bmatrix} = \begin{matrix} w_{1}\\ w_{2}\\ \vdots\\ w_{n} \end{matrix} \end{equation*} \end{document}

Exercise 6: Tables and Figures

For this exercise create a new section to your document for figures and tables.  In that section create a table and a figure.  Give each object a caption, try putting the table caption above the table and the figure caption below.  Try this with a figure of your choice.

• To include a caption with your table use the environment  table , \begin{table} .
• ​ In the second argument of tabular you will define the number of columns in the table, the justification of each column, as well as if you would like any lines between the columns.  In the table used in this question the command  \begin{tabular}{| l || c | c | r |}  was used.  This creates a 4 column matrix, the first column is left justified, l , the middle two are center justified,  c , and the last column is right justified, r.   The table also has borders on the outside as well as between the columns using the | (shift backslash key).  Notice there is a double || after the first column.
• Entering values into your table works much like a matrix.  use the & character to separate columns and the \\ command to start working on a new row.  Use $ if you want to write in math mode.
• If you want to create a horizontal line at the top, bottom, or between rows of your table use the command \hline at the start of the row and after the last \\ .
• Placing the command  \centering at the start of the table of figure environment will center the object. 
• For figures you need to include the graphicx package, \usepackage{graphicx} .
• Using the graphicx package you can create an environment figure , \begin{figure} .
• The optional argument of \includegraphics can be used to resize the figure try [width=\textwidth] and [width=.5\textwidth] and see the difference it makes.
• The required argument of \includegraphics is the name of the file, DO NOT include the file type and make sure the file is located in the same folder as the LaTeX document otherwise it is more complicated to include it. For example the argument for file bern.jpg should just be \includegraphics {bern} .
• When including a floating object in your document such as a figure or a table you can follow the required argument with an additional optional argument to indicate the preferred placement of the object. The letter  h indicates here (current location), b indicates bottom (bottom of a page), and t indicated top (top of page).  Using an ! stresses to LaTeX to make this placement.  So you may see commands for figures of tables that look like this \begin{figure}[hbt!] .

\usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{hyperref} \hypersetup{colorlinks=true, linkcolor=blue, urlcolor=blue, citecolor=blue} \usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}     \maketitle     \section{Getting Started}     \textbf{Hello World!} Today I am learning \LaTeX. \LaTeX{} is a great program for writing math. I can write in line math such as $a^2+b^2=c^2$. I can also give equations their own space:      \begin{equation}      \gamma^2+\theta^2=\omega^2     \end{equation}     ``Maxwell's equations'' are named for James Clark Maxwell and are as follow:     \begin{align}                  \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{E} \quad &=\quad\frac{\rho}{\epsilon_0} &&\text{Gauss's Law} \label{eq:GL}\\           \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{B} \quad &=\quad 0 &&\text{Gauss's Law for Magnetism} \label{eq:GLM}\\     \vec{\nabla} \times \vec{E} \quad &=\hspace{10pt}-\frac{\partial{\vec{B}}}{\partial{t}} &&\text{Faraday's Law of Induction} \label{eq:FL}\\      \vec{\nabla} \times \vec{B} \quad &=\quad \mu_0\left( \epsilon_0\frac{\partial{\vec{E}}}{\partial{t}}+\vec{J}\right) &&\text{Ampere's Circuital Law} \label{eq:ACL}     \end{align} Equations \ref{eq:GL}, \ref{eq:GLM}, \ref{eq:FL}, and \ref{eq:ACL} are some of the most important in Physics. \section{What about Matrix Equations?} \begin{equation*} \begin{pmatrix} a_{11}&a_{12}&\dots&a_{1n}\\ a_{21}&a_{22}&\dots&a_{2n}\\ \vdots&\vdots&\ddots&\vdots\\ a_{n1}&a_{n2}&\dots&a_{nn} \end{pmatrix} \begin{bmatrix} v_{1}\\ v_{2}\\ \vdots\\ v_{n} \end{bmatrix} = \begin{matrix} w_{1}\\ w_{2}\\ \vdots\\ w_{n} \end{matrix} \end{equation*} \section{Tables and Figures} Creating a Table is not unlike creating a matrix: \begin{table}[hbt!]     \centering     \caption{This is a table that shows how to create different lines as well as different justifications}     \begin{tabular}{|l||c|c|r|}     \hline     $x$&1&2&3\\     \hline     $f(x)$&4&8&12\\     f(x)&4&8&12\\     \hline     \end{tabular} \end{table}

\begin{figure}     \centering     \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{bern} \caption{Bern Dibner Library} \end{figure}      \end{document}

Exercise 7: Bibliography

Before attempting this exercise make sure you have read through the BibTex tab of this guide.

Create a BibTex file with a few citations in it.  Add a sentence that contains these citations and then add a bibliography to your document.

• It is much easier to create a BibTex file using a citation management tool like Zotero or Mendeley.
• If you are citing multiple items at the same location you can use \cite{} command and separate the bibIDs with commas.
• Some common styles are plain, ieeetr, acm, and apalike.
• To create your bibliography use the command \biblography{} where the argument is the name of the bib file.   D O NOT include .bib and MAKE SURE  the .bib file is located in the same folder as the LaTeX document .
• You may need to compile your document twice in order to get cross references to work correctly

