Quality of your work

By quality of your work, we are talking about how "polished" it is. If the work is hand written, is it neat and easy to read? Have you checked the spelling? Is the layout easy to follow and consistent? Changing fonts in the middle of the work for no reason does not indicate quality. It typically means that something was cut and pasted into the work and you did not even bother to clean it up.

Why is it vital

1. The quality of your work shows how much you value it. If you don't value it, why should the grader?
2. It helps you check your work. As you are "polishing" it, you will probably find mistakes and fix them.
3. It establishes a good work ethic that will be very valuable at any job.
4. It helps you learn the material. As you are "polishing" it, you are reviewing it which is an act of studying and helps you learn and retain the material for a test.

Guidelines on how to do it

1. Any handwritten material should be rewritten cleanly from scratch before turning it in.
2. All work should be spell checked. Obvious mistakes need to be corrected.
3. All work should be checked for consistency, layout, easy of reading, etc. Take five minutes to make your work presentable.
4. However, don't spend more time making it presentable than you did creating the work. Be reasonable!
5. Make sure your name is on the work.
6. Label your work. Number each answer, etc.
7. Keep the paper itself neat (not wrinkled, etc.).

Requirements for credit

1. Self assess the quality of your work for this class so far and for one other class. You must have turned in at least two assignments for each class before you can work on this.
2. If your work has been of good quality, what benefits have you received from spending the time on it? How much extra time have you spent establishing just the quality of it?
3. If your work has not been of the best quality, why? Explain why you did not put in the effort to establish its quality. (There might be very legitimate reasons for this). Give two things you will do in your next three assignments to improve the quality. Were you successful? What benefits did you achieve by improving the quality?