Writing Requirements in Term Papers

Grammar, Formatting, and English Language in the term papers

All terms papers and proposals should be formatted using IEEE Transactions format style.

Please make sure your term paper has proper spelling, grammar, and overall readability. All UBC students are expected to have mastered technical English to the point where they can write a technical paper with only few minor grammatical errors, no spelling mistakes, and with reasonable flow and readability. For language, grammar, spelling, capitalization, and formatting issues, points will be taken off from your term paper mark according to the following scheme:

  1. First 12 issues: 0.25% for each.
  2. Next 9 issues: 0.33% for each.
  3. Next 10 issues: 0.5% for each.
  4. Any additional issues: 1% for each.
  5. The total taken off for language issues will be capped to 30%.

For example, if the term paper has 12 issues, 3% will be taken off. For 21 issues — 6%. For 31 issues — 11%. For 40 issues — 20%. For 50 or more issues — 30%.

The above scheme rewards carefully proofread papers and punishes sloppy writing. Note that grammatical errors include also punctuation marks. In the case of disagreement whether something is a grammatical error, The Bedford Handbook will be used as a reference.