\begin{document}     \maketitle     \section{Getting Started}     \textbf{Hello World!} Today I am learning \LaTeX. \LaTeX{} is a great program for writing math. I can write in line math such as $a^2+b^2=c^2$. I can also give equations their own space:      \begin{equation}      \gamma^2+\theta^2=\omega^2     \end{equation}     ``Maxwell's equations'' are named for James Clark Maxwell and are as follow:     \begin{align}                  \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{E} \quad &=\quad\frac{\rho}{\epsilon_0} &&\text{Gauss's Law} \label{eq:GL}\\           \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{B} \quad &=\quad 0 &&\text{Gauss's Law for Magnetism} \label{eq:GLM}\\     \vec{\nabla} \times \vec{E} \quad &=\hspace{10pt}-\frac{\partial{\vec{B}}}{\partial{t}} &&\text{Faraday's Law of Induction} \label{eq:FL}\\      \vec{\nabla} \times \vec{B} \quad &=\quad \mu_0\left( \epsilon_0\frac{\partial{\vec{E}}}{\partial{t}}+\vec{J}\right) &&\text{Ampere's Circuital Law} \label{eq:ACL}     \end{align} Equations \ref{eq:GL}, \ref{eq:GLM}, \ref{eq:FL}, and \ref{eq:ACL} are some of the most important in Physics. \section{What about Matrix Equations?} \begin{equation*} \begin{pmatrix} a_{11}&a_{12}&\dots&a_{1n}\\ a_{21}&a_{22}&\dots&a_{2n}\\ \vdots&\vdots&\ddots&\vdots\\ a_{n1}&a_{n2}&\dots&a_{nn} \end{pmatrix} \begin{bmatrix} v_{1}\\ v_{2}\\ \vdots\\ v_{n} \end{bmatrix} = \begin{matrix} w_{1}\\ w_{2}\\ \vdots\\ w_{n} \end{matrix} \end{equation*} \section{Tables and Figures} Creating a Table is not unlike creating a matrix: \begin{table}[h!]     \centering     \caption{This is a table that shows how to create different lines as well as different justifications}     \begin{tabular}{|l||c|c|r|}     \hline     $x$&1&2&3\\     \hline     $f(x)$&4&8&12\\     f(x)&4&8&12\\     \hline     \end{tabular} \end{table}

\begin{figure}[h!]     \centering     \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{bern} \caption{Bern Dibner Library} \end{figure} \section{Bibliography} You will probably want references in your document so that you can cite articles like \cite{frenkel_fine_2013, frenkel_optical_2013, frenkel_temperature_2012, frenkel_whispering-gallery_2013,frenkel_-chip_2016} \bibliographystyle{ieeetr} \bibliography{bibl}      \end{document}

The following is the BibTex file bibl.bib created using Zotero:

@inproceedings{frenkel_fine_2013,     title = {Fine temperature measurement and fabrication of on-chip whispering-gallery mode micro-sensors},     url = {http://proxy.library.nyu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edselc&AN=edselc.2-52.0-84901804547&site=eds-live},     doi = {10.1115/MNHMT2013-22003},     booktitle = {{ASME} 2013 4th {International} {Conference} on {Micro}/{Nanoscale} {Heat} and {Mass} {Transfer}, {MNHMT} 2013},     publisher = {American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)},     author = {Frenkel, M. and Avellan, M. and Guo, Z.},     year = {2013},     note = {Conference Proceedings} }

@inproceedings{frenkel_optical_2013,     title = {Optical whispering-gallery mode phenomenon as a composite sensor with applications to direct on-chip thermal sensing},     volume = {4},     isbn = {978-0-7918-5550-8},     url = {http://proxy.library.nyu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edselc&AN=edselc.2-52.0-84893001861&site=eds-live},     doi = {10.1115/HT2013-17245},     booktitle = {{ASME} 2013 {Heat} {Transfer} {Summer} {Conf}.{Collocated} with the {ASME} 2013 7th {Int}.{Conf}.on {Energy} {Sustainability} and the {ASME} 2013 11th {Int}.{Conf}.on {Fuel} {Cell} {Science}, {Engineering} and {Technology}, {HT} 2013},     author = {Frenkel, M. and Avellan, M. and Guo, Z.},     year = {2013},     note = {Conference Proceedings} }

@inproceedings{frenkel_temperature_2012,     title = {Temperature sensing of joule heating inside an optical whispering-gallery mode micro-annulus},     volume = {2},     isbn = {978-0-7918-4478-6},     url = {http://proxy.library.nyu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edselc&AN=edselc.2-52.0-84892648569&site=eds-live},     doi = {10.1115/HT2012-58133},     booktitle = {{ASME} 2012 {Heat} {Transfer} {Summer} {Conf}.{Collocated} with the {ASME} 2012 {Fluids} {Engineering} {Div}.{Summer} {Meeting} and the {ASME} 2012 10th {Int}.{Conf}.on {Nanochannels}, {Microchannels} and {Minichannels}, {HT} 2012},     author = {Frenkel, M. and Avellan, M. and Guo, Z.},     year = {2012},     note = {Conference Proceedings},     pages = {823--826} }

@article{frenkel_whispering-gallery_2013,     title = {Whispering-gallery mode composite sensors for on-chip dynamic temperature monitoring},     volume = {24},     issn = {09570233},     url = {http://proxy.library.nyu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edswsc&AN=000320449100036&site=eds-live},     abstract = {Whispering-gallery mode temperature microsensors have been demonstrated to have extremely high accuracy. Previous experiments have been limited to indirect sensor heating by externally heating the local environment. In this paper, we coated PDMS films directly onto an electrical resistive wire as sensors, allowing on-chip dynamic temperature measurement. The effects of sensor size are discussed and verified through an expansion of the current theory of WGM resonance shifts to include composite materials. Finally, the WGM sensor's measurements are compared to the same measurements recorded by a thermocouple, demonstrating the great advantages of WGM sensors for on-chip real temperature monitoring.},     number = {7},     journal = {MEASUREMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY},     author = {Frenkel, M. and Avellan, M. and Guo, Z. X.},     year = {2013},     keywords = {ENGINEERING, MULTIDISCIPLINARY, INSTRUMENTS \& INSTRUMENTATION, on-chip measurement, optical sensor, temperature measurement} }

