My question pertains to the problem of translating ideas and insights to the solution (of some problem) into formal notations, thus expressing the answer formally. In other words, having a bunch of ideas (pertaining to the solution) and transforming them into a well composed, formal solution is a process which I often find difficult. It might be because (at times) I am not aware of enough literature in the problem domain and so have the problem of not knowing how to express my ideas. However, I would like to know if this is something that can be improved upon and if so, how?
How do you go from insights to formal solutions?
soft question;advice request
Transforming intuition into formal argument is difficult, and the degree to which it is viewed as necessary is sociological, and varies by community. In general, arguments tend to be less formal in AI conferences, reasonably formal in the Theory A community, and extremely formal (i.e. machine verifiable) in parts of the programming languages Theory B community. Probably the best way to develop this skill is to take rigorous courses that require formal argument on problem sets. You can also just read papers in the community that you would like to publish in, but you have to make sure to actually read the arguments carefully for this to be helpful. i.e. it is easy to read a paper and feel that you understand it, but be unable to reproduce key parts of the argument. A good way to do this is to plan to actually present the paper to a group of friends. If you actually have to present the arguments on a board and answer questions, you will be able to force yourself to really understand. Do this a few times and you should be able to construct formal arguments of your own. 