Reading Assignments

Instructions

These instructions are a little long, but please read them carefully. It is your responsibility to know what’s written here to ensure that you receive credit!

Reading Assignments (RAs) are labeled by a week number and a day, and will be focused on the assigned reading for that day, as posted in the schedule. For example, the first one is labeled “w1mon,” which is short for “Week 1 Monday,” and it will cover sections 2.2 and 2.3 from the notes. There are two reading assignments due each week, one on Monday and one on Wednesday, which are due at 9:00am PT on the listed day. The only exceptions are that there are no RAs on Monday in week 7, and Wednesday in week 10.

In order to complete your RA, you need to do two things:

  1. Attempt to internalize the content of the indicated sections.

    • In other words, read through the indicated sections in the notes and attempt some of the exercises included there.

    • We’ll discuss this content in class after the RA deadline. Until then, you’re encouraged to chat with your classmates and to supplement with any other resources. (Doing that is part of the point!)

  2. Post a “Reading Question” (RQ) to our class Zulip stream.

    • The reading question must be posted in a stream in the discussion channel on Zulip. If the reading question is in a different channel, the bot will not tally it and you will not get credit.

    • The “topic” of a message that’s intended to be an RQ must contain a label matching the regex \[w(\d+)(mon|wed)\], followed by something indicating what your RQ is about. For example:

      • If your RQ for Week 1 monday is about exercise 2.3.1, you might make the topic [w1mon] exercise 2.3.1.
      • If your RQ for Week 1 Monday is about the masonic cipher, you might make the topic [w1mon] masonic cipher.

      If you’re starting a new topic for your RQ, make sure to follow these rules!

      If your RQ is a response in an existing topic that already contains a valid label, no further action is required on your part: your response will automatically count under the same label also.

      If you notice that a topic is mislabeled, you can rename the topic to correct it.

    • Your RQ message should show sincere engagement with the relevant list of core ideas. Here is a non-exhaustive list of examples of such things:

      • Asking a question about something relevant that you found confusing or intriguing.
      • Asking a question about, or sharing a possible solution to, one of the exercises in the indicated sections.
      • Asking a question about, or sharing something about, how to use software to do relevant computations.
      • Responding to a relevant question that someone else posted.
      • Sharing something relevant that you found confusing at first, but then managed to figure out.
      • Summarizing the key ideas in the reading in your own words.

      Note that you can typeset math, upload images, and share code in Zulip messages.

      If your RQ is a question, formulate as precise a question as you can. For example, if you’re asking about an exercise, say more than just “I don’t know how to do this exercise.” Instead, share something specific about what you tried and possibly also what went wrong.

    • Questions that are not about the ideas in the relevant section (eg, about class logistics) are very welcome on Zulip, but they shouldn’t carry the square-bracket RQ labels. If I react to your proposed RQ with an octopus emoji, it means your proposed RQ doesn’t demonstrate sincere engagement and won’t count for credit as an RQ.

    3. Scoring the Reading Assignments

  3. You get 1 point on a Reading Assignment for which you post a valid Reading Question on time, up to a maximum of \(n-4\), where \(n\) is the total number of RAs.

  4. A very strict bot will tabulate credit for RQs. For example:

    • If you don’t follow the topic labeling instructions above precisely, the bot might not recognize your post as an RQ and you won’t get credit for it.

    • If you post even one second after the deadline, the bot will mark it late and you won’t get credit for it.

    Instructions for checking your RQ score with the bot will be made available on our Zulip stream.