@article{frenkel_-chip_2016,     title = {On-chip, dynamic, and cryogenic temperature monitoring via {PDMS} micro-bead coatings},     volume = {54},     issn = {1099-0488},     url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/polb.24016},     doi = {10.1002/polb.24016},     abstract = {Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microshells/beads coated onto an electrical current-carrying wire are demonstrated for on-chip, dynamic, cryogenic temperature measurement via monitoring optical whispering-gallery mode (WGM) frequency shifts. PDMS is found to be capable of supporting WGM resonance at cryogenic temperatures down to 95 K, limited by the present lab-built cryogenic working environment. The effect of the polymeric sensor diameter on temperature sensitivity is explored and discussed. The sensors are tested for their real-time temperature monitoring capabilities and accuracy in the cryogenic temperature regime of 95–140 K, and a comparison to a theoretical model, where the electrical resistivity of nichrome wire at cryogenic temperature is also experimentally determined, is examined. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016, 54, 1118–1124},     number = {12},     journal = {Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics},     author = {Frenkel, Matthew and Guo, Zhixiong},     year = {2016},     keywords = {coatings, cryogenic temperature, electrical resistivity, films, optical resonance, sensors},     pages = {1118--1124} }

Additional Exercises: More Equations

A)  Trying creating the following calculus equation:

B)  If you are feeling really good try your luck with these equations (no hints are given)

Hints for part A only

• To get the spacing right try using the command \, before dx on the left side of the equation
• The command \limits helps position the integral limits where you want them, \limits_a^b .  
• ​ To use this equation without a command \left| creating lines on both sides of the equation place the command \left . on the left side of the equation.  This technique can be used with any of the \right or \left commands if you only want an object on one side of your equation.

\[ \int\limits_a^b x\,dx = \left.\frac{x^2}{2} \right|_a^b \]

\begin{equation} \iiint\limits_V f(x,y,z)\,dV = F \end{equation}

\begin{equation} \frac{dx}{dy}=x'=\lim_{h \to 0}\frac{f(x+h)-f(x)}{h} \end{equation}

\begin{equation} |x|=\begin{cases} -x, & \text{if $x < 0$}\\ x, & \text{if $x \geq 0$}  \end{cases} \end{equation}

\begin{equation} F(x)= A_0 + \sum_{n=1}^N\left[ A_n\cos{\left(\frac{2\pi nx}{P}\right)}+B_n\sin{\left(\frac{2\pi nx}{P}\right)}\right] \end{equation}

\begin{equation} \sum_n \frac{1}{n^s}=\prod_p \frac{1}{1-\frac{1}{p^s}} \end{equation}

\begin{equation*}         % equation* suppress equation numbering same for align* m\ddot{x}+c\dot{x}+kx=F_0\sin(2\pi ft) \end{equation*}

\begin{align*} f(x)\quad &=\quad x^2 + 3x + 5x^2 +8 +6x\\ &=\quad 6x^2 +9x +8\\ &=\quad x(6x+9)+8 \end{align*}

$$ X=\frac{F_0}{k}\frac{1}{\sqrt{(1-r^2)^2+(2\zeta r)^2}} $$

\begin{equation} G_{\mu\nu} \equiv R_{\mu\nu}-\frac{1}{2}Rg_{\mu\nu}=\frac{8\pi G}{c^4}T_{\mu\nu} \end{equation}\\

$$\mathrm{6CO_2+6H_2O \to C_6H_{12}O_6+6O_2}$$

$$\mathrm{SO_4^{2-}+Ba^{2+} \to BaSO_4 }$$

\begin{equation} \begin{pmatrix} a_{11}&a_{12}&\dots&a_{1n}\\ a_{21}&a_{22}&\dots&a_{2n}\\ \vdots&\vdots&\ddots&\vdots\\ a_{n1}&a_{n2}&\dots&a_{nn} \end{pmatrix} \begin{pmatrix} v_{1}\\ v_{2}\\ \vdots\\ v_{n} \end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix} w_{1}\\ w_{2}\\ \vdots\\ w_{n} \end{pmatrix} \end{equation}

\begin{equation} \frac{\partial{\bf{u}}}{\partial{t}}+(\bf{u}\cdot\nabla)\bf{u}-\nu\nabla^2\bf(u)=-\nabla h \end{equation}

\[             % This is preferred to the $$ environment  \alpha A \beta B \gamma \Gamma \delta \Delta \pi \Pi \omega \Omega  \]

Additional Exercises: \newcommand

In this exercise try your hand at creating a new command:.

• Create a command that will display a multiplication problem in the pictured format if you give it the two numbers to be multiplied

• Can you adapt to code so that it will also display the answer, if provided

• Can you code several rows of problems?

• ​ use the \ key when inputting the new command name into the \newcommand
• As a placeholder for the arguments of your new command use the # and the number of that command.  For example \newcommand{\largeandbold}[1]{\Large{\textbf{#1}}} will create a command called largeandbold that will increase the size and use boldface for a single argument.
• Try using a \tabular in your new command if you are having trouble with alignment
• \times gives you the nice multiplication symbol

\documentclass[11pt]{article}

\usepackage{amsmath} \newcommand{\mul}[2][]{     \quad\large{ \begin{tabular}{r}     \textbf{#2}\\ $\boldsymbol{\times}$ \textbf{#1}\\ \hline \vspace{3pt}\\ \vspace{10pt}\\ \end{tabular} }}

\begin{document}

    \mul{5}{8}

\end{document}

\usepackage{amsmath} \newcommand{\mul}[3][]{     \quad\large{ \begin{tabular}{r}     \textbf{#3}\\ $\boldsymbol{\times}$ \textbf{#2}\\ \hline \vspace{3pt} \textbf{#1}\\ \vspace{10pt}\\ \end{tabular} }}

