{"id":22879,"date":"2018-11-13T13:31:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T19:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=22879"},"modified":"2018-11-17T16:14:59","modified_gmt":"2018-11-17T22:14:59","slug":"how-to-imsa-math-essays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2018\/11\/13\/how-to-imsa-math-essays\/","title":{"rendered":"How to IMSA: Math Essays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last week, we covered how to write English and History essays. However, soon most of us will find ourselves in MI-3 &#8211; or might be taking it currently &#8211; and then, probably for the first time ever, we\u2019ll be writing math essays.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The concept of a math essay sounds completely foreign to most. How can you write an essay about numbers? Basically, a math essay is a long-winded lab report that features a section on real world applications. Here are some things to consider when writing in the unique style that is the math essay:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Pay attention to your teacher\u2019s required formatting. <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">These essays will probably have some very specific formatting requirements, ranging from how you write out your equations, to where your graphs are positioned, and even how wide the margins are. Don\u2019t zone out when your teacher is covering this, and don\u2019t hesitate to ask if you\u2019re confused about something. Before you turn in your finished product, make sure to give it a thorough sweep for any formatting issues you might\u2019ve missed.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t neglect either of the two steps.<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There will be two main steps to your paper &#8212; data analysis and writing the paper itself. During the data analysis, you will use the spreadsheet program of your choice to create tables and charts of your data. Keep careful track of what you\u2019ve done, so you can perfectly recount your steps in your paper. After a week of this, you\u2019ll get to writing your actual paper. This step is just as important, as it\u2019s here where you explain everything you did and why you did it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Be thorough.<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This applies to any essay, but especially with math essays, make sure you don\u2019t miss a step of what you did. You don\u2019t want to leave any assumptions up to the reader. Imagine you are writing a paper for someone who\u2019s never seen this project before. They should be able to replicate it exactly as you did it after having read the paper. This isn\u2019t an excuse to be long-winded, however. Your explanations should also be clear and concise. If you explain everything you did in clear language and use appropriate charts, you won\u2019t have to worry about length.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t be afraid to use plenty of graphs and tables &#8212; but separate them from each other.<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Don\u2019t hesitate to use graphs and tables as the helpful tools they are, showing each step you made throughout your process. However, make sure you don\u2019t have pages of graphs and tables all in a row, either. You should have some text detailing what you did, after all.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Consider using Google Docs\/Sheets.<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You\u2019ll be working with a partner, so using Google Docs and Sheets over Microsoft Word and Excel might help you out a great deal. This way, you can co-analyze and co-write with your partner directly, instead of awkwardly stumbling through sharing data with each other.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Divide and conquer.<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Your assignment will likely have some clear-cut steps, so make sure to use those to divide up the work evenly. You want to have a clear understanding of every step, but you also don\u2019t want to have to do everything yourself, so strike a balance between you and your partner.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, don\u2019t be afraid of the math essay. It may seem a little confusing at first, but as long as you follow your teacher\u2019s directions, go to them for guidance, and work hard, you should be just fine. Then, when the second math paper comes (because it will), you\u2019ll know just what to do.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, we covered how to write English and History essays. However, soon most of us will find ourselves in MI-3 &#8211; or might be&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":22880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3003,1021],"tags":[1329,2938,1966,2076],"coauthors":[2748,2747],"class_list":["post-22879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to-imsa","category-lifestyle","tag-essays","tag-how-to-imsa","tag-math","tag-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22879"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22909,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879\/revisions\/22909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22879"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=22879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}