Posts Tagged Real analysis

Writing sample for modeling critique (short)

This brief fabricated sample of student writing was used in class to model peer critique (two instructors act as students, one of whom is critiquing the writing of the other). The sample addresses the question of whether there are “gaps” in the rational numbers. Written by Joel Lewis with modifications by Peter Speh and Mohammed Abouzaid.

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Report on CI Real Analysis

This 6-page report on the initial version of MIT’s communication-intensive offering of Real Analysis discusses the relationship between the analysis lectures and the communication recitations, the percentage of the grade assigned to each, necessary staffing, the recitation activities and assignments, the teaching of LaTeX, and the support from Writing Across the Curriculum. A semester table summarizing recitation activities and assignments is included as are recommendations for future offerings of the course.

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Sample proof of correctness

This (fabricated) draft student paper is designed to start a class discussion about when conceptual explanations are needed in mathematical writing. The paper is about an algorithm for finding square roots. The first proof shows that the algorithm is correct, but the point of the second proof is never clearly stated (it shows that the algorithm is efficient). Written by Joel Lewis for M.I.T.’s communication-intensive offering of Real Analysis, based on Rudin’s Exercise 16 in Chapter 3.

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