    \mul[40]{5}{8}

    \begin{tabular}{ccccccc}

    \mul{5}{8} & \mul{4}{12} &\mul{3}{2}& \mul{10}{7} &\mul{5}{5}& \mul{6}{4}& \mul{8}{9}\\     \mul{12}{12}&  \mul{4}{1}& \mul{9}{6}& \mul{7}{5} &\mul{5}{11}& \mul{8}{8}& \mul{7}{12}\\     \mul{5}{1}&  \mul{3}{4}& \mul{6}{2}& \mul{5}{5}& \mul{9}{3}& \mul{1}{12}& \mul{0}{8}\\

    \end{tabular}    

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• Last Updated: Oct 10, 2023 12:53 PM
• URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/LaTeX

Why and How to Write Your Research and Documents in LaTeX

The majority of research is still written up using Microsoft Word and Excel. Some researchers may also use Google Docs for its cloud-based flexibility, which is good for collaboration.

However, in STEM fields such as math and physics and HSS fields such as economics, the LaTeX package, largely unchanged since the 1990s, is no less popular. One estimate puts mathematics scholarly article with a LaTeX rate at over 95% ! Its superior compiling and ability to handle equations make it a must.

What is LaTeX?

Actually pronounced “LAY-teck,” LaTeX an open-source document preparation system especially useful for technical and scientific topics. LaTeX is not actually a word processor by definition. The base documents are text files, and these are rendered as professional PDFs.

Preparing documents in LaTeX lets you flexibility write lengthy documents and automate processes like creating the table of contents and bibliography. The LaTeX interface facilitates text formatting and creating complex equations, tables, and diagrams through a series of text commands.

As we at Scize welcome documents in LaTeX and actually enjoy editing them on some of the more modern platforms, we want you to also see the advantages. Or just get a general idea of what this thing is.

Read on because this article will tell you that, and how to get started with LaTeX if you’re feeling geeky.

A deeper look at what LaTeX is

LaTeX is a standalone document preparation system consisting of a collection of programs to process documents. It is in fact a programming language. The original LaTeX typesetting system was written in 1994 .

It gives users functional commands for formatting document requirements like headings, footnotes and bibliographies.

It’s very commonly used to produce scientific documents and publications in the fields like physics, engineering, mathematics, statistics, and economics.

VERY commonly. One author came up with this chart:

Typically it’s best for documents with algebraic equations, charts, and many sections. This is why you’ll often meet PhDs, even in fields like medicine, who’ve never seen it. For math, physics, and engineering, it’s just common sense. That’s why you see that cliff-life dropoff after such fields.

That doesn’t do it justice, though.

While other typesetting options operate on a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) approach, LaTeX works with a code view made up of raw text and commands that control the final appearance of the document once it’s compiled.

Users produce the text in a plain editor, with the right coding. Or they use a UI that makes it easier to work with. LaTeX creates a structurally attractive, formatted PDF document.

Journals like the IEEE series also offer templates for authors to edit manually. This creates a consistent style and format that’s both good for authors and for journals.

Why you should use LaTeX

Writing in LaTeX offers several advantages over other typesetting tools and word processing software, including:

• Consistent typesetting
• Control over large documents with many sections, references, tables/figures, etc, as well as images
• Typesetting for mathematical formulas
• Automatically generated bibliographies and indexes
• Multilingual typesetting
• Use of PostScript or Metafont fonts

Many scholars would shrug at these or not know what they are.

That’s OK. If you don’t, it’s not for you. It’s sort of like the Linux of typesetting. If you know how to use it, it’s the only option. MacOS and Windows are all many users need.

There’s no official support for LaTeX and certain factors like layout modifications may appear quite complicated. But once you get used to its quirks and specific needs, the capabilities outweigh the limitations.

Editing packages

Since LaTeX was launched, many packages have been created to help get around the challenges of editing with it. are listed in a central archive that users can update.

Another attractive feature is that LaTeX is open-source, unlike most common paid software, like, of course, MS Office.

This means LaTeX users don’t have to pay for licensing fees and can contribute to its development and features.

Some of these key features are an optimal hyphenation and justification approach. Automatic updating of the bibliography is also a big plus when you have a heavy literature review or you’re doing a review paper of your own .

If you’re producing a lengthy manuscript or book. LaTeX lets you separate it into smaller documents, then combine them to produce one output file.

The table of contents and references for the whole project can also be created automatically for all projects containing multiple files.

OS-agnostic

Another main advantage of writing in LaTeX is that it’s independent of any one particular software platform or operating system. As a LaTeX project consists of text files, you can use any text (.txt) editor (even Word), and these files can be easily transferred from one LaTeX tool to another, and from one OS to another.

So there are no restrictions if an author in the US is using a Mac while a co-author in Kenya is on a PC.

LaTeX online tools : for easier writing and collaboration

To create a LaTeX project, you can install an editor such as Texmaker and a compiler such as MiKTeX . That’s if you’re working offline.

Even more flexibly, and in many ways more secure, online tools like Overleaf and Authorea now enable you to do online, real-time collaboration.

Overleaf also offers a rich text mode that renders headings and formatting. This gets rid of a lot of the learning curve for coding LaTeX, making it more user-friendly than ever.

Moreover, Overleaf offers hundreds of public, free templates.

These include templates for books, letters, calendars, presentations, CVs, and reports. Here’s how a letter looks in the Overleaf UI.

Don’t let the code lead you to think you need to be a programmer.

You absolutely don’t.

