Common Macro Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them Ned W. Hummel Department of Mathematics University of Nebraska---Lincoln In the process of learning LaTeX there are a number of common pitfalls that many of us fall into at some point. For most of us we encounter these pitfalls when writing macros for the first time. One of the great advantages of LaTeX is the ability to use macros to logically markup our document. Unfortunately, a number of us tend not to apply that same logical markup philosophy when writing macros. We will consider a number of examples and discuss ways to re-write them using a logical markup philosophy.