Each commentary essay is to be two to three pages long, double spaced, typed using a font size of 12 to 14 and one inch margins. Each point should be addressed with supporting evidence from the article, course content, or personal experience as appropriate.
Do You Believe in Fairies, Unicorns, or the BMI?
https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/devlin_05_09.html
Bad Math, Bad Thinking: the BMI and DNA Identification Revisited
The section titled “BMI Rant Revisited” has some additional mathematical and historical insight left out of the previous article.
https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/devlin_02_11.html
These two essays talk about what the BMI, body mass index, its origins, and its use. It is not uncommon for statistical findings and models to be misused or overused by people who do not understand them and are looking for easy answers. Your essay should include the following with support and reasoning for each:
A summary of what the author’s purpose in writing the article was.
A discussion of one of the reasons the author gives for why the BMI shouldn’t be so broadly used including your own thoughts on this reason.
How the topic of this article relates to material we have covered in class.