The Mathematics Term Paper Survival Guide (Instructor’s Edition)

Janet C. Woodland, University of Arkansas

The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences requires all graduating students to complete a research or expository paper in their major field, and many of our mathematics majors satisfy this requirement by taking our History of Mathematics course, which has traditionally also required an expository paper containing both history and mathematics. As many of the students have never read a mathematics paper, much less written one, I have developed a process to improve their reading, writing and speaking skills when I teach this course. Through a series of regular deadlines (abstract, references, outline, introduction, example, full-length draft), instructor editing, extensive use of “peer review,” and occasional casual oral reports, students are kept on track, and led to produce papers of higher quality and to appreciate their own work both as writer and reader.