27 May: 

Discussion: How is your paper coming along?

Discussion: For Homework #4, I asked you to read sample paper #5, 
            by Akhtar, Wang, Borggaard and Iliescu.  What is their argument?
            What things do they have to explain?  What evidence do they present?

Lecture:    I suggested that people writing articles ought to find a suitable
            journal, download their style file and advice to authors, and
            try it out.  I will tell you my adventures with the ACM Transactions
            on Mathematical Software!

Discussion: Homework #5 asked you to create an abstract for your own document.
            Be prepared to read your abstract out loud.  I will read out mine.

Turn in:    Homework #5 (paper or email).

Lecture:    I promised I would start writing a paper.  I will discuss the mess
            I have made so far.

Lecture:    "Whiteside's Group: Writing a Paper" by Whitesides.
            This time, we get advice from a chemistry lab.  The head of the
            lab strongly suggests that the student start with an outline,
            after which he will confer with the student, to adjust it.
            Once the outline is good, he believes, the paper will fall into place.

Lecture:    Sample paper #6 is by Brian Hayes, "The Best Bits".  This is a
            somewhat informal article from "American Scientist", introducing
            the topic of compressive sensing.  A scientific document is an
            effort at communication.  Let's consider how well Brian Hayes
            does his job.  What does he decide NOT to try to explain?  What
            techniques does he use for the ideas he does try to communicate?

Homework #6: (not to be turned in)
            Read sample paper #7, by Purcell, "Life at Low Reynolds Number".
            This is the transcript of a talk.  The talk is good enough that
            it could be a journal article, but it's missing some of the
            things we would expect.  Try to come up with an abstract.
            Try to come up with sections, that is, a division of the talk
            into 5 or 6 pieces with subtitles.

Homework #7: (to be turned in next class):
            Your first draft!  Email this to me as a PDF.

Your paper: Your first draft could have holes in it, that's OK, but it
            better have a skeleton or outline, so we can see what your plans
            are.  And I hope that some sections have been filled in, either
            with fine, finished writing, or with a good first try.  If you
            get discouraged, take a look at my paper for a good laugh.