Because this takes extra time, (as well as for other reasons), I do not collect all of the homework. I suggest, however, that you get in the habit of keeping all of your homework neat, legible, and organized. This is an extremely useful skill that applies to life beyond math, and more concretely, will help study, come exam time.

To all of these ends, I have put together some guidelines. As I've said, following these guidelines will not only make the grading easier for me, but also makes your papers more useful to you in the future. If you do not follow them, I may return your homework ungraded.

• Staple your papers together.
  Please do not fold over the corners in the vain hope that this will keep your assignment together.
  It will only get caught up with other assignments, not to mention making your assignment unsightly.
  You put a lot of effort into it--make it look like it!
  
• Recopy your work.
  Your solutions should make sense, and have no scratch-outs.
  
• Do not try to fit your entire solution onto one page.
  While the trees would undoubtedly benefit from your economy, my eyes do not.
  Please leave space between each problem.
  Space is also a good tool for separating various thought processes within a problem.
  On top of that, it gives me room to make comments.
  
• Work to make your homework handsome and readable.
  It is much more pleasant for me when I grade homework that is easy to read.
  One way to do this is to use pencil rather than pen.
  If you must use pen, only use one side of the paper.
  (Feel free to use the clean side of paper that's
  been once through the printer.)
  
• Before the solution to each problem, state or summarize the question.
  Without this, your homework is useless for studying.
  With a summary, and with the data included, your homework becomes a very useful study tool.
  
• Give the entire solution, not just the answer!
  It is the thought process which is important.
  Explain your work, using a combination of notation and complete sentences.
  Answers like ``yes'', ``53'', or ``A wins'' will receive little or no credit,
  whether the answers are right or not.
  This is uninformative, doesn't reinforce the ideas in your head, doesn't let me know whether
  you understand or are simply guessing, and is useless to you later.