We’re dwelling on Overleaf here because we welcome editing jobs in Overleaf . These are absolutely terrific for writer–editor cooperation and deliver immediate results.

Even though we emphasize the social sciences and health sciences, we’ve used Overleaf in areas such as sociology and associated networks. It was brilliant for that.

And unlike Word, we don’t have to worry so much about backups, corrupted files, and security.

That said, we’ll also edit LaTeX in Word. This requires editing at the text level, and in that area, it definitely saves a lot of time and trouble if you know the basics of editing in the language. So let’s do an intro.

Getting started : The basics of writing your research in LaTeX

Here we’ll give you some examples of the most common and essential elements you may encounter when editing a LaTeX document.

The preamble

The first line, the preamble, in the LaTeX file declares the type of document to be created.

This handles the appearance of the document based on multiple available classes such as article, book, or report. An example of this line of code is \documentclass{article} . Below this declaration, as part of the preamble, the packages to be used in the document are listed, as well as the encoding used.

The document contents are then enclosed between the \begin{document} and \end{document }. Once text is inserted in this area, you have to compile the document to see the changes in the PDF document.

Text formatting

The most common text formatting commands in LaTeX are bold, underline, and italics. These are written as shown in the list below:

• Bold text is created with the \textbf{…}
• Text can be underlined with the \underline{…}
• Italicized text is written using the \textit{…}

Letters and punctuation is also a bit quirky.

Normal upper-case and lower-case letters, as well as numbers, give ordinary output. So do ! @ ∗ ( ) [ ] / ? . , | : ; − + =

Editors like us also deal with:

Creating a list

You can create ordered and unordered lists in LaTeX. Unordered lists consist of entries preceded by a black dot.

The environment is defined using \begin{itemize} and \end{itemize} , and in between these commands, each entry in the list is written, preceded by the control sequence \item.

An ordered list, however, contains entries preceded by a number. In this case, the environment is defined using  \begin{enumerate} and \end{enumerate}.

Inserting images

LaTeX uses a package called graphicx to include images in documents.

The commands that can be used with this package are \graphicspath{…} , which defines the directory where the images are located, and the command \includegraphics{…} , which lists the image to be included in the document.

Creating a table

LaTeX uses the tabular package by default to create tables.

This is an example of a table with three rows and three columns.

The LaTeX code for creating a table is shown on the left along with the expected rendered output on the right.

The {c c c} parameter defines the number of columns as well as their justification (in this case centered). You can also replace c with r or l to align text to the right or left.

The table is wrapped within the center environment so that it’s rendered in the center of the page.

For a deeper dive into formatting, see here . H owever, you can avoid this pain simply by using a solution like Overleaf.

Conclusio n – The present and future of LaTeX

LaTeX has been a valuable typesetting tool for researchers for over three decades. Online tools like Overleaf have now eliminated a lot of the coding and the geek factor, so authors can collaborate in the cloud, with nothing to install locally. They can work on parts and link them together like Lego blocks through a central UI.

LaTeX is clearly here to stay for some time longer. Even more interesting is how packages like Overleaf show how LaTeX isn’t limited to physics and math. It can also be used to make very attractive structured documents, avoiding a lot of the pesky things that Word has a tendency to do (like falling in love with certain styles and reverting to default fonts).

While in this article you have learned about the basics of LaTeX, you can learn more in this Overleaf tutorial , or watch some of the many videos on YouTube . And here’s a massive Wiki of helpful TeX tools . There are also several online communities that you can reach out to such as the TeX StackExchange .

And when you’re ready for a manuscript edit or an edit of your professional documents , Scize Editing is here to make sure the scientific English is superb. We love the power of LaTeX, whether collaborating on Overleaf or doing old-fashioned markup in Word Doc. Get in touch and order a professional scientific edit .

*top image credit: Alessio Damato, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

Privacy Overview

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Resources for Formatting Papers in LaTex

Guide overview, library books, online resources, smart thinking tutoring service.

• Librarian I, Institutional Repository and Engineering & Physical Sciences

This guide provides resources for students and faculty who need to use the scientific text formatting application LaTex for a research paper, thesis, or dissertation.

• The Comprehensive LATEX Symbol List Symbols accessible from LATEX
• LaTex Tutorial for Beginners Full Course Video tutorial for beginners
• LaTex Wikibook This is a guide to the LaTeX typesetting system. It is intended as a useful resource for everybody, from new users who wish to learn, to old hands who need a quick reference.
• The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2E The document derives from a German introduction (‘lkurz’), which was translated and updated; it continues to be updated. (Tobias Oetiker et al., 2015)
• Overleaf video training tutorials Overleaf is an on-line LaTeX editing tool that allows you to create LaTeX documents directly in your web browser.
• Smart Thinking Smarthinking is an online professional tutoring platform available to Rowan students, to supplement our own peer-to-peer tutoring program. Smarthinking offers students academic support through a 24/7 online service and is available at no charge. This platform enables Rowan to offer additional academic support for more students and courses than our peer-to-peer tutoring services alone. Students can access Smarthinking through their canvas course or by clicking this link: https://go.rowan.edu/smarthinking. Available subjects include: Business, Computers & Technology, Math & Statistics, Reading, Science, Spanish.
• Last Updated: Sep 7, 2023 11:30 AM
• URL: https://libguides.rowan.edu/LaTex

LaTeX-Tutorial.com

Typesetting multiple choice questions in latex.

1. The choices and oneparchoices environments

The choices environment uses upper case letters to label the choices of the question and writes them as items in a list environment. Let’s see with a simple example how to use it:

You can see the output of this example in the following image. The use of the environment is straightforward: each choice is started with a \choice command , and it works essentially in the same way as the questions environment .

