Preliminary step: Make a list of TWENTY mathematical experiences. For example, what can you recall of learning to count?...of learning to tell time...? of learning what fractions mean?...of learning how to use money? Each person should reach as far back into her/his personal history as possible. Review old report cards; talk to friends, parents, siblings, caretakers, etc. to collect information, anecdotes and experiences. Does your recollection of grades in your mathematics courses match the actual grades on your old report cards? [You might be surprised.]

Draft step: Write a rough draft of at least 850 words (type it, double-spaced) using at least five of the experiences from the list you generated. It is probably best to write it on a computer (and save it to a disk) so that you can edit later and so that you can use the word-count utility most word-processing programs have!

The assignment: Referring to your rough draft and the list generated in the first step, write an essay of 1100 to 3000 words which relates some of the 20 experiences (at least five) in detail. Discuss how those experiences have influenced current attitudes, feelings, thoughts about mathematics and life goals. Include names, locations. For example: "When I was in the ninth grade at Norco High School (that's in Riverside County in Southern California) I had an Algebra teacher named Miss Hauk who sometimes had us do math outside. One incident I recall vividly was the warm, sunny day the whole class went to the football field and we..."

Submitting the final draft: The final paper will be submitted electronically as text, by email, to the instructor. If you already know how to attach the TEXT version of your essay file, (e.g. mathautobio.txt) to an email, then go ahead and send an email to your instructor with your mathautobio.txt file attached. Be sure to put your name in the Subject line of the email message. It's also a good idea to send a copy to yourself (put your own email address in the CC: line) Otherwise, look at the following set of instructions.

Detailed instructions for sending your paper as TEXT to your instructor. The following steps should insure a successful submission:

1. Save your paper as a TEXT ONLY file (with ending .txt). For example, you might save your paper to a floppy disk as mathautobio.txt - make sure to choose the type of file as TEXT ONLY (in MS Word the default is to save as a Word-formatted file ending in .doc, this is NOT what you want. To save as TEXT in Microsoft Word, go to the File Menu, choose SAVE AS; a dialog box will appear that allows you to name the file and choose the file type. The default file type appears as "Word Document" or something like that. Using the mouse, click on the "Word Document" file type, a drop down menu will allow other types of file formats. Scroll down and choose TEXT ONLY or PLAIN TEXT. Now name your file. Microsoft Word will create a new file with your new name and will append the hidden ending of .txt to it.).
2. Go to a computer from which you can
   • open a text file
   • send email
3. Do whatever steps necessary to begin an email to your instructor
   • enter the instructor's email address
   • in the Subject line, enter your NAME and "Math Autobiography"
   • in the CC line, enter your email address (this sends you a copy of the email in case there is a problem, you will have a message ready to forward/re-send later which contains your essay).
4. Put the disk with your essay, (e.g. mathautobio.txt) on it into the computer.
5. Open the file mathautobio.txt
6. Click in the window containing your essay.
7. Choose "Select All" from the EDIT menu - all the text of your paper should be highlighted on the screen.
8. Choose "Copy" from the EDIT menu
9. Next, click in the email window where the body of the email message goes.
10. In the EDIT menu of the EMAIL PROGRAM, select "Paste"
11. You should see the text of your paper pasted into the email message.
12. Scroll through the email message to make sure all of your paper is there (on some computers you may have to repeat the Copy and Paste steps for each paragraph).
13. At the bottom of the email message, at the end of your paper, put a blank line (press "Return") and then type: END.
14. Send the email.
15. Check your email in a half hour to make sure the email went through.

The essay will be graded as follows:
10 points for length: if the paper is less than 1100 words then the length score will be reduced; the scores for grammar and content will be proportionally reduced as well.
15 points for spelling and grammar.
75 points for content (as long as the paper is coherent, is about the student's personal math history and is at least 1100 words long, all content points will be earned).

The instructor is happy to proofread drafts of the paper during office hours.