How to show your work in math

Summary: Every instructor tells you to show your work, but surprisingly many students just write bare answers.

This page explains what, why, and how.

What Your Instructor Means

Showing your work means, when any calculation is involved, writing down enough to let someone familiar with the course reproduce what you did.

If a classmate or your instructor can tell how you reached your answer, without having to guess, you have showed your work.

Source: What’s so Funny about Science by Sidney Harris (1977)
(Permission requested 2013-03-24 of sciencecartoonsplus.com; awaiting reply)

Why It’s Important

There are several good reasons:

• Showing your work in an organized way helps you organize your thoughts, which in turn makes you less likely to make a mistake.
• On homework, usually you have answers available.

  If your answer doesn’t match the book’s answer, showing your work helps you figure out what you did wrong. It can also help a tutor figure out what you did wrong, if you go for help.

how do you show your work in math
how to get students to show their work in math