The oneparchoices environment works almost in the same way, but instead of writing the options in a list environment, it writes them in a single paragraph which is a continuation of the paragraph preceding the environment (unless you leave a blank line before beginning the environment). Let’s see how it looks changing the previous example:

The output is shown below. Note that, since we left an empty line between the question and the oneparchoices environment , the options are all written in a new paragraph. However, if no blank line were left, all the choices would follow the question on the very same line.

2. The checkboxes and oneparcheckboxes environments

Now let’s see the two environments that print checkboxes in front of the choices for the students to mark their answers. These two environments, the checkboxes and oneparcheckboxes environments, are analogous to the previous ones, but instead of letters they print a box next to the question options. In the following example we illustrate both of them:

You can see the output below. Note that now, since we didn’t leave a blank line between the question and the \verb|oneparcheckboxes| environment, the options are typeset right after the question, following it on the same paragraph. By default, the space to be marked by the student is a circle. However, we will see in the following section of the tutorial how to customize it.

3. Solutions to multiple-choice questions

The exam document class defines several environments for solutions, the contents of which will be printed only if you use the document class option answers , or give the command \printanswers . Each of the environments for multiple-choice questions that we have introduced allows you to designate one or more of the choices as “correct choices”, and to have the correct choices printed with emphasis when solutions are being printed.

The command to define a correct choice is \CorrectChoice , which is used in place of the command \choice . Now let’s see with an example how this would be used:

You can see the questions produced by this code in the next image. Note that, in the first question, the command \CorrectChoice acted just like the normal \choice command since the answers were not activated yet. However, in the second question, we can see the correct answer in boldface, with a tick in its checkbox. A similar result is produced when we use the choices environment : the correct answer is printed in boldface, although no tick is shown.

4. Fill in the blank questions

Now let’s jump to another kind of questions. The fill in the blank questions are those in which the student is asked to fill a blank space, usually in the middle of a sentence. The exam package provides a \fillin command that prints underlined empty space for creating this kind of questions . The \fillin command can take two optional arguments:

• The first is the answer to the question, which will be typeset above the line when answers are being printed, and
• The second optional argument is the length of the line to be printed (only if you want some length other than the default).

Let’s see with an example how these two options can affect the question:

Compiling this code yields the following output:

A more interesting application of the \fillin command is using it to create True/False questions. You can see how to do that in the following example, where we define a general macro for that purpose:

As you can see in the following image, the macro we have just defined leaves some blank space for the student to write his answer, but also stores the correct answer so that when the options to print answers are activated, a boldface “T” or “F” is shown.

Finally, let’s see how we can customize the \fillin command .

• First, we can change the default length of the underlined space. This distance is determined by the LaTeX length \fillinlinelength , and by default its value is 1in . You can change this using

\setlength\fillinlinelength{x}

where x is a TeX dimension.

• The line is printed at a distance of \answerclearance below the baseline. This value is 0.2ex by default , but you can also change it using \setlength .
• The last thing we can also customize is the emphasis applied to the correct answer when answers are being printed. This emphasis is determined by the declarations in the argument of the \ CorrectChoiceEmphasis command. For example:

\CorrectChoiceEmphasis{\sc}

will print the correct answers using small capital letters.

5. Customizing the multiple-choice environments

The different environments for writing choices that we explained at the beginning of the tutorial can be customized in several ways. We have already explained one of the commands used to customize the appearance of the correct answer, namely \CorrectChoiceEmphasis .

Furthermore, the checkbocex and oneparcheckboxes environments allow customization of the characters used for checkboxes and checks.

• First, the checkbox printed in these environments is controlled by the argument passed to the command \checkboxchar . By default, the value of this command is:

\checkboxchar{$\bigcirc$}

but we could also use squares, declaring

\checkboxchar{$\Box$}

and loading in the preamble the amssymb package.

• Second, the check that is printed for correct choices in these environments (of course, when solutions are being printed) is controlled by the argument of the command \checkedchar . The default symbol is created with the command:

\checkedchar{$\surd$}

Now let’s see a couple of examples of these customization options in action:

You can see how these multiple-choice questions look in the following image:

In this tutorial, we have seen the tools provided by the exam package to write multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions . We have also explained how to customize the appearance of this kind of question. All of this, combined with all that was explained in the previous tutorial, constitute most of the tools that the exam package provides and enables us to write exams with multiple kinds of questions, indicating the points each question is worth and also customizing their appearance.

However, the possibilities offered by the exam package are not over yet. In the following tutorial, we will see how to write exams leaving white space for the answers, so that the question sheet also acts as an answer sheet, and we will explain some more technical details related to indentation . There are still a lot of advanced topics regarding answers and grading that have yet to be explained. The exam package still has a lot to offer, so I suggest you keep reading the following tutorials.

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Master Naturalists put research into action around the state and in your backyard

What is a Master Naturalist?

We get that question a lot at University of Illinois Extension.  Master Naturalists are many things: Advocates, volunteers, teachers, and environmental stewards.  

Around the state and in your backyard, these trained volunteers connect their communities with the natural world by contributing to scientific research, leading educational programs, and putting their unique skills and talents to use through conservation and restoration projects.

Last year, more than 880 Master Naturalists put in nearly 70,500 hours removing invasive species, monitoring the health of waterways, raising and releasing monarch butterflies, teaching youth about the environment, and investing in the future of our natural areas.

• 886 Master Naturalists volunteered in Illinois
• 148 people took the training and became Master Naturalists
• 73,035 hours were volunteered.

The Illinois Extension Master Naturalist program leverages the expertise of university scientists and environmental partners to train adult volunteers to be environmental advocates. Our goal is to empower nature enthusiasts and help them put research into action wherever they live.

What does being a Master Naturalist look like?

Below are a few examples of the projects Master Naturalists are involved in. Explore more about how we’re putting knowledge to work in the 2023 Impact Report.

