Final Paper

Final Paper Guidelines

Audience

Your final paper for RSI should be accessible and attractive to an intelligent person who is not an expert in your field. If you're a mathematician, imagine writing for a biologist. If you're a biologist, imagine writing for a mathematician.

Length

Your paper should be 10-15 pages long. This count does not include figures, tables, bibliography, or appendices. If you're using Word, your paper needs to be double-spaced, Times or Times New Roman, and in 12 pt font. All margins should be precisely 1 inch = 2.54 cm; no more, no less.

Deadlines

The last paper draft is due Saturday, July 25th. Word papers are due at 10 am. LaTeX papers are due at 5 pm. Print three copies of your draft. Give two to your tutor and keep the other for buddy reading. The Word papers should consist of a compilation of up to six documents: the cover and abstract (in latex, compiled by running make main.pdf and then only printing the first two pages), the main text (i.e. Introduction, Methods, Conclusion, etc.) by itself, without figures, tables, etc., the figures numbered without captions, tables numbered without captions, the figure and table captions, and the bibliography. The Word papers are due early to make sure you correctly follow and understand this format. There are details below under "The First Milestone".

The final paper is due Tuesday, July 28th. Word papers are due at 10 am in the same format as above. LaTeX papers are due at 5 pm. These deadlines are not flexible. Tutors, TAs, and nobodies have many papers to read and very little time to read them. In order to give you the best feedback possible as quickly as possible, we must have your papers on time. Earlier drafts are encouraged.

To try to submit your final paper, type:

 papersubmit 

You should do this before 5pm as your submission can either be approved or rejected. If it's rejected, you'll need to make corrections, which you won't actually be allowed to do after 5pm.

Bibliography

Citation guidelines are at web.mit.edu/rsi/www/pdfs/citations.pdf and the official bibliography format is at web.mit.edu/rsi/www/pdfs/bib-format.pdf . There is only one change for this year, which is that your bibliography need not be alphabetized, but should be ordered based on when you refer to each source in your paper. This is the system that LaTeX implements automatically.

Buddy Reading

After you have submitted your drafts on Saturday, you will split into small groups to read each other's papers and give feedback. The tutors will assign the groups. See buddy reading groups below.

Advice

You can find several excellent sources of paper advice, including sample papers from previous years, on at web.mit.edu/rsi/www/2009/advice . More sample papers will be posted soon. Of course, you may always discuss your paper with your tutor, TAs, or nobodies. Your tutor can also refer you to other people in your field who can read drafts of your paper.

Technical Help

Check the RSI website at web.mit.edu/rsi/www/2009/tech . If the answer to your question isn't there, try Google, then zephyr rsi-help.

Color Printing

If you need to print any of your pages in color, you are responsible for printing these early yourself. If you have to choose between color pages and turning your paper in on time, turn it in on time; we won't accept any color pages after the deadline. There are two free options for color printing. The printer w20color is in the first floor of W20, and the printer echo is on the third floor of 37. Both of these are free color printers. w20color is a faster printer, but it is only accessible during business hours.

Milestones

The Second Milestone

Instructions

The second milestone is due by bedcheck on Saturday, July 18. You should edit your introduction and add material relevant to the work that you've done. For example, describe your materials and methods, present some data the you've gathered, or set forth the conjectures and theorems that you've come up with.

This draft should be as long as it needs to be. For some of you, this will be 5 or 6 pages. Others will find that your work adds up to 10 or 12 pages. In general, longer is better here, as it's usually easier to edit and cut material than it is to produce new material. Turn the paper in to your tutor. If you cannot find him or her, slide it underneath the door of his/her room in Simmons.

Roughly, this paper will include

• an updated introduction,
• the tools that you are using (methods, programs, famous theorems)
• results or partial results (data, theorems)

If possible, you can start to include some preliminary analysis, though this will most likely have to wait for your final paper.

There is no presentation for the second milestone. However, if you would like to give a practice presentation, just arrange a time with your tutor.

