Please write these up as coherent essays with full sentences. The only exceptions are diagrams, graphs, or examples of programming code; even these should serve to illustrate your written prose. Typing and proofreading your text would probably be a very good idea! I don't grade on the basis of handwriting or grammar, but if I can't read your project (either because it's illegible or because the English makes no sense), then that will be bad for your grade.
Some of the project specifications include a list of questions. Please don't just write your paper as a list of questions and answers. Instead, these questions are intended to suggest what you might want to write about. Your essay should make sense on its own, even to somebody that never read the project description.
Typically, a good project will be about two or three pages. So you don't need to write a lot of words; the important thing is to make it clear that you've thought about the ideas.
In later weeks, some options will involve Proofs; I will ask you to write a rigorous mathematical proof for these. By the end of the course, you will have to do a Proofs project! But even these projects are really essays, since a written proof in mathematics (as practised by human beings) is simply an essay explaining why something must be true. So don't just give a string of logical symbols with no words.
Most projects are neither Programming nor Proofs; these are the most straightforward.
You must cite your sources! If you get an idea from a web site or a book (or even talking with an acquaintance, like a classmate or tutor), then say where you got the idea from. If you want to copy words that somebody else wrote (or said), then put quotation marks around them and say exactly who wrote what and where you read it. You should also include complete citations for the sources; for example, give the complete URL of a web page, or include the page number and edition of a book.
In the past two years that I've taught MATH 112, there have always been students that failed to cite sources; this is plagiarism, and a form of cheating (one that's easy to catch, too). But there's really no reason to cheat in this way, because it's perfectly OK to use other people's ideas as long as you don't claim credit for them. However, the point of the essay is to say what you think; so, after copying somebody else's words with quotation marks and a complete citation, be sure to write your own words explaining your reaction to it.
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