MAT 300-02L History of Mathematics

Spring 2006

 

Some Policies for MAT 300 papers:

 

In grading papers, I will consider content, clarity of thought and focus, coherence in organization, and correctness in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.   More specifically, I will be considering the following:

 

 Clarity of focus:  The writer’s point of view is limited and clear.

 

Content:  The thesis is developed with good supporting details.

 

Diction, Idiom, Level of Usage:  The writer chooses words and idioms that are appropriate to the topic and audience.

 

 Audience Awareness and Writer Awareness:  The writer establishes his/her own identity and authority and is sensitive to possible questions and objections from his/her reader.

 

Organization and Style:  The ideas are developed in a logical sequential order.  The paragraphs are fully developed and unified with smooth transactions between paragraphs.  Sentences are reasonably varied.

 

Mechanics:  The writer exhibits a good command of standard English grammar, punctuation, and spelling.  However, I will not necessarily identify every error in your paper.

 

I will be using The St. Martin’s Handbook, by Andrea Lunsford and Robert Connors, as my standard reference for style and writing mechanics.  Papers with an excessive number of punctuation and spelling errors will be returned for rewriting without being assigned a grade; however, that submission will be counted as the first submission.

 

All papers must be typed and should be double-spaced.  You should use a word processor and save your paper in either MS Word as a .doc file or as a Rich Text Format file (.rtf).  That will facilitate any rewriting that may need to be done and will make it easier to transfer papers electronically, if necessary.  If you cannot produce papers in one of these two formats, please see me.  Special mathematical symbols, Greek letters, etc., can be written in, although many symbols are now available in standard word processors. 

Instead of putting your name on the first page, you should put it on the back of the last page of the assignment, along with the date, the course number, and the assignment number.  The pages of the paper should be numbered.  Also, the pages of your paper should be stapled together or bound in some fashion; do not use paper clips since they have a tendency to come off.   Be sure to keep an extra copy of the paper for yourself, either as hard copy or on a disk.  I may require that you submit the paper electronically or that you submit the paper on a disk.  The actual assignments will be given in terms of word counts.  Eventually everyone in the L-course must write at least 6250 words, or approximately 25 pages of double-spaced text.  Along with your name, etc., you should include a word count for the paper.