Grades

Course grades will be based on short reports, informal talks, formal talks, literature review and proposal. The formal talks, the literature review, and the proposal will weigh the most.

For the informal talks, names of those who are to lead a discussion will be selected by lot prior to each class period. If you are absent, or are not prepared for this discussion, you will receive an F. Note that it is possible that you could be called upon for a discussion every class period.

In the evaluation of your written work, deductions will be made for misspelled words and typos, incorrectly cited references, miscellaneous sloppiness, overall lack of attention to details, etc.

Written work submitted late will be penalized one-half a letter grade; i.e., if the report is graded B, it will be recorded as a B-. A report graded B- will be recorded as a C+.

You may find that your graded papers, when returned to you, are filled with many notations of errors and suggested corrections. This is normal. Hopefully, as the semester progresses, the numbers of these errors will decrease sharply.