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LaTeX has both the verse and quote environments. I am not sure when to use which and when should be used in scientific writing other than in the humanities.

Conversely, there are occasions, particularly in presentations, where you want to display text. Should one use verse, quote or perhaps 

\[ 
  \text{Generalizing, we reach the principle of \emph{Inclusion-Exclusion}} 
\]
Yossi Gil
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    Never as in the example, use verse when writing poetry and quote when quoting something, for a general display you can use quote or better define a specific environment (basing the definition on that of quote) – David Carlisle Aug 21 '14 at 10:17
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    Verse in scientific writing? "Idempotents summed are the array, baby, when truncated they create dismay, baby, you cannot invert them any way, baby, Gauss can't give you anything but love." From "Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers" by Hamming. – John Kormylo Aug 21 '14 at 14:35

1 Answers1

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Well, I think there is some confusion here.

The verse environment is used to compose small pieces of poetry, for a whole volume there are packages that give better results.

\begin{verse}
No milk today, my love has gone away \\
The bottle stands for lorn, a symbol of the dawn \\
No milk today, it seems a common sight \\
But people passing by don't know the reason why \\
\par \rightline{written by \emph{Graham Gouldman}, recorded by \emph{Herman's Hermits}}
\end{verse}

Meanwhile the quote environment is suited for make a longer quote than a small one you can emphasize with \emph{}. Most of the times the quote shouldn't be longer than a paragraph. If it is, then is better to use the quotation environment.

So far we have not touched anything concerning mathematics. When what you want is to insert text inside the mathematical environment of LaTeX nor verse or quote are good choices.

The simplest but not the best option is to insert the text using the commands \textup, \textit, \textsl, \textsc, \textmd, \textbf, \textrm, \textsf and \texttt, you should be careful with the spacing:

\[ a = b q + r\] even if \[0 \leq r < b \]
\[ a = b q + r \textrm{ even if } 0 \leq r < b \]
\[ a = b q + r \textrm{even if} 0 \leq r < b \]

Another possibility is to use the commands \mathit, \mathbf, \mathrm, \mathsf and \mathtt affecting only the family, the series and shape of the characters, without modifying the body or spacing. Its major drawback, however, is that LaTeX also ignores spaces in the text included with these commands

\[ a = b q + r \mathrm{even if} 0 \leq r < b \]
\[ a = b q + r \mathrm{\ even if\ } 0 \leq r < b \]
\[ a = b q + r \mathrm{ even if } 0 \leq r < b \]

Fortunately there exists the amsmath package that simplifies our lives with the command \text that makes it easy to insert text inside an equation:

\[ f_{[x_{i-1},x_i]} \text{ is monotonic,}\quad i = 1,\dots,c+1 \]

And also another command \intertext suited for adding text in the middle of a bunch of equations:

\begin{align}
A_1&=N_0(\lambda;\Omega’)-\phi(\lambda;\Omega’),\\
A_2&=\phi(\lambda;\Omega’)-\phi(\lambda;\Omega),\\
\intertext{and}
A_3&=\mathcal{N}(\lambda;\omega).
\end{align}

If you want to display text in the middle of maths, these are the best choices in my own experience. But for a presentation it depends what you want or need. Most of the times, for epigraphs you can use minipage or parbox environment or something like the epigraph package.

Aradnix
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    er, putting single dollar signs inside of double dollar signs is sure to give you error messages. in any event, it's recommended to not use double dollar signs, but instead use \[ ... \] for single (centered) lines, or one of the multi-line display environments from amsmath. but quote or (for longer texts) quotation is definitely a better way to go for real quotations. – barbara beeton Aug 21 '14 at 18:29
  • @barbarabeeton Thanks for the advice. I use to avoid the double dollar signs in my own documents but was easy for me to use them here. But for consistency, I think it's a good idea to avoid using them wherever. On the way to emphasize actual quotations, for me depends on its length. If it is more than one paragraph then use quotation, otherwise quote. – Aradnix Aug 21 '14 at 18:42
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    there are still a couple of spurious $ signs in the first example that are going to give problems. once you're in display math, you can't get out of it (i.e. switch to text mode) by using a "math toggle" intended for use only in text mode. your other examples, with \text...{...} show the correct approach. actually, if you are using amsmath, just \text{...} will do the job, subject to the principle that if the display is in an italic theorem, the text identified that way will also be in italic, following the style of the enclosing environment. – barbara beeton Aug 22 '14 at 15:38
  • The idea of the example in the code where I mistakenly left two dollar signs remaining was to illustrate different solutions to the same problem. If I advance the use of \text there is lost then the sense and logic of what I mean. I have already corrected. I fully understand how \text and amsmath work, which is trying to explain briefly. Thanks for the feedback. – Aradnix Aug 22 '14 at 16:10