Intro to Chaos and Fractals

Short Papers

Here are some guidelines for the short papers.

• These papers should be around two pages in length.
• Stylistically, these papers should be somewhere between a well-developed journal entry and an analytic essay. You do not need to come to any grand conclusion. It's fine to raise more questions than you answer.
• I recommend pursuing one or at most two ideas in depth, rather than writing a little bit about lots of different ideas.
• The audience you should probably have in mind while writing is: you, me, and the rest of the people in the class.
• I strongly recommend writing in the first person.
• I'm looking for evidence of critical thought, not a summary of the reading.
• Your paper should be typed or word-processed.
• Explore one or at most two ideas.
• Write about something that interests you.
• Your writing should be clear; use "correct" usage. Grammar and overall clarity will be part of your evaluation. The writing can be quite informal, but should still read well.
• Please hand in your papers on time. If papers are frequently late, I'll mention this on your narrative evaluation. If you need extra time, let me know.
• You can always re-write your papers.
• Working with a writing tutor is strongly recommended.