Policy on Draft Documents

As noted on the course schedule, many of the assignments may be submitted in draft form the first time around. This is because you may (indeed you are expected to) revise them based on comments that I make before you hand them in for a grade. The usual sequence is this:

We will cover the basic concepts behind the assignment in class. Usually, this will consist of group exercises, since lecturing does not work well online. At the end of class I will describe the assignment, and this information is also available on this Web site.
You will write a draft version of the assignment. If your project is large, you might want to write up only part of the assignment to be sure that you are on the right track before you commit the time to the entire document.
You will submit that draft to me. I will make comments and return it, almost invariably within one week. You may submit drafts up to one week early. I will reply in the order in which I receive them.
You will revise the draft based on my comments before the time that the project is due for grading.
In the case of the analysis portion of the project, you may submit it for tentative grading approximately midway through the course. It can still be revised once more after that. It should, however, be complete at this time.
Drafts submitted more than five days late will move down on my list of priorities. That is, I will deal with the ontime assignments first in all cases.