SAMPLE WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Type: Biographical Sketch.
Length: 3 pages minimum, 5 maximum, plus works cited page.
Required references: two (minimum).
Due Date: Monday, 4 May
For this assignment, you will write a biographical/professional sketch of one of these mathematicians: Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, or Leonhard Euler.
In your study of calculus, you have learned mathematical ideas that were first discovered by one or more of these three mathematicians. Consequently, in addition to a (brief) sketch of the biographical details of the life of the man you choose to write about, I am most concerned to see an exposition of some of the math this person created, its importance in calculus, and by extension its importance in describing and understanding the world.
In writing about these mathematical ideas, I expect you to write at your own level of understanding, and – most importantly – to write as though you were explaining these ideas and their importance to someone who does not yet understand them. In other words, don’t think of yourself as writing for your instructor: imagine that you have been given the job of explaining the work of your chosen mathematician to someone very much like yourself, who has the level of understanding you had when you began this course, and to whom you are teaching what you have learned.
Most of the resource material you will need can be found on the web. I strongly recommend you begin with the MacTutor History of Math site. (But this should not be your only reference.) Your Simmons text has some good information as well, and use of encyclopedias is okay, but please do not quote the encyclopedia at me – by this time I have all of the encyclopedia entries on these mathematicians essentially memorized. I will notice, in other words.
Please ensure that you review your paper’s format in light of the required MLA standard before turning it in. If you have any questions about the form this assignment should take, please let me know.
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