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Undergraduate Program:
Some Thoughts on Teaching Writing Skills
A number of upper-division courses have increased the emphasis
on coherent writing and presentation of technical mathematics. My structuring
of Math 5248 (Cryptography) and Math 5251 (Error-correcting Codes) gives
students weekly assignments in which they must give precise verbal descriptions
of algorithms, as well as logically complete narratives to accompany the
execution of the algorithms. A written term project is also a significant
part of the course. All his writing is intended not only as exercise in
technical writing for its own sake, but also as a stepping-stone to the
greater linguistic demands of writing proofs, for those students who will
continue in that direction.
The need for a transitional stage in mathematics writing
was perceived after some years of observation of students' discomfort
with careful general writing, much less precise writing in a technical
context. Further, at the level of careful description of algorithms, explicit
writing demands that students be more conscious of what they're doing,
rather than being able to do it but without sufficient understanding so
as to be able to describe it effectively to anyone else. Many students
have expressed appreciation for and interest in the increased emphasis
on the linguistic aspects, and for insisting on the point that mathematics
must be well-enough understood so that it can be communicated to others.
Paul Garrett,
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
www@math.umn.edu
URL http://www.math.umn.edu/index.shtml
The University of Minnesota
is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
2000, The Regents of the University of Minnesota
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