Formatting

Homework Formatting & Submission Guidelines

Formatting Guidelines

Homework submissions must be prepared using a word processor, editor, or other software that can produce typeset results, including math. Hand-written solutions are not acceptable, and a penalty may be assessed for homework that is hand-written. 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 (here is a link to a good tutorial from Overleaf), as it is the de facto standard method for typesetting published work in computer science, and it is especially well-suited to typesetting mathematics. Other tools, such as Word and compatible WYSIWYG word processors, can also be used (see these composing tips put together by Prof. Jeremy Buhler for his CSE 584A class) for more information.

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

Your homework should use a page size of 8.5x11 inches ("letter" size). 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 some people are 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 formats) as a starting point for your document.