Note: These milestones are a minimum standard that we'd like you to meet. If you wish to exceed those standards you are perfectly welcome to do so. If you wish to turn in early drafts for your tutor to edit so that you may turn in a higher quality draft on Saturday, just track him or her down and hand in a copy of the draft.

Here are documents describing the bibliography format and citation guidelines.

The First Milestone

Instructions

By the end of the first week you will have read the background material about your research topic, problem, or field, and perhaps begun gathering data or setting up your experimental apparatus. For the first milestone, you are to present an introduction to the field you are working in and the work you are doing.  The object is to give an introduction to your personal research with enough detail to satisfy a scientifically sophisticated nonexpert.

This paper will form the basis of the introduction section of your final paper.

The Paper: July 5

You should write a 2–4 page introduction to your work. Present your topic and a summary of the previous work in the field. Include a complete bibliography of all works you have read or are reading related to your work, even if you do not currently see how they might apply to what you will be doing. You should pay special attention to work your mentor is doing in your field of study.

You should write your paper using the format you are using for your final paper submission and submit it as a hard copy to your tutor before the be\dcheck of Sunday, July 5. There is no electronic submission process for this milestone.

If you are writing your paper in LaTeX: The paper template is contained in your Paper directory. You must keep your work within the Paper directory. The sections that you are not using should be kept as they are. You should

• Create a cover page in cover.tex.
• Leave the abstract as it is in abstract.tex.
• Fill in the introduction Section of paper.tex.
• Do not delete the later sections of paper.tex.
• Fill in the Acknowledgements Section of paper.tex.
• List your references and background reading in biblio.tex.
• Leave the appendix as it is in appa.tex.

If your mentor is having you write you paper in Word AND you have permission from your tutor to do so:

• Whatever your mentor wants, we need the .doc or .docx in the following format:
• The main text must be in a document called main.doc and saved in your RSI/Paper directory. main.doc must be organized into sections numbered as if they were defined using \section and \subsection in LaTeX, and you should not include any Figures, Tables, Graphs, Captions, Bibliographies, Title Page or anything other than normal text and in-line equations.
• The abstract must be done in LaTeX and saved in your RSI/Paper directory as abstract.tex, regardless of how your mentor additionally wants it. In other words, if your mentor wants your abstract in Word, you must do it both in Word and in LaTeX.
• Your cover page must be in cover.tex and saved in your RSI/Paper directory. cover.tex must follow the specifications for LaTeX papers.
• Your figures must be in a document called figures.doc and saved in your RSI/Paper directory. One figure to a page, and every figure must be clearly numbered. Captions are not to be included here. You must also have a raw copy (i.e. not in a Word file) of each figure in a folder RSI/Paper/figures named figureXX.EXT where XX is a number between 01 and 99 (must include a leading zero) and EXT is the proper extension for whatever file it is.
• Your tables must be in a document called tables.doc and saved in your RSI/Paper directory. One table to a page, and every table must be clearly numbered. Captions are not to be included here. Pictures of tables are not acceptable.
• Captions must be in a document called captions.doc and saved in your RSI/Paper directory. Label the captions as Figure 01, Figure 02, etc., and Table 01, Table 02, etc. depending on what they correspond to.
• The bibliography must be in a document called biblio.doc and saved in your RSI/Paper directory. Format the bibliography according to your field, but you must do this consistently. Using EndNote is preferred. If you use EndNote, you must include your library file in your RSI/Paper directory.

Here are documents describing the bibliography format and citation guidelines.

The Talk: July 5

Explain your work to your fellow Rickoids in under five minutes. Present relevant background in sufficient detail to allow your peers to understand what work you are doing without overwhelming them with details.

You must email a PDF file containing your slides to your tutor before bedcheck on Saturday evening. Electronic slides submitted after midnight on Saturday might not be available for your presentation.

You should not expect to have more than five slides for your talk to fill five minutes.

The talks will be given Sunday, July 5, beginning at 1:00PM, tentatively in the usual tutor rooms: 1-132(Jenny), 1-134, 1-135(Galen), 1-150(Justin), 1-246(Kelley), 1-273(John)

The Minipaper