STATISTICS 770

Statistics Seminar

Course Outline 2009-2010

 INSTRUCTOR

Dr P. D. M. Macdonald

Office:

HH-210

Telephone:

905 525-9140 x 23423

e-mail:

pdmmac@mcmaster.ca

COURSE DESCRIPTION

A Statistics Seminar is held weekly during the fall and winter terms, with presentations by faculty, visitors and students. Students are to attend the seminar, participate in discussion, and submit short written critical reviews of 8 seminars.

Although the seminars take place over two terms and students will submit their reports over both terms, Statistics 770 gives a half-course credit and is therefore considered a winter term course for administrative purposes.

PREPARATION

A summary of the talk and a reading list will be available a week or more before each seminar. Whenever possible, copies of papers on the reading list and copies of the speakers' notes will be made available. Students are expected to come to each seminar with a good understanding of the background material and contribute to the discussion at the seminar.

Students are encouraged to discuss the seminars with each other, with faculty members, and with the speaker, before and after each presentation, but the written reports must be the students' own individual work.

REPORT SUBMISSION

Each report must be submitted within four weeks of the seminar concerned and will be marked and returned within two weeks of submission. The instructors will review the marked reports with each student and assist them in developing the quality of their written work. Late reports will be accepted, but only reports submitted on time may be revised and re-submitted.

Marked reports that were originally submitted on time may be revised and re-submitted at any time, in which case the higher mark will be taken. The previous version of the report must be submitted along with the revised version.

All reports must be prepared with LaTex. Students will be taught how to use LaTex through class instruction and individual assistance.

GRADING

The grades will depend on how well the student has understood the seminar material and on the clarity and quality of the reports, taking into account the difficulty of the seminar topic.

The mark for each report will be computed as a weighted score according to the attached "rubric".

The final mark will be computed as the unweighted average of the marks for the 8 reports.

ACADEMIC ETHICS AND DISHONESTY

Academic dishonesty consists of misrepresentation by deception or by other fraudulent means and can result in serious consequences, e.g. the grade of zero on an assignment, loss of credit with a notation on the transcript (notation reads: "Grade of F assigned for academic dishonesty"), and/or suspension or expulsion from the university. It is your responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty.


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Last modified 2009-10-20