How to enter
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To enter the Tangente Best Article Award, candidates must first complete the pre-registration form on the website
They will receive a confirmation email.
The next step is to write an article "in the style of Tangente". The final article must be sent before September 30 to [email protected]
It must include:
• a title
• a standfirst
• subheadings
• one or more sidebars
• one or more illustrations with captions.
The text must be in .doc or .odt format and must be between
6,500 and 13,500 characters long, including all content. Image files accompanying the article must be submitted separately in jpg, tif or eps format.
The jury will select a winner and may also award one or more special mentions, based on the following criteria:
• originality and creativity in the choice of topic
• quality of the writing and style
• accessibility to the widest possible readership.
Writing for Tangente: form
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The winners of the Best Article Award will receive a work of mathematical art. But perhaps the most coveted reward is having the article published in an issue of Tangente.
For some, this may mark the beginning of a regular collaboration, as it did for Fabien Aoustin, Christian Laforest and Léo Gerville-Reache, whose work regularly appears in our pages.
So what does the editorial team expect from its authors? To begin, here is a brief overview of the formal requirements. Besides the structure (see the previous item), style is crucial. It should be lively and engaging. Write for adults, without talking down to them; address the reader when necessary, but never write in the first person. Objectivity requires the author to step back and let the subject take center stage. Personal opinions have no place. Do not take yourself too seriously. A sense of humor is essential!
Above all, this is not a lesson! Everything hinges on the art of sparking interest. Any technique that creates a sense of drama is welcome. The most effective is to "tell a story" (historical references, portraits of figures, and so on).
Spelling, grammar and a light touch are particularly important and require constant care.
Writing for Tangente: content
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The challenge, in terms of content, is to write simultaneously for very different audiences. The article must be understandable to a high-school student or science enthusiast—the required background should barely exceed high-school level—while remaining interesting to a teacher or scientist.
This challenge can be overcome by approaching topics from an unconventional angle and highlighting novel problems.
These stylistic and substantive requirements shape the choice of topics. They should not be confined to the school curriculum; they should be approached from a perspective unfamiliar even to specialists and, wherever possible, should require no outside knowledge. Use sidebars if such background information is essential.
Cultural and historical elements should be ever-present, encouraging reflection without laying down truths.
Finally, ethical considerations must be taken into account.
• Checking the content: authors are not necessarily specialists in the topic, so they must investigate it if they have not mastered it thoroughly.
• Intellectual property: articles are signed and must be original, at least in form. Copying and pasting from Wikipedia—or any other source—is dishonest. Provided copyright is respected, however, passages written by others may be used, as long as they are clearly identified and their sources are cited.
