One of the requirements for this W course is a term paper on a mathematical topic chosen from a specified list. The paper should be approximately 2,000 words long.

An important consideration in writing a paper is the intended audience. You should think of your audience as being other students in the course (not the instructor).

Writing this paper is a long-term project. There is a mathematical technique known as “the method of successive approximation,” and this method applies to writing too. Every paper improves through revision and rewriting. Some opportunities for revising are built in to the following milestones for the paper.

Choose a topic

Work on this soon.

Each of you will choose a unique topic from the list (first come, first served). To claim a topic, join the corresponding group number in the course website in eCampus. Once someone claims a topic, the corresponding group becomes unavailable to other students.

Submit a proposal

Due January 24 (worth 12 points).

Include a paragraph saying what attracts you to the topic, a brief account of the origin and the history of the topic, and a description of what you expect to accomplish in the paper. The proposal should be approximately 250 words (about a page). There is a submission link in eCampus.

Submit an outline

Due February 7 (worth 18 points). There is a submission link in eCampus.

Please write the outline in complete sentences. The idea is to sketch out the structure of the paper and the main points that you plan to address. I have drafted a sample outline, which is available both as a pdf file and as a file that can be opened online in overleaf. (This sample should not be taken too literally, for the topic I chose—calculus—would be too broad for the term paper.)

Of course, the outline is not supposed to be a unalterable guide for writing the paper. The point of the outline is to have a reasonable starting point for developing the paper. As you subsequently expand the outline into a detailed paper, you may find that you want to add or subtract sections or make other modifications. Revision is part of the writing process.

Submit a draft

Due February 26.

Bring two hard copies to class to give to other students for peer editing, and also post a digital copy to eCampus. If you wish to remain anonymous to other students, you may put the number of your topic in place of your name.

There are no points assigned to the draft, since the goal at this stage is to get feedback for making improvements. But if you fail to turn in the draft, then you will not be able to participate in the peer-editing phase, to which points are assigned.

The goal of the paper is to explain your topic to other students in the class. This course is about mathematics, so your paper should have significant mathematical content. A discussion of history and of applications is valuable to motivate the exposition, but the paper should not be solely descriptive. Although you do not have to include proofs, you should engage with some mathematical ideas.

Writing is a creative activity, and some students in the past have found original ways to enliven the paper. For example, creating activities related to the subject of the paper would be welcome. For some topics, writing relevant computer code could be an appropriate adjunct to the paper. Use your imagination.

Your paper should have an introduction, a body, a conclusion, and a bibliography (that is, a list of sources that you consulted). You should write in standard English, paying attention to proper sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation. You will have observed in your mathematics books that mathematics is written largely in words. Mathematical formulas are essentially sentences containing a lot of abbreviations, so formulas should be grammatical. Be sure to define any special symbols and terminology that you use.

Remember that plagiarism is a major offense in the academic world. Direct quotations must be attributed, and even the use of someone else’s ideas should be acknowledged.

The TAMU Writing Center is a great resource. That website has a lot of good information about writing, and you can make an appointment for either an online or an in-person consultation with one of the staff experts to get advice about your writing project.

I do not impose any specifications about the formatting of your paper. I recommend that you use standard fonts and margins. You may format the bibliography according to any standard system. Consistency is important.

Peer edit two other students’ drafts

Due March 4 (worth 20 points).

Bring to class the papers that you edited (in order to return them to the authors), and also upload a digital copy of your comments to eCampus. I have posted an editor’s template that you can use, available both in pdf format and as an editable file that can be opened in overleaf (should you choose to type in LaTeX).

Submit a revised draft

Due April 3.

Submit the final draft

Due April 24 (worth 50 points).