What is LaTeX?

LaTeX is a document preparation system based on the typesetting language TeX which almost all professional mathematicians use because of its ability to format mathematics. Almost all maths books, lecture notes, exercise sheets and exams that you've seen will have been created in LaTeX.

Why would I want to learn LaTeX?

Second years mathematics undergraduates will be writing their essays for the core module MA213 Second Year Essay which they are expected to type. Many students will also need to typeset larger pieces of work such as the fourth year project and some future modules require students to typeset their assignments in LaTeX.

LaTeX not only gives you the best results, it also causes less stress than say MS Word documents with equation editor which when lengthy have a tendency to corrupt and crash.

LaTeX coding will also help you to communicate with other mathematicians (e.g. students can use it in emails to their tutor who will understand it.)

Who is this course for?

The classes are restricted to undergraduates from the mathematics department. This year, the course will run for 1st year mathematics students in Term 3, 2022-23 and hopefully again for 2nd year mathematics students in term 1 2023-24. Access to the supporting website is restricted further to students who are enrolled.

How long is the course?

The course will run throughout weeks 8-10 of term 3, 2022-23 and covers both the beginners and intermediate content.

Students can choose to either join the face-to-face classes or the online version of the course.

The face-to-face classes are comprised of two 3-hour-long labs (with a chance for breaks). The online course consists of 8 hour-long sessions via Teams.

Expect to spend around 16 hours on this course (including the taught sessions and the exercises.)

How is the course taught?

Students can choose to either join the face-to-face classes or the online version of the course.

The face-to-face labs will include examples of code and a chance to try the exercises with support at hand.

The online course will be taught using a combination of Microsoft Teams and this supporting website. In Teams, we will use webcasts, live demonstrations in meetings, chats for discussion and online and a combination of online and in-person troubleshooting sessions. Students will be given example documents to try out and exercises to practise their skills.

There will be supplementary material on this website so you will not need to take notes.

Will the classes be recorded?

Neither the online nor face-to-face sessions will be recorded. but there will be video summaries available covering the content for you to review later.

What will the course cover?

The classes will introduce you to LaTeX and everything you will need to do to write up a mathematical essay.

We start with the beginners sessions which will teach you all the basics without any prior knowledge, and is enough to write a simple LaTeX document with mathematics. The intermediate sessions follow from this and gives some tools which will make your documents much more professional and make it much easier to write your second year essay.

Beginners classes

These will give you enough tools to create simple $\LaTeX$ documents. They are accessible to anyone, even those who have never heard of $\LaTeX$ before. By the end of the beginners class, you should be able to:

• create a simple $\LaTeX$ document and compile it into a pdf,
• understand the main structure of a $\LaTeX$ document
• format your document, include titles, sections, lists of contents, bullet points, etc
• include mathematics in your document either in-line with your text, or as a displayed equation
• have some useful tools to find more symbols, and to make writing in $\LaTeX$ quicker and easier

Intermediate classes

Even if you haven't yet mastered the beginners material, these will also give you tools to make writing an essay or project faster & easier and with more professional-looking results. By the end of the class you will be able to

• format your mathematics by using a variety of mathematical environments
• create and use theorem-style environments which make it easy to include consistent and well-formatted theorems, lemmas, definitions, proofs, ...etc
• use BibTeX to create and maintain a bibliography, and to make citations for formal referencing (required in 2nd year essay)
• create and use your own commands
• add tables and images into your documents, and how to include a numbered caption which you can refer to.

Is it for credit?

No, but in your essay, you are likely to get a higher presentation grade if your typesetting is done in LaTeX.

What's the catch?

None, but you will be asked to complete a feedback form afterwards in order to maintain access to the supporting website.

Do I need to prepare or bring anything with me?

For the face-to-face classes, you can either bring your own laptop (recommended) or use one of the univeristy PCs. If using your own laptop, there is some software to download and install before the first class.

For the online course, you will need a computer (laptops are fine, but tablets and mobiles are not sufficient.) Instructions will be given on software to download and install at the start of the course.

How do I sign up?

If the sign up process is open, then you will have received an email with instructions. If you can't find it, then check the sign up page.

I don't have access to some of the sections of this website, why is this?

Access to most of the website will be granted only to students enrolled on the course and will be restricted until the week we study each section.

I took the course before 2020, why can't I access the website?

This website is designed to support the Introduction to LATEX course by Andrew Brendon-Penn in 2020.

Please click below to access the archived version of the websites for the course you took:

• An Introduction to LaTeX 2015
• An Introduction to LaTeX 2016-19

You do not have permission to access the remote content.