User talk:E E Ballew

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Hello, E E Ballew, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful: Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or and a volunteer will visit you here shortly. Again, welcome! Valfontis (talk) 17:42, 17 January 2015 (UTC)
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FOIL method
Hi E.E., I am interested in your recent addition to the FOIL method article. The writing style will need to be changed so that it is more encyclopedic and I will be happy to do this but I would need your help (or I can help you do it yourself). You seem to have access to the text you mentioned and one piece of information that would be useful would be the page number for the quote you gave. You also seem to have more information about the author of the text than one usually has about textbook authors. The statement you made about the likelihood of earlier appearances would need to be altered so that it was not just your opinion being expressed, but rather something about the author which would make this likely to be true. You can respond here and I will see it. Bill Cherowitzo (talk) 03:52, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

The info is all from my personal research and communication with others interested in the history of math and math education. You are welcome to rewrite the info in "encyclopedia" form. I am researching Betz, and the early 1900-1930 math reform movement which he was part of. For support of his early textbook writing:

July 2, 1908. Betz, W. (1908), THE TEACHING OF GEOMETRY IN ITS RELATION TO THE PRESENT EDUCATIONAL TREND. School Science and Mathematics, 8: 625–633. doi: 10.1111/j.1949-8594.1908.tb01283.x

Reviewed Work: "SOLID GEOMETRY by William Betz, N. Y Rochester, Harrison E. Webb Review by: The Journal of Education Vol. 83, No. 22 (2082) (JUNE 1, 1916), p. 610 Which is a dozen years before the 1929 Algebra which contains FOIL.

I'm not sure if my personal communication is permissible, but I have communication with math historians and math teachers overseas and have found no record of the terms use outside North America (but still I search).

Betz himself was heavily involved with Math Education Reform, and among other associations was active with National Education Association. He was a member, and subcommittee chair on several of the panels created to review and make recommendations for math education. 1912 Final Report of The Committee of Fifteen on Geometry Syllabus http://www.mathcurriculumcenter.org/PDFS/CCM/summaries/comm_of_15_summary.pdf


 * Thanks. Since this is your own research we would need to use the information carefully to avoid running afoul of Wikipedia's prohibition of original research (WP:OR). That means, in effect, that I will have to phrase things in a weaker, non-controversial form that can be directly tied to sources. If and when you publish your findings, someone (like me for instance) can make the statements more precise by citing your work as a reliable source (you shouldn't do this yourself as that would be considered a conflict of interest, WP:COI). I think that tying Betz to the educational reform movement would be the way to imply that he might be the originator of the expression. The case for this would be strengthened if one of the tenets of the movement was to incorporate such devices in the teaching of elementary mathematics ... have you come across any such thing? Also, the references you've given all involve geometry, do you know of other works of his that were not geometric in nature? Again thanks. Bill Cherowitzo (talk) 17:20, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

These are just the books he wrote that are still listed on Amazon, he was also a frequent contributor to journals etc.

Algebra For Today: First Course 1928 (This seems to be the same book as the 1929 by the same name that has FOIL, but I have not seen the 1928, do not Know if FOIL was in it, would seem to be important if it were not.)

Algebra for Today First Course1929 by William Betz

Algebra for today,: Second course,1931

Junior Mathematics for Today Book One 1933 Junior Mathematics for Today - Book Two 1934 Basic mathematics,1942

Basic Mathematics Course I - A Self-Teaching Course (War Department Education Manual, EM 308) 1944 by William Betz and U.S. War Department Education Staff Writers

Everyday Junior Mathematics: Book Two1945 Everyday Algebra - Elementary Course1951 Everyday General Mathematics1960

P Ballew 18:15, 31 August 2015 (UTC)


 * I just revised the page. I hope it looks ok to you. Bill Cherowitzo (talk) 00:19, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

It looks fine. The little bit of history helps; students (and teachers) often think it all started with Pythagoras and nothing has changed since... P Ballew 00:36, 1 September 2015 (UTC)


 * I did some copyediting on your contribution to the factoring page. I was able to fix the image problem, but noticed that you hadn't given the uploaded file a copyright tag. Wikipedia is very sensitive about copyrights and will remove items if the copyright is questionable. I assume that you scanned the page from Smith's History of Math, which is old enough to be in the public domain, but you have to provide that information when you upload (or add it later I think). A word about the image. The quality isn't very good (it looks pretty blurry on my laptop) and this isn't the type of thing that we usually use for images. A facsimile of Harriot's original work would be much better than Smith's verbal description of it. Bill Cherowitzo (talk) 04:26, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

I'll try to create one. Thanks for your support. P Ballew 12:31, 1 September 2015 (UTC) Wcherowi, I think I managed to write out his method without using the image, and then linked the online version of the book. Hope that works.P Ballew 13:36, 1 September 2015 (UTC)