Despite knowing LaTeX, this is much more intuitive for me when communicating in plaintext. It just matches how I'd write it anyway. In an email I'd always use 1

Despite knowing LaTeX, this is much more intuitive for me when communicating in plaintext. It just matches how I'd write it anyway. In an email I'd always use 1/2 or (f(x+h)-f(x))/h over their LaTeX alternatives. If, however, the goal is to more easily edit LaTeX -- especially for folks who are less confident with LaTeX -- I suspect WYSIWYG is frequently a better option. MathQuill (mathquill.com), for example, is a fantastic open-source WISYWIG editor for LaTeX. Disclosure: we use MathQuill heavily at desmos.com, where I work, and have contributed to its development.