Term paper, reading report

Due: Oct 1st, 2021

In this assignment you will read and learn about your term paper topic. You will write a report about your learning progress so far.

Purpose

  • The main purpose is for you to study your term paper topic and start to learn about it. These are advanced topics in an advanced class, and it will take time to learn about it. But it’s important to start now.

  • An additional purpose is for you to start reading at least one source about your topic (article, book, or whatever).

  • One last purpose of this assignment is for you to think about if you need to adjust or redefine your term paper topic, now that you are learning more about it.

Assignment

Your assignment is to do these two things:

  1. Read at least ten pages about the mathematics part of your term paper topic in published articles, books, or similar high-quality sources.

    Study the pages. Try to understand them. It’s okay if you have questions or get stuck, but you have to try to learn.

    You are allowed to split your reading across multiple articles or books, e.g., 5 pages each from two different articles.

    You are encouraged to use additional things like Wikipedia, webpages, and YouTube videos to help you learn about your topic and understand! But that doesn’t count toward your ten pages.

    You are also allowed to read about history and biography, but that doesn’t count for your ten math pages.

  2. Write a report about your reading, 0.5-2 pages. To guide your report, respond to these questions:

    1. What articles or books did you read?

    2. What did you learn from your reading?

    3. What are some questions that came to mind as you were reading? (These may be questions that you want me to answer or questions that you already answered yourself.)

    4. Did you find the reading easy or difficult?

    5. Did you find anything surprising, exciting, or unexpected in the reading?

    6. How do you feel about the reading?

    7. How do you feel about your term paper topic?

    8. Do you feel prepared for what comes next, in terms of continuing to learn about your term paper topic, and starting to write your term paper? If not, what questions do you have, and what might be helpful for you?

Formatting

  • Please write your responses in a PDF file. You can use LaTeX, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or whatever you want.
  • Responses have to be typed (not handwritten).
  • Responses have to be double-spaced (double space between lines).
  • Upload the PDF to Gradescope. (I tried Canvas for the topic proposal. I think I will stick with Gradescope for now.)

Grading

You’ll get full credit for writing and submitting a reading report. The purpose of this assignment is to help you work on your term paper, not to grade your work.