Writing for Mathematics, MATH 300, Fall 2009

Instructor: Daniel Groves, 538 SEO e.mail

Course webpage: http://www.math.uic.edu/~groves/teaching/2009-10/300M/

Course hours:

Monday, 11:00-11:50 PM. 311, Addams Hall.

Office hours:

Monday 1:00-1:50pm, Wednesday 1:00-1:50pm, SEO 538.

Grading Scheme:
30% of your grade will be based on class participation. The remaining 70% will be based on the portfolio of all of your work during the semester.

TeX:
In this course, there will be a number of written assignments. These will be written in TeX, or some variant thereof. (My favourite variant is LaTeX, which I find much easier to use than ordinary TeX. There are other variants that you might like more.)
It is each student's responsibility to work out how to use TeX on a computer of their choosing.

Writing Center:
The English Department runs a writing center, where you can get help with all aspects of writing:
http://www.uic.edu/depts/engl/writing/
(You can make appointments, which is probably a good idea).

Course description:
There are two aspects to this course. The first involves writing mathematics, and the second writing about mathematics, or topics of a mathematical flavour. For writing mathematics, there will be many short (approximately a page) assignments, which will mostly involve explaining a piece of relatively easy mathematics (usually in the form of a proof). There will also be two longer essays, on topics of your choice (obviously with a mathematical flavour to them).

Essays:
The first long essay is due on October 12, in class. This essay should be 6-8 pages long, on a mathematically related subject of your choice (check your topic with me before you write the essay). Of course, it should be written in TeX.
The First Draft is due on Monday, September 21.

The second long essay is due on Friday, December 4 at noon. The rules are exactly the same as for the first essay.
The Draft for the second essay is due on November 16.

Writing Assignments:

  • Due Monday, August 31, 9am (NOTE: This is NOT at the beginning of lectures, but two hours earlier).

    Give a one page proof that if p is a prime number, then the square root of p is irrational. Your target audience is a friend who is an undergraduate at UIC, but not a Math Major. This assignment must be written in TeX (or LaTeX, or amsTeX, or whatever variant of TeX you want to use). You should e.mail me the source code (a .tex file) and the compiled code, which can be in PDF, PS or DVI format. If you want to use a different format for the compiled version, check with me in advance. Also, please tell me in the e.mail which flavour of TeX you are using. I will not necessarily expect your source code to compile on my computer, but I will look at it and check that it might reasonably produce the compiled version you've sent me.

    • On Monday August 31, three people's work will be distributed amongst the class for discussion. (Over the course of the semester, everyone will do this twice.) Volunteers will be sought on August 24, otherwise people will be chosen at random.

  • Monday, September 7, No class, Labor Day.

  • Due Monday, September 14, 9am:

    Give a one page introduction to the concept of the derivative from calculus. Your target audience is a gifted High School student who excels at mathematics, but knows nothing about calculus.
    (You might like to include some pictures. If you can work out how to do this with TeX, that's great. If not, then a good description of the picture you would have included will suffice for now.)

  • Due Monday, September 21, IN CLASS:

    The first draft of your long essay.

  • Due Monday, September 28, 9am:

    You should have a justification of each line of your proof.

    TeX advice:
    You may want to learn about the following things:
    The eqnarray and eqnarray* environments (for lists of equations).
    The use of '&' to line things up in your list of equations (like the equals sign).
    The use of \mbox{} for inserting normal text into equations (like a justification of the next step in your argument).

    Here is a sample proof of this assertion. If you'd like the tex source for this file, let me know by e.mail.

  • Due Monday, October 5, 9am:

    Write a newspaper article (of length approximately one page) on the normal (or Gaussian) distribution and standard deviations.

  • Due Monday, October 12, In class:

    First long essay is due. Please e.mail it to me as usual. If you want to bring a hard copy to class, that's fine, but you need to e.mail it.

  • Due Monday, October 19, 9am:

    Write a one page essay answering the question `What is Mathematics?'

  • There is no assignment due on Monday, October 26, but the assignment for the following week is longer than the usual one.

  • Due Monday, November 2, 9am:

    Write an essay of at least 3 pages on the Seven Bridges of Königsberg. You should at least describe the problem, give a solution, and prove that your solution is correct. You are free to also go into the history of the problem, or talk about Königsberg, or describe some attempts at a solution, or whatever else you think is relevant to your essay.

  • Due Monday, November 9, 9am:

    Choose a paradox. Examples are Zeno's Paradox, the Liar Paradox, Russell's Paradox, and there are many others. In an essay of about a page, explain what a paradox is, why your choice is a paradox, and give at least one description of an attempt to resolve the paradox.

  • Due Monday, November 16, 11am:

    The first draft of the second long essay.

  • Due Monday, November 23, 9am:

    Pick your favourite theorem in math and write a one page paper on it. You could give a proof, or you could describe the statement and why you think it is great.

  • Due Friday, December 4, Noon: Final version of second long essay.