Data Carpentry for Biologists

Assignment Submission & Checklist

  • All assignments should be submitted through Canvas

  • What files to submit:

    • Week 1 - one text form, one .xlsx file
    • Weeks 2-6 - a link to your Posit Cloud project
    • Weeks 7+ - either a link to your Posit Cloud project or a zip of you local RStudio project directory

Code Checklist

Make sure your code matches the provided answers

  • At the bottom of each exercise a set of answers are provided. For full credit your answers should match those provided. For example, if there are three separate plots your code should produce three separate plots.
  • Some errors can lead to only subtle differences so check carefully
  • Sometimes small differences result from changes in packages. If you see a difference but you think your answer is right, let us know and we can check.

Make sure your code follows the instructions

  • It is possible to get the right output even when doing something the wrong way
  • To get full credit on assignments you need to both follow the instructions and get the right output

Clean up your code

Code should be easy to read and understand.

  • Only include code and comments necessary for the assignment. Remove anything else (e.g., notes taken during class, commented code that isn’t needed anymore).
  • Remove extra/duplicate files. Only turn in what is necessary for the assignment.
  • Remove any uses of install.packages
  • Clearly label problems using comments.

Make sure your code runs like you think it does

Code should run from the start of the file to the end of the file without problems. To make sure this is true:

  • Clear the R environment by clicking on the the broom icon.
  • Run the entire file by either clicking the Source button or using the Ctrl-Shift-S keyboard shortcut (Cmd-Shift-S on macOS).

Work with data files appropriately

Code should run the same way regardless of which computer it is run on. In order to grade your code someone will need to run it on another computer. To make sure your code will work on another computer:

  • Do not use setwd()
  • Use relative paths, not absolute paths. E.g., use data/mydata.csv instead of C:\Users\Batman\DataCarp\data\mydata.csv.
  • Make filenames in the code match the actual filenames exactly including capitalization