Read the 2023 Impact Report

Discovery of remnant prairie leads to educational outreach and conservation

In 2018, three Master Naturalists from Carroll, Lee, and Whiteside counties were exploring natural areas at the Lake Carroll Association community when they stumbled upon remnant prairie patches. Now, the association has more than 35 acres of native areas, a one-acre demonstration prairie, a pollinator garden, a new wetland filtering water before it enters the lake, expanded hiking trails, and so much more.

A walk in the woods transforms fourth graders’ relationship with nature

Kids ‘n Nature Adventure is a unique immersive afterschool and summer program partnership between the Illinois Extension Will County Master Naturalists, Joliet District 86 Grade Schools, and the Joliet Park District. The program gives 200 fourth-grade students from six underserved schools a chance to experience the natural world. The program began in 2005 and more than 2,000 youth have participated.

Repurposed feed and seed bags support pollinator project

Bird seed and pet food bags need to be sturdy, so they are often made from woven polypropylene plastic. This also makes them difficult to recycle, so like many other single-use plastics, they often end up in landfills. Master Naturalist Mona Maas has saved more than 300 bags from this fate by turning them into hand-sewn totes. These rugged recycled totes also have the added bonus of being a fundraiser to support a local pollinator garden.

Interested in becoming a Master Naturalist?

Learn how you can be a positive force for change by becoming an Illinois Extension Master Naturalist .

About the Blog

Naturalist News  is a blog by University of Illinois Extension Master Naturalist staff and volunteers who bring you stories highlighting the individuals, places, wildlife and plants that make this state amazing. Join us each week to learn something new, be inspired and become connected to your own community by recognizing the amazing ways we are all intertwined.

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About the Author

Emily Steele  is a marketing communications manager on the Illinois Extension communications team and supports projects for natural resources, environment, and energy staff statewide including the Master Naturalist program, weather and climate, forestry, invasives, and nutrient loss reduction. She has a M.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from University of Illinois and a B.A. in Journalism from Eastern Illinois University.

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The Office of Research Training is pleased to offer a REDCap Survey Development Training Session, Federal Portal Series: NSF Research.gov Training Session and a Federal Portal Series: NIH ASSIST Training Session during the month of April 2024. Complete details and registration links can be found below. 

Please sign up at least 24 hours in advance of the session to ensure a spot.

REDCap Survey Development Training 

Course description.

Audience: USC faculty, staff and students who are interested in learning more about the REDCap secure online survey and database tool.

In this session, instructors  will demonstrate how to set up, administer and navigate survey instruments in REDCap. 

Register here.  

Federal Portal Series: NSF Research.gov Training 

Audience: USC faculty, staff and students with responsibilities related to developing and/or tracking research proposals using the Research.gov system.

In this session, instructors will demonstrate how to navigate Research.gov and how to build proposals in the federal system. 

Federal Portal Series: NIH ASSIST Training Session

Audience: USC faculty, staff and students with responsibilities related to developing and/or tracking research proposals using the NIH ASSIST federal proposal submission system.

In this session, instructors will demonstrate how to navigate ASSIST and how to build proposals in the federal system.

For more information about this training, please email Dr. Emily Devereux, [email protected] .

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Eminent cancer physician-scientist joins Virginia Tech to lead research in Washington, D.C.

Christopher Hourigan will spearhead innovative cancer solutions at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Cancer Research Center in the nation's capital.

John Pastor

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A globally recognized physician-scientist who studies and treats blood cancer is joining Virginia Tech to lead cancer research in Washington, D.C., said Michael Friedlander, Virginia Tech’s vice president for health sciences and technology and executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.

Christopher Hourigan , a senior investigator and chief of the Laboratory of Myeloid Malignancies at the National Institutes of Health, will join Virginia Tech as a professor with the institute and director of its Cancer Research Center in Washington, D.C.

“Dr. Hourigan exemplifies the prototype of a physician-scientist, integrating insights from his patient interactions directly into his fundamental and translational laboratory research,” Friedlander said. “We are extremely enthusiastic to have him join Virginia Tech and become a member of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute team to take on this important new leadership role for our growing cancer research programs in Washington, D.C., and to further strengthen our collaborations with Carilion Clinic, Children’s National Hospital, and other health systems and universities.

The focus of the research effort, known as Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Cancer Research Center - D.C., is to bring basic, translational, clinical, and computational researchers together in the nation’s capital to focus on the shared aim of engineering cancer solutions. 

“Convening top talent like Dr. Hourigan and developing deep and diverse partnerships are key to solving our most complex global challenges,” said Virginia Tech President Tim Sands. “It’s exciting to see our vision for the university advancing across the commonwealth and in the greater Washington, D.C., metro area.” 

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“I also anticipate the innovations and insights that will emerge from Dr. Hourigan and the other Virginia Tech scientists in D.C. collaborating with the institute's cancer research teams in Roanoke as well as with our computer science and engineering colleagues at Virginia Tech’s new Innovation Campus in Alexandria,” Friedlander said.

Research will involve diverse, expert teams and national and international collaborations.

“We have the opportunity to build a new cancer research center from the ground up, focusing on getting talented and highly motivated teams working in innovative new ways to reduce the burden of suffering from cancer in the United States,” Hourigan said. “It's clear we're not doing well enough for people who are dealing with cancer, and this is our chance to come up with new ways to do better.”

The addition of Hourigan will accelerate the university’s initiatives in Washington, D.C. Newly renovated research facilities on the site of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center on the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus already house Fralin Biomedical Research Institute cancer research scientists Jia-Ray Yu and Kathleen Mulvaney , along with teams of researchers from the Center for Genetic Medicine Research and Rare Disease Institute of Children’s National Hospital.

