CSE247 eHomework Guide

Contents

• Formatting Standards
• How to Turn In Your Assignment
• Getting Your Assignment Back

Formatting Standards for Assignments

You must prepare your assignments using a word processor, editor, or other software that can produce typeset results, including math. Please do not use plain text with "ASCII math" (i.e. simulated displayed formulas produced using creative spacing and underline/dash characters) or "ASCII art" in place of figures.

We strongly recommend using LaTeX to prepare your solutions, since it is the de facto standard method for typesetting published work in computer science, and it is especially well-suited to typesetting mathematics. However, other tools, such as Word and compatible WYSIWYG word processors, can also be used; see the composing tips for more information.

Your assignment document must have a header, which must appear at the top of each of its pages, that includes your name and 6-digit student ID number (not your WUSTLKey) and the assignment number. Page numbers at the bottom of each page are optional but recommended.

Your assignment should use a page size of 8.5x11 inches ("letter" size; A4 is also OK). Most text should be in a proportionally-spaced font with a size of at least 11 points. (However, you might find that a fixed-width font such as Courier is better for writing pseudocode with consistent indenting.) You should use black text on a white background everywhere except possibly in figures. Your figures may be in color if desired, but your grader might be red-green colorblind, so choose your palette appropriately.

Figures may be drawn using the tool of your choice, or even hand-drawn and scanned as images, so long as they are legible in your final submission. Vector graphics (i.e. those stored as a set of shapes and lines) are preferred to bitmapped images such as GIF, PNG, or JPEG, but either is acceptable. Place your figures, scaled appropriately, inline at the point where they are first referenced in your document, or use your editor's "float" facility (if any) to have them appear at the top or bottom of a page with suitable captions and corresponding references in the text. Please do not just put all figures at the end of the document.

Assignment Templates

To help you follow these formatting standards, we have created this LaTeX template and this MS Word template (which can be converted by other editors, such as LibreOffice or Google Docs, to their native format) as a starting point for your document.

How To Turn In Your Assignment

Important Facts

1. You must upload assignments to Gradescope yourself. Do not send us your assignment by email or bring it in on a USB stick for us to upload on your behalf. We reserve the right to reject (and give no credit for) assignments given to us in ways other than the Gradescope turn-in procedure.
2. Assignments must be turned in on time. If you turn in an assignment after the assigned due date and time, Gradescope will mark it late. Please leave yourself sufficient time to upload your work!
3. For assignments with multiple parts, you must indicate which page(s) of your submitted document contain the answer to each part. Gradescope provides an interface for you to do this.
4. You may submit modified versions of an assignment as often as desired, but only the last version submitted will be graded. If your last version is submitted after the turn-in deadline, it will be considered late.

Submission Procedure

You can see the whole submission process, including a video, in this help page from Gradescope. Keep in mind that, while their documentation includes instructions for scanning hand-written assignments, we require your assignments to be typeset.

Here is a summary of the key steps in the submission process:

• Step 1: Save your document in final form. Save your assignment as a PDF, which you should be able to create directly from within your word processor or editor or by running the appropriate command to build your LaTeX document. While Gradescope supports uploading individual page images, this should never be necessary -- you are typesetting your assignments.

  You can name your document whatever you want, but I recommend that you limit the characters in your names (other than the file extension) to English letters, numbers, spaces, dashes, and underscores to avoid tickling any unexpected bugs in Gradescope.

• Step 2: Go to the turn-in folder. Log into Gradescope (https://www.gradescope.com/) and select the correct course and semester. Find and click on the name of the assignment that you want to submit.

  

• Step 3: Submit your document.

  Gradescope will ask how you want to submit the assignment. Select "Submit PDF".

  

  Gradescope will ask you to select a PDF file. Select your file, and then hit the "Upload PDF" button.

  

  The turn-in time for your assignment is the time at which the "Upload PDF" operation completes. Steps after this one are important, but they won't make your assignment late if you complete them after the deadline.

• Step 4: Assign pages to each problem.

  Use the interface provided to associate each part of your assignment (e.g. each problem) with one or more pages. This step is important because the person grading each part will see only the pages you assign to it. If you have two or more parts of an assignment on the same page, you can assign the same page to multiple parts. When you are done assigning all parts, hit the "Submit" button to finish.

  

  If you do not assign each part to one or more pages, Gradescope will nag you when you hit "Submit", but it will let you do so if you really want. The grader will not see anything for parts you do not assign to pages.

• That's It!

  If all has gone well, you'll see your assignment along with a grading rubric, which will be filled in when the assignment is graded. You can inspect the submitted document to make sure it matches what you intended to turn in.

  

  If you need to change which pages are assigned to each part, you can do so by clicking "Reselect pages". Doing so will not change the turn-in time of your assignment.

  If you want to turn in a new version of your assignment, click the "Resubmit" button, which takes you back to step 3. Turning in a new version will change the turn-in time of your assignment.

Assignments will be graded in Gradescope and will then be available for you to read and download with grades and comments. Grades will eventually be transferred from Gradescope to Canvas.