Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1999 20:34:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: Stacey Bearden  stacey@mathforum.org
To: All Dr. Math Doctors
Subject: Dr. Math in July


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ask Dr. Math Newsletter
July, 1999
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Greetings, Doctors. Boy, this summer weather is hot; better to sit 
indoors in air conditioning, writing Dr. Math responses, than to sit at 
the beach... :-)

Which may have been what our docs were doing. Take a look at these stats:

***************************
2990 -- questions received
1451 -- questions answered
49.7 -- percent answered
***************************

Round to a whole number, and we answered HALF of the incoming questions!  
Pretty good, even for the summer months....

Let's also welcome the new doctors for July, who may have been 
contributing to those great numbers...

Dr. KRoberts
Dr. Alexander
Dr. Douglas
Dr. T
Dr. Jesse
Dr. Lilla
Dr. Cohen

Welcome to the Team!

Plus, a hearty congratulations to our newly tenured doctors:

Dr. Karen
Dr. Ian

They've been doing some mighty fine work.

Next, a request from without: Amy Silberman, of The Guide to Math & 
Science Reform, is writing an article on "Ask-An-Expert" services and 
their use in K-12 classrooms and is profiling Ask Dr. Math. She is 
interviewing mostly students and teachers who use the service, but she 
is also interested in getting in touch with a few of the volunteers.  If 
anyone wouldn't mind emailing with her, please contact her at 
<asilbermann@tobylevine.com>. Please cc me in your note, so that I get 
an idea of how many of you respond.

And now the Tip Of The Month:


**************************
July's Tip:  PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD!
We all do it. An occasional typo.  A misspelled word. A missing comma.  
A misplaced modifier. But all it takes to correct the problem is a careful 
re-reading before clicking the "send" button. Spelling, grammar, and 
punctuation may not seem of the utmost importance in a math response, 
but the students see Dr. Math as the expert. We should keep that in 
mind and try to be models in our writing. In addition, one typo in a 
step-by-step response could mean the difference between clarity and 
confusion.  So please remember to take the extra time and PROOFREAD.
*************************

And finally, the thank you notes:

===============+++++=========+=========+++++===============

for everyone:
Question 1) Where were all you Maths teachers when I went to school? 
The responses given in the questions are so easy to understand! 
Not in my day! I wish.

Question 2) When am I ever going to need to ask a question? Because 
your archives have the answers to ALL my questions!

Question 3) Why wasn't I born 50 years later? Computers, Internet? 
What's next?

You've got the answers to all the other questions I ever had; please 
do your best to answer my three little questions. Thanks for an extremely 
well presented forum... Rob P.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for Dr. Scott:
Thanks for the quick reply, what a fantastic service... keep up the good
work!   

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for Dr. White:
Thank you so much for answering my question. I know you get a lot of
questions every day, and I just appreciate it that you took the time
to answer mine. I understand a lot better now, thanks to you. Thanks
again.
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for Dr. Wilkinson:
Thank you sooooo much for that!
I can't believe I didn't think of that!  

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for Dr. Peterson:
Thanks a googolplex for your most informative answer!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for Dr. Anthony:
I would like to thank you for the useful information you sent me and 
I would like to also thank you for replying to my email so quickly. 
I made great use of the information you provided and I hope O will get 
a good grade. Again I really appreciate you writing back and helping me, 
and I would really recommend your website to many friends; it is very 
interesting and helpful. Thanks again.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
for Dr. Annie:
I want to thank you for your fast response to my question about the sq.
feet. You have provided relief to a "nagging" question, and in reward,
please accept my deepest gratitude from the bottom of my heart.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for Dr. Floor:
Thanks for the lifesaving answers. I think that your web site is an
excellent resource.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for Dr. Jaffee:
You're good. Very good.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for Dr. Ian:
Thank you for the helpful and insightful info!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for Dr. Peterson:
Excellent explanation! This most definitely restores my confidence in 
the formula and the consistancy of math. Even more importantly, I 
understand! Wonderful Web site you have there! 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For Dr. Jaffee:
Thanks a lot for your help!
You have a great way of explaining things clearly.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Those are just a handful of the _71_ thank-you's received in July.  
Drs. Mike, FWG, Arthur, Rick, Jerry, Rob, Kimberly, and Arthur also 
received thank-you's, so watch your inboxes if you haven't received 
them yet.

Also a note: If you have any problems in the next couple of weeks, you 
may want to email dr.math-admin@mathforum.org rather than 
stacey@mathforum.org, since I will be away on business and won't 
be able to get back to you quickly.

Well, that's all for this one!  Have a wonderful August!

Dr. Stacey
Doctor Math Administrator
The Math Forum