Physics 416A,B: Writing in Physics

Objectives

Welcome to Physics 416. This course is designed to teach you to

• communicate succinctly and precisely
• write a thesis/capstone report or a professional paper
• access physics literature effectively
• identify ethical issues that may arise in research
• produce professional documents (resume, memo, etc.) and presentations

Prerequisites

To enroll, you need to:

• Have a research advisor that will be available during winter 2012 to give feedback on thesis drafts
• Have a senior thesis research project that is essentially complete before January 4th, 2012
• Turn in this consent form signed by you and your advisor to Diann Sorenson in the department front office

Instructors

Your instructors are Jean-Francois Van Huele and Michael Ware. We are happy to meet with you, but haven't found formal office hours to be very effective for this course. Feel free to just stop by and ask brief questions, but if you want to have a longer discussion (say, to review a manuscript) please email us to set up an appointment.

Expectations

This semester we will work together to become better writers. Together we will work through a number of exercises to achieve this goal, the most significant being your senior thesis. We expect that you will regularly attend and participation in class discussion, give appropriate feedback to peers, and integrate academic and professional standards into your writing.

Evaluation

You will be evaluated on your writing and communication skills, and on your mastery of course materials. This course is taught as a sequence of two block courses (416A and 416B), and you will receive a letter grade on your transcript for each portion. The letter grade will be determined using the following breakdown:

• 50% for assignments directly related to the thesis manuscript (Denoted by T1, T2, etc. on the schedule)
• 35% for other homework assignments (Denoted by H1, H2,etc. on the schedule)
• 15% for participation activities and quizzes (denoted by Q1, Q2, etc. on the schedule)

Points for thesis, other homework, and participation assignments have different weights in the final grade; they should not be compared directly.  Assignments need to be turned in on time, and should be turned in electronically unless explicitly stated otherwise. Since some assignments require the input of your research advisor, you will want to share these assignments with your advisor well in advance of the deadline.  We will highlight these assignments in red on the schedule.

Checking Your Grade and Submitting Assignments

You can check your grades and submit assignments here

Reference Material

• AIP style manual (4th edition)
• Online Grammar and Mechanics Tests
• Celia Elliott's lecture notes on effective titles, Abstracts, Figures, numbers, capitalization, acronyms and abbreviations, and Latin terms.
• The Not So Short Introduction to LaTex

Schedule

This schedule will be regularly updated throughout the semester.  Thesis (T) and homework (H)assignments are due two hours before class starts (8:00am)  on the days listed.  Quiz assignment (Q) will be collected at the beginning of class.  Late assignments will receive 50% credit up to 24 hours after the deadline.  After the 24 hour period, no credit will be given but we will still provide feedback on the assignment if you request it.

BYU Policies

Honor code

We expect all students in the class to abide by the BYU honor code. We encourage collaboration between students in this class, except when we state explicitly that the work is to be done individually. Writing in physics requires its own code of ethics, which we will encounter and discuss in class.

Preventing sexual harassment

BYU's policy against sexual harassment extends not only to employees of the university but to students as well. If you encounter sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination, or other inappropriate behavior, please talk to your instructors, contact the Equal Employment Office at 422-5895 or 367-5689, or contact the Honor Code Office at 422-2847.

Students with disabilities

BYU is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to qualified persons with disabilities. If you have any disability that may adversely affect your success in this course, please contact the University Accessibility Center at 422-2767. Services deemed appropriate will be coordinated with the student and instructors by that office.