Template:Preparation

Preparation, submission and due date

Read carefully.

{{{care}}}

Submission

Prepare a Microsoft Word document with a title page that contains:

• your full name
• your Student ID
• your e-mail address
• the organism name you have been assigned (see below)

Save your document with a filename of: A{{{num}}}_family name.given name.doc

(for example my {{{ord}}} assignment would be named: A{{{num}}}_steipe.boris.doc - and don't switch the order of your given name and familyname please!)

Make sure to submit your assignments as .doc files only, i.e. use the MSWord binary format prior to the 2007 format change. Do not submit the Office Open XML package format files, with the .docx or .docx.zip extension, these files will not be accepted. .rtf files will also be rejected.

Point form

Write your answers to each assignment section into separate paragraphs, submit these in the same sequential order as the assignment, and give each its title.

You are encouraged to write your answers in short answer form or point form, like you would document an analysis in a laboratory notebook. However, you must

• document what you have done,
• note what Web sites and tools you have used,
• paste important results such as sequences, alignments, results of calculations etc.

If you do not document the process of your work, we will deduct marks. Try to be concise, not wordy! Use your judgement: are you giving us enough information so we could exactly reproduce what you have done? If not, we will deduct marks.

Submission size

Avoid RTF and unnecessary formatting.

Do not paste screendumps but save and embed images in a compressed file formats. Keep the size of your submission below 1.5 MB. We will deduct marks for larger submissions, or we may reject the submission outright.

Image sizes are measured in pixels - 600px across is sufficient for the assignment, resolutions are measured in dpi (dots per imperial inch) - 72 dpi is the standard resolution for images that are viewed on a monitor; the displayed size may be scaled (in %) by an application program: stereo images are best presented so that equivalent points are approximately 6 cm apart; images can be stored uncompressed as .tiff or .bmp, or compressed as .gif or .jpg or .png. .gif is useful for images with large, monochrome areas and sharp, high-contrast edges due to the LZW compression algorithm it uses; .jpg or .jpeg is preferred for images with shades and halftones such as the structure views required in the course assignments, it has excellent application support and is the most versatile general purpose image file format currently in use; .tiff or .tif is preferred to archive master copies of images in a lossless fashion, use LZW compression for TIFF files if your system/application supports it; The .png format is an open source alternative for lossless, compressed images, application support is growing but still variable. .bmp is not preferred for really anything, it is bloated in its (default) uncompressed form and primarily used only because it is simple to code. If you have technical difficulties, post your questions to the list and/or contact me.

Stereo views

All required stereo views are to be presented as divergent (parallel, side-by-side) stereo frames (left eye's view in the left frame). Turn off the axes if they are not needed and scale the molecular model to fill the available space of your image well.

Macros

Your document must not contain macros. Please turn off and/or remove all macros from your Word document; we will disable macros, since they pose a security risk but since files are read-only once macros are disabled, we may also deduct marks for the additional overhead that this requires.

Group work

Group-work on the assignment is explicitly encouraged but must be conducted according to the University's code of standards. You must take full responsibility for the entirety of the submitted assignment, you must be familiar with the concepts and procedures your assignment pertains to as if you had executed them yourself, and you must not use copies of results of any materials you have received from others without properly referencing this fact. Omission of references is considered plagiarism and may result in academic misconduct procedures against both the submitter as well as the source. Please review the University's Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters, section B.i.1. for other applicable academic offences.

 

To submit, e-mail the document to boris.steipe@utoronto.ca before the due date.

The due date for the assignment is {{{due}}}.

Once your assignment has been received, you will receive an e-mail confirming that your assignment has been received. If I have not received your assignment by the due date, I will contact you. There is no need for you to request confirmation.

With the number of students in the course, we have to economize on processing the assignments. Thus we will not accept assignments that are not prepared as described above. If you have technical difficulties, contact me.

Don't wait until the last day to find out there are problems! Assignments that are received past the due date will have one mark deducted and an additional mark for every full twelve hour period past the due date. Assignments received more than 5 days past the due date will not be assessed. If you need an extension, you must arrange this beforehand.

 

Grading

Marks are noted below in the section headings for of the tasks. A total of 10 marks will be awarded, if your assignment answers all of the questions. A total of 2 bonus marks (up to a maximum of 10 overall) can be awarded for particularily interesting findings, or insightful comments. A total of 2 marks can be subtracted for lack of form or for glaring errors. The marks you receive will

• count directly towards your final marks at the end of term, for BCH441 (undergraduates), or
• be divided by two for BCH1441 (graduates).