Goals: The main goals of this course are to evaluate your mathematical writing for the Junior Writing Requirement (which is a College requirement for graduation), and to help you review and prepare for the math Comps Exam, which is also required for graduation and will be given later this semester. In this course you will also need to learn LaTeX, a typesetting computer language for preparing technical manuscripts. And you will need to choose a topic and source for your comps project (which you will work on next fall but can start now and continue during summer), and write a brief description of it in LaTeX.
Note: Passing this course, passing the junior writing requirement, and passing the comps exam are "independent" of each other: you may pass or fail any subset of the three. Without passing all three you cannot graduate. If you fail the comps exam, you will have a chance to take it again next year.
Grading: Your grade will be based 1/2 on your comps exam score, 1/4 on your "junior writing score", and 1/4 on your "LaTeX score". For the junior writing requirement, I will give three in-class writing tests and use the highest of your three scores as your "junior writing score" and also for determining whether or not you pass the junior writing requirement. Your "LaTeX score" will be determined by one in-class exam and your comps project description. The score on your first attempt at the comps exam will count as 50% of your Math 300 grade. Subsequent attempts, if any, will not affect your Math 300 grade. In past years, the math department has used the following policy: to be eligible for "Distinction" upon graduation with a math major, you must attain at least 80% on every section of the comps exam on your first attempt. We will probably use this or a similar policy again this year.
Attendance: You are responsible for everything that goes on in every class meeting, such as announcements, handouts, material taught, etc. This means if you miss a class even for a valid reason, it is your responsibility to contact me and find out what you missed.
E-mail: When necessary, I will make announcements via the class mailing list, instead of in the classroom. You are expected to check your email at least once a day. Feel free to use our class email list, math300-L at oxy dot edu, to send messages to everyone in the class.
Academic Honesty: I feel strongly about protecting honest and hard-working students against unfair and dishonest actions sometimes committed by a few. I don't give warnings; I refer all suspicious cases to the Judicial Examiner without hesitation.