Written Homework: promptness, form, appearance, and strategy.

Homework Regimentation Rules

Those who grade your homework want to expend their energy on looking at your homework's content, not on decoding its packaging and addressing.

Please adhere to the following rules for the homework you turn in.

If you can't bring yourself to pay attention to these rules, you may find that assignments get lost in what passes for a system -- you won't get your deserved homework credit.

1. Homework is due at the start of class on the due date.
2. Late homework may be graded, may be given points (but not graded), or not regarded at all. Late homework papers may even be lost. The grading regime will usually always handle current work first, moving on to late work only if time and energy permit. If and when late assignments are graded, students who turned the assignment in on time get points added to their recorded scores. Thus, if you get behind, it's best to work on current assignments first and then backwards through your backlog as your time and energy permit.
3. The first time we have an assignment to hand in, I will go over such fascinating topics as
   • how to fold the assignment
   • where to write your name
   • where to write which class this is
   • where to write the assignment number.
4. Make your homework submission look nice. You are networking. You don't want folks to resent having to look at your stuff -- they may charge you points if it's hard to read your stuff or to figure out which assignment a submission pertains to. Or they may just give up on your submission and lose it down behind some convenient large piece of furniture.

   Present your problem solutions in "an attractive and orderly manner" which reflects the steps in your problem solutions.

   • Avoid too-hard pencils.
   • Avoid too-small writing.
   • Avoid crowding, both vertically and horizontally.
   • Especially avoid crowding multi-story algebraic expressions between notebook-paper rulings.
   • Eschew two-column formats for your math homework.
5. Give some effort to expressing the logical connections and "flow" of your problem solutions:
   • The "flow" goes pretty much left to right, top to bottom, with the final result at the end of your work, probably on the lower right.
   • Connect items with appropriate "=" signs. Eschew inappropriate "=" signs.
   • Use leadins for the things you compute. That is, identify quantities for the reader. If you have

     35/7 = 5,

     go back and fix it up so it reads

     m = 35/7 = 5,

     which says, "Here's my m computation."
   • Oblique fraction bars, such as above, are to be used only for the simplest fractions. To express quotients of sums, for instance, only horizontal fraction bars will do. Many technical firms forbid the use of slanted fraction bars for any purpose.
6. A numbered assignment may cover several different text sections or handouts. Please keep these items together as a unit separate from other numbered assignments.
7. If you have to FAX in your assignments (Math FAX: 208-426-1356):
• Use a cover sheet with "KERR -- MATH" (the FAX machine is far from the instructor's office and is shared by 20 or 30 people).
• Notify your instructor that you have just FAXed in an assignment: 208-426-1175 or .
• Use un-lined paper.
• Write on just one side of the paper.
• Stay at least 3/4-inch away from the edges and corners of the sheets.
• Put "shuffle-recovery" information in the upper-right corner of each sheet: number the pages in order, and write your name with the assignment number.
• It may be necessary to FAX a nice Xerox copy.
8. If you must scan and email your assignment,
   • Use a specific subject line such as MATH 124: Assignment #28 so's your stuff doesn't get overlooked, or mistaken for spam.
   • Squawk and resend if you don't get email confirming receipt within two or three hours (or first thing in the morning).
   • On Windows machines, the programs Irfanview and CutePDFWriter help make multi-page scans into single .pdf files, which are easy to view and print at the far end.
   • Use un-lined paper.
   • Write on just one side of the paper.
   • Stay at least 3/4-inch away from the edges and corners of the sheets.

---