Prof. Anthony Hornof, Fall 2010
Topics: In-class discussion on what would make this class useful to for graduate students.
Topics: What is a scientific contribution? What is science? What is computer science?
Read before class: "Five Deep Questions in Computing" by Jeannette Wing (3 pages).
Bring to class: Three published papers from a top conference or journal that you need to read for your research. Bring these three "sample" papers to class every week. You will be critiquing them throughout the term, so try to pick three important papers in your area of research. Perhaps your research advisor can help you with this. If you ever get tired of any of these papers and want to start working with new published papers, that is fine.
Assignment handed out: Read Chapter 40 (5 pages) on peer review. (This will be provided in class in case you are still getting your textbook.) Evaluate two (real) 1-page proposals to the National Science Foundation (NSF). Recommend, based on the NSF-provided criteria for evaluation, whether each should be funded. Why or why not? Your recommendation should be two pages long. Print it out and bring it to class the following week.
Read before class: Chapters 1-6 (about 35 pages).
In class: Discuss the homework due today. Students skim their three papers, identifying and discussing the purported scientific contribution of each.
Assignment handed out: Write three 1-page summaries of the the purported scientific contributions of each of your three sample papers. Note that you do not actually need to read the entire paper in order to determine the purported scientific contribution.
Topics: Titles, Authors, Abstract, Introductions. These parts of the paper summarize, attribute, and set up the paper. The challenge is to be clear and accurate while also capturing interest. Sometimes the contribution is "abstracted" to a higher sometimes overblown level of contribution.
Read before class: Chapters 7-10 (20 pages).
In class: Discuss the homework due today. Peer review of summaries of scientific contributions. Does each summary clearly identify either (a) the contribution to fundamental knowledge or (b) the engineering though not necessarily scientific contribution that was made instead. (Think back to the two NSF proposals.) Work with a partner. Pick one of the three summaries. Use standard copyediting notation (handed out in class) to copyedit and review for the question above as well as for overall clarity of writing. Discuss. The copyeditor should put their name on the manuscript. Submit all three, including the marked-up paper. Indicate one of the three summaries that you would like the instructor to read carefully and comment on.
Assignment handed out: Write a 1-page critique for each of your three sample papers (or three others) with regards to the main points of Chapters 7-10. For example, does the abstract of a paper summarize the paper well? For each paper, you can discuss different chapters, if you like, but be sure to discuss all four chapters. When discussing authors, try to establish the relationship among multiple authors.
Topics: The body of the paper: Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References.
Read before class: Chapters 11-15 (about 24 pages).
In class: Discuss the homework due today. Then, pick one or two of your three papers, and identify the high-level flow and structure of that paper. Again, note that you do not actually need to read the entire paper in order to extract the structure.
Assignment handed out: Write a two-page summary of the organization of two of your sample papers, including the high-level flow of the sections and the overall argument that the paper is setting up and making.
Topics: Tables, graphs, and photos.
Read before class: Chapters 16-18.
In class: Discuss the homework due today. Discuss examples of good and not-so-good tables and graphs. Try to bring sample papers with tables and graphs that we can discuss.
Assignment handed out: Write a two-page summary of the use of tables, graphs, or figures in one of your sample papers. How do the tables or figures contribute to the papers?
Topics: Topic sentence outline. The headings and topic sentences of a paper should tell the top-level story.
Assignment handed out: Either (a) write a 3-page critique of the headings and topic sentences of one of your sample papers or (b) write a first-pass 2-page topic-sentence outline of a paper that you need to write. Do whichever option is more useful to you.
In class: Critique the high-level flows of sample papers.
Read before class: Chapters 30-34 (about 37 pages). Possibly another source as well.
In class exercises (possibly handed out in advance) on dangling modifiers, metaphor, tense, active versus passive, parallel structure, jargon, abbreviations, writing across cultures, writing in English as a second language.
Read before class: Chapter 27. Possibly another source as well.
In class exercise: Critique of presentations given by instructor. Discuss what makes a great presentation.
Assignment out: Prepare a 10-minute presentation on your research in progress, or on one of your sample appears.
In class exercise: Critique of presentations given by students.