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Course Requirements

1. Attendance (10%)
2. Frequent homework exercises (60%)
3. Three quizzes (30%)

Homework Exercises

Where: Homework exercises are in the Partee, ter Meulen and Wall textbook.
How Many:

• Homeworks will be assigned almost every class. There are 28 homeworks in total. You must hand in a total of 24 homeworks. There is one that is not to be handed in: #28. You may choose three other homeworks to not hand in. (Or you can do additional homeworks to increase your homework score up to a maximum of 600 points – see grading notes below.)

When to hand them in:

• You must hand in your homework at the next class. For example, Homework 1 is assigned on the 7rd of September and is due in on the 9th.
• It is very important to do the homework exercises on time. If you do not do them, you will fall behind. It also helps us to give you better feedback if we can look at everyone's homework together, to see which points may need further clarification or discussion.

How to do them:

• Collaboration: You may work in teams on assignments if that helps, but everyone should try every exercise themselves before comparing notes. If you work in groups, you must indicate who your group members were on assignments; simple copying is not permitted.
• Answers: For some exercises, answers are in the back of the book. Try the problems yourself and check them yourself. Please hand in your own original working of the problem, together with any annotations or corrections that you make after looking in the back of the book. You may have a different but equally correct answer to a problem, or you may disagree with the book’s answer, or you may have questions about the answer. Remember to check the ERRATA, and if you think you have found additional errors, please let me know! In any case, indicate the parts of the homework you had problems with so we can provide you with feedback.

Grading

Homework exercises:

• Each homework is worth 25 points. The 24 homeworks together are worth up to 600 out of a total of 1000 points.
• Your homework grade depends on
  1. completeness,
  2. being on time,
  3. and effort.
• Getting the answers right the first time is not crucial. Homeworks are for learning, so it's fine to include questions and notes about difficulties on the homework. If you cannot figure a problem out, indicate at what point you got stuck.
• Length: Show enough of your reasoning so that if the answer is wrong, I can figure out where you went wrong. When there are a lot of problems that are very much alike, show all the steps clearly on the first one of the set, but then you can abbreviate steps on the subsequent ones. I’ll let you know if you’re writing more than necessary or less than necessary.
• An average-effort homework, turned in on time, gets 20 points.
• For a homework turned in on time, if very good effort is put in, and/or if you subsequently redo problems you had trouble with the first time, you may gain up to 5 points for a maximum of 25.
• Late homeworks:

1. If your homework is late by 1 class, you lose 5 points.
2. If your homework is later than that, you lose 10 points.
3. If it is clear that little effort has been put into the homework, you lose 5 or 10 points, up to the discretion of the grader.

Quizzes:

• Each quiz is worth 100 points. The three quizzes together are worth 300 points.

Attendance

• Attendance is 100 points.
• It is your responsibility to attend every class. Missing classes in this course will have a serious effect on your performance. If you miss two consecutive classes, you must make an appointment to see me. Remember, your attendance is 10 % of your grade.

Missed Classes and Quizzes

• It is your responsibility to tell your lecturer beforehand if you plan to miss handing in a homework or doing an in-class quiz. The only situation where you may tell the lecturer afterwards is if you were prevented from doing so at the time (e.g. if you were hospitalized suddenly).
• Valid Reasons: Illness, catastrophes (fire, earthquakes, etc.), close family illness, legal proceedings, and religious observance all constitute valid reasons for missing course-related work. If you are unsure whether an event will constitute a valid reason for missing course material, contact your lecturer. In all cases, proof must be supplied to your lecturer that the event did in fact happen. Contact your lecturer if you are unsure what constitutes proof in your situation. Failure to supply proof will have the same effect as if you handed your work in late.
• Invalid Reasons: Waking up late, a lapse in memory, or having a prior social or academic engagement do not constitute valid reasons for missing course-related work. By enrolling in this course ---and any course---you have undertaken to make the course a high priority in your life.
• Quizzes: If you (plan to) miss an in-class quiz, you must supply proof that you will be/were incapacitated for the exam period. If you do so, your lecturer will either arrange another exam or another form of assessment. If you do not supply proof that you were incapacitated, you will be assigned a failing grade for the exam --- i.e. 0% in percentage terms.

When I’m away: I will miss four classes right at the beginning, September 9, 12, 14, 16. Florian Schwarz will give the lectures on those days, and will collect and grade your homeworks, making copies of them for me to see when I return. He will also hold office hours at times to be announced. (I will also miss a lecture or two in December; then there will be guest lectures by Florian and/or Professor Christopher Potts.)