Instructor: Charles Peltier Office:214 Madeleva Phone 4498 email cpeltier@saintmarys.edu
This assignment is intended to help you focus on the direction and content of your senior comprehensive project.
Requirements:
1. The paper is to be written in an expository style; the intended audience is senior mathematics majors [So you can assume the ability to read technical material, but should not assume knowledge of specific fields not known to your classmates]
2. The guidelines for writing given in the Student Handbook should be followed regarding form, style, citations of published works (there is no way to fulfill the assignment without referring to published sources), etc.
3. The paper must be typed, and must be 3-5 pages in length
4. The paper must include a cover page and a bibliography (list of works cited)
5. The paper is due November 17
You may choose from two options:
A. If you have developed a fairly strong sense of your topic - including some details of the mathematics:
Think of this paper as an introduction to your senior comprehensive paper; it would then be a general introduction of your topic of study. In such an introduction, you would begin with a statement of the problem or topic to be discussed and with some historical background or some perspective (why does anyone care, how does this grow from or lead into other areas of mathematics, does it resemble anything else you've worked with, etc.) on the problem to be studied. Following this, you would explain the structure of your study - what topics will be covered, how the discussion will develop, how it will lead to your conclusion. This will require some explanation of terms and ideas involved in the work (remember your audience).
B. If you have not yet developed your work so far that you can speak of it in the depth appropriate to approach A.
Think of this paper as a "proposal" for a project. [A design for a senior comprehensive project to be undertaken]. First you would describe the problem or issue you intend to study. You might include some background for the problem - why is it of interest (and to whom, besides yourself), how does it fit into its area of mathematics, or computer science, or modeling (Where does it come from, or where does it lead, or what does it resemble?). Then you describe how you intend to reach your goal - what will be your method of study, what preparations do you need to make, what sources [materials, equipment, reference materials] are available for the preparations and for the work itself? [NB This is the sort of proposal you will be writing, on differing levels of detail and length, for any sort of business or technical career, as well as in the academic community]
If you have trouble developing either of these, see me for
help in working out what you can do - the sooner the better.