Each homework problem is an example of a "brief technical note". You have a specific piece of technical information to communicate to a fairly specialized audience. You need to explain carefully, so that your hard work in understanding the problem is transmitted.
- Outline
- Write to learn. Whether you've worked through a problem quickly, or it's taken you ages, the process of writing it clearly will help you clarify your thoughts, recall what was extraneous, and find the central pieces of insight.
- Have a target audience in mind. For most classes, the target audience is a student at the entry point of the present class. Remember how you felt when you started learning the material, and supply the same guidance that you and your peers needed when you began. The target audience is never the instructor.
- State the problem briefly. This doesn't mean rewrite the question, but it is helpful to give a one-sentence statement of the goal. For example: "The terminal velocity of a mass m falling through syrup is found by ..." is a much better opening sentence than "v = ..."
- Have you provided a large, clear, beautifully labeled diagram? There are few problems in physics that do not benefit from a diagram.
- Have you explained the important points in words? Equations & symbols are the physicist's short-hand notation, but symbols must be defined, and treat equations as sentences. Have you defined vectors, constants, etc., so that your notation is clear? A long proof requires prose to explain the reasoning.
- Have you provided enough steps so that one of your peers could follow the logic? Here is where you have to develop judgment. It is not sensible to write every step (canceling a factor of 2 is trivial), but you cannot expect your peers to follow if you do not provide adequate intermediate steps.
- Have you drawn a clear conclusion, supported by water-tight reasoning?
- Have you highlighted the physics - symmetries, large and small limits, connection to other common problems, etc.?
- General appearance:
- Is your penmanship such that your work is clearly legible and free of smudges? Space equations, particularly those with fractions, at least a line apart to ensure legibility. Make space for your work - don't scrunch afterthoughts into the end of the line.
- Are your diagrams and tables large, clear, and adequately labeled? Do symbols used in graphs and diagrams correspond to those in your prose?
- Do graph axes have labels (and units if applicable)? Have you chosen ranges for maximal information transfer?
- Have you checked spelling, grammar, and syntax? Remember that equations are sentences, too, and they should be part of the syntactical flow.
- Creativity:
- Is your work original? Never plagiarize the work of others nor allow others to copy yours. Controlled collaboration on technical aspects is encouraged (see section on collaboration in "General Information/Academic Honesty", but your writing and synthesis should be entirely independent. Acknowledge contributions to your work from others.
- Choose words for clarity and precision. Avoid long, rambling sentences and strive for crisp, clear prose.
You are allowed to be funny, but never disrespectful, profane, or arrogant.
- Things to consider:
- Don't be verbose. Many students, faced with the injunction to "use words", produce something like this:
"Newton's law, which says that the force is equal to the mass times the acceleration .." which conveys no more information than
"F = ma, where F is the force applied to a mass m producing acceleration a." The second version introduces symbols for later use, and it is crisper and clearer. Equations are succinct and convey information to a scientist much more quickly. Incorporate equations properly into the flow of the text.
- It doesn't always have to be long! A few choice words make all the difference.
- Use your discretion. There is no single way to lead a reader through your work. Ask yourself whether you would be satisfied to read your work if it were presented as course notes provided by an instructor, or in a text book.
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