Here's some information about writing scribe notes for the course - I hope you find it helpful. Feel free to use the comment section below for any appropriate purpose.
1. Take notes
To write scribe notes for a class, the first thing you need is to know what was taught in it. Not all things are written on the board, so for good scribe notes it is essential to have notes of all things said in class, including questions asked and answers given (bad jokes and petty mistakes can be left out). Borrowing other peoples' notes in addition to yours may be helpful and is recommended. Using notes from other courses that you find online or any other source is also fine, just as long as what you eventually write are scribe notes for the class that was actually taught.
2. Understand
There are several purposes for lecture scribe notes writing. One is that to write good class notes, one should get a full and deep understanding of the material covered in that particular class. Since we are all busy people with finite resources and energy, most of us tend to get sloppy and not take the time to get to the bottom of things we are taught. It is good for us to be forced, once in a while, to think deeply at least about a specific subject and to understand it well enough so that we can present it and explain it to others.
Before you write scribe notes, you should understand the class as well as you can. Not just how proofs go, but what is the motivation for studying them in the first place, why they work, what the central ideas and tricks are, what difficulties are overcome etc.. Don't hesitate to consult me about issues you have with the material - I would be glad to discuss it with you or help with any difficulties.
BTW, as the course progresses understanding classes will require more background knowledge from previous classes, so securing an earlier class to write scribe notes for may make your life a bit easier.
3. Explain
A scribe note is not a simple transcription of what went on in a particular class. Sometimes the best way to write one is to just linearly go over whatever was going on in class, even mentioning questions that were asked and answers that were given. Other times such a linear description would be incomprehensible and a different approach should be taken. Thinking about how to best present the material is an important part of writing scribe notes. When you write scribe notes well, people around the world who you never met may use it for their scientific needs - isn't this great?
Good scribe notes should explain the material taught in class in a way that is useful to someone that did not attend it. It should explain not only the definitions claims and theorems, but also the motivations, intuitions, and emphasis. Sometimes good scribe notes must contain information that wasn't even covered in class, such as computations that were not done fully or in an exact manner. Ask yourself the ultimate question - will someone reading my scribe notes get a clear picture of the material that was covered?
2. LaTex
Scribe notes should be written in LaTex - it is a world standard for writing documents that are nicely formatted and contain both math and text, and if you don't know how to use it then this is your chance to learn. A source LaTex file is a text file that can be easily read by the naked eye, and when compiled it can generate very nice looking ps or pdf files.
You can find plenty of information about LaTex and its uses on the web, but the easiest way to learn it is to take a LaTex file that was already prepared and change it to your needs. There are template files on the course web page for writing scribe notes - use them. If you don't know how to replicate a formula or a notation shown in class, make sure to find out how to properly do it - find it on the web, in other peoples' notes, or ask me. But don't just change notation or use weird formulations just because you can't figure out how to do it right in LaTex. In LaTex, there's always a way.
4. Show me the notes
This is not mandatory, but if you want to do a good job (and get a good grade) I advise you to show me your scribe before you submit it - I may have remarks that will help you improve it. It wouldn't hurt to also show it to whoever else is willing to take a look. Scientific text is extremely difficult to write well, and nearly all texts can be helped by outside comments.
5. Submit
I don't want to put too much pressure on you, but I wouldn't want to keep getting scribe notes for classes after I forgot all about them. So l guess a one month limit on scribe submission is reasonable. Submit the scribes to me, by email, and include both a PDF file and all LaTex source files that you used (even if these are files that you took from the course web site). I will put all these files online, unless you ask me otherwise.
1. Take notes
To write scribe notes for a class, the first thing you need is to know what was taught in it. Not all things are written on the board, so for good scribe notes it is essential to have notes of all things said in class, including questions asked and answers given (bad jokes and petty mistakes can be left out). Borrowing other peoples' notes in addition to yours may be helpful and is recommended. Using notes from other courses that you find online or any other source is also fine, just as long as what you eventually write are scribe notes for the class that was actually taught.
2. Understand
There are several purposes for lecture scribe notes writing. One is that to write good class notes, one should get a full and deep understanding of the material covered in that particular class. Since we are all busy people with finite resources and energy, most of us tend to get sloppy and not take the time to get to the bottom of things we are taught. It is good for us to be forced, once in a while, to think deeply at least about a specific subject and to understand it well enough so that we can present it and explain it to others.
Before you write scribe notes, you should understand the class as well as you can. Not just how proofs go, but what is the motivation for studying them in the first place, why they work, what the central ideas and tricks are, what difficulties are overcome etc.. Don't hesitate to consult me about issues you have with the material - I would be glad to discuss it with you or help with any difficulties.
BTW, as the course progresses understanding classes will require more background knowledge from previous classes, so securing an earlier class to write scribe notes for may make your life a bit easier.
3. Explain
A scribe note is not a simple transcription of what went on in a particular class. Sometimes the best way to write one is to just linearly go over whatever was going on in class, even mentioning questions that were asked and answers that were given. Other times such a linear description would be incomprehensible and a different approach should be taken. Thinking about how to best present the material is an important part of writing scribe notes. When you write scribe notes well, people around the world who you never met may use it for their scientific needs - isn't this great?
Good scribe notes should explain the material taught in class in a way that is useful to someone that did not attend it. It should explain not only the definitions claims and theorems, but also the motivations, intuitions, and emphasis. Sometimes good scribe notes must contain information that wasn't even covered in class, such as computations that were not done fully or in an exact manner. Ask yourself the ultimate question - will someone reading my scribe notes get a clear picture of the material that was covered?
2. LaTex
Scribe notes should be written in LaTex - it is a world standard for writing documents that are nicely formatted and contain both math and text, and if you don't know how to use it then this is your chance to learn. A source LaTex file is a text file that can be easily read by the naked eye, and when compiled it can generate very nice looking ps or pdf files.
You can find plenty of information about LaTex and its uses on the web, but the easiest way to learn it is to take a LaTex file that was already prepared and change it to your needs. There are template files on the course web page for writing scribe notes - use them. If you don't know how to replicate a formula or a notation shown in class, make sure to find out how to properly do it - find it on the web, in other peoples' notes, or ask me. But don't just change notation or use weird formulations just because you can't figure out how to do it right in LaTex. In LaTex, there's always a way.
4. Show me the notes
This is not mandatory, but if you want to do a good job (and get a good grade) I advise you to show me your scribe before you submit it - I may have remarks that will help you improve it. It wouldn't hurt to also show it to whoever else is willing to take a look. Scientific text is extremely difficult to write well, and nearly all texts can be helped by outside comments.
5. Submit
I don't want to put too much pressure on you, but I wouldn't want to keep getting scribe notes for classes after I forgot all about them. So l guess a one month limit on scribe submission is reasonable. Submit the scribes to me, by email, and include both a PDF file and all LaTex source files that you used (even if these are files that you took from the course web site). I will put all these files online, unless you ask me otherwise.
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