Precise answers to hard questions

Hourigan’s research focuses on a high-risk form of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia, which annually affects about 20,000 Americans. He looks at reasons for why some people survive cancer while others end up dying, even though initially they seem to have had the same response to treatment.

“The person who's newly diagnosed with cancer and has gone through treatment will ask a reasonable question, ‘Well, what about me? I want to know what my actual likelihood of surviving is going to be and are you sure I don’t need more or different treatment?’” Hourigan said. “As an oncologist, those are often hard questions to answer. You have a lot of empathy with the person in front of you and wish we could give better, more personalized, answers. We're strongly focused on the idea that if we had better diagnostic tools to allow a precision medicine approach, we could give doctors and patients a better understanding of exactly where they are now and what’s the best thing for them to do next.”

In addition to his primary appointment with the institute, Hourigan will be a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine .

Hourigan received his medical degree and research doctorates from Oxford University and completed residency and oncology fellowship training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he was subsequently a practicing physician on the acute leukemia service and faculty member. He is board certified in hematology and medical oncology.

Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Hourigan was a senior investigator, co-director of the Myeloid Malignancies Program, and chief of the Laboratory of Myeloid Malignancies at the National Institutes of Health. 

He was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the National Institutes of Health Director’s Challenge Innovation Award, and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He is a fellow of both the American College of Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians.

He looks forward to the task ahead. 

“Virginia Tech has some key strategic advantages,” Hourigan said. “It is nationally known for engineering and computational science, which are going to be increasingly important components of cancer research. I think there's also this sense of energy, innovation, engineering, and teams working across disciplines on hard problems here. And cancer is a hard problem.”

Ultimately, he wants to put cancer researchers out of business.

“I don't want there to be a need for cancer research anymore, whether that happens in my lifetime or the lifetimes of those individuals I train,” Hourigan said.  “The ultimate objective is not to have an industry of cancer research. Our focus has to be on the patient and on working hard to come up with real solutions to hard problems. It is only with research that we’ll be able to do better with cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment tomorrow than we currently can today. We need to have a sense of urgency and purpose because people are counting on us to come up with answers.”

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Talking politics with strangers isn't as awful as you'd expect, research suggests

Many of us avoid discussing politics with someone who holds an opposing viewpoint, assuming the exchange will turn nasty or awkward. But having those conversations is far more gratifying than we expect, a new research paper suggests.

Across a series of experiments involving hundreds of U.S. adults, a team of scientists found that individuals underestimate the social connection they can make with a stranger who disagrees with them. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

These low expectations may help to explain why people think those on the opposite side of the political spectrum have more extreme views than they actually do, behavioral scientists Kristina A. Wald (University of Pennsylvania), Michael Kardas (Oklahoma State University), and Nicholas Epley (University of Chicago) wrote in an article about their research.

"Mistakenly fearing a negative interaction may create misplaced partisan divides," they wrote, "not only keeping people from connecting with each other but also keeping people from learning about each other and from each other."

The experimenters found evidence, through experiments conducted online and in person, that people prefer to avoid hot-button issues, especially with people who disagree with them. People also tend to advise their friends and relatives to avoid such conversations.

But Wald, Kardas, and Epley believed people would find discussing their political differences to be a more positive experience than expected, at least partly because people fail to appreciate the extent to which conversations are informative and draw people closer together.

To test their theory, they asked nearly 200 participants in one experiment for their opinions on divisive political and religious topics, such as abortion and climate change. The researchers then divided the participants into pairs and assigned them to discuss one of these topics. Some participants were told in advance whether their partners agreed with them or not, but others entered the discussions unaware of their partners' views.

All the participants reported how positively or negatively they expected the conversation to be, then engaged in the discussion while being video recorded. Afterward, the participants rated their sentiments about the dialogue. Research assistants also viewed the videos of the conversations and evaluated them across several dimensions.

As predicted, the participants underestimated how positive their conversation experience would be, but this tendency was largest when they disagreed with their partner. Participants in this disagreement condition also underestimated the similarities in their opinions. Coders who watched the videos of these conversations confirmed that participants tended to stay on topic, and that the conversations were consistently positive whether the participants agreed or disagreed.

In another experiment, the researchers tested their hypothesis that people underestimate how the process of conversation itself -- actual back-and-forth dialogue -- connects people. To do so, they randomly assigned participants to discuss a divisive topic they agreed or disagreed on, but they also randomly assigned participants to either have a conversation about the topic in a dialogue format or to simply learn of their partners' beliefs on the topic in a monologue format. In the monologue format, each person separately recorded themselves talking about their opinion and then watched the other person's recording.

Overall, the participants underestimated how positive their interactions would be, especially when they disagreed with their partner, the researchers noted. But this tendency was especially strong when people actually had a conversation with their partner rather than simply learning of their beliefs in a monologue. The social forces in conversation that draw people together through back-and-forth dialogue are not only powerful, but they appear to be even more powerful than people expect.

The researchers cautioned that their experiments involved participants talking with strangers; the experiments did not reveal how disagreements unfold among family and friends. Still, they said their findings illustrate the benefits of talking and listening to others rather than typing and broadcasting in debates on social media.

Our reluctance to discuss our differences denies us some positive social interactions, the authors concluded.

"Misunderstanding the outcomes of a conversation," they wrote, "could lead people to avoid discussing disagreements more often, creating a misplaced barrier to learning, social connection, free inquiry, and free expression."

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Materials provided by Association for Psychological Science . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Kristina A. Wald, Michael Kardas, Nicholas Epley. Misplaced Divides? Discussing Political Disagreement With Strangers Can Be Unexpectedly Positive . Psychological Science , 2024; DOI: 10.1177/09567976241230005

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