CS 459 Social Implications in Computing

Guidelines for the Papers

First paper: the first paper should be selected with your own interests in social implications of computers in mind. Please write a paper of at least three pages double spaced, with title, subheadings, and references. The paper can be a critical review of some relevant article, law, or convention, or a constructive approach to a difficult problem in the area. This paper is due at the beginning of class on Monday March 11. You must submit in paper or electronic form by that time. Late papers will not be considered. Handwritten papers will not be considered. If you submit electronically your paper must be readable and printable on my Linux machine. I run star office, netscape, ghostview, and emacs. If you are not submitting plain ASCII it would be wise to check ahead of time whether your format is readable to me.

Second paper: The second paper is written in two steps. First, a proposal for your discussion topic is due at the first of class at least two weeks before your assigned time to lead discussion in class, and the topic for discussion must be the same topic as for the second paper. The paper itself is due at 5PM Monday May 6. Late papers will not be considered. Handwritten papers will not be considered. If you submit electronically your paper must be readable and printable on my Linux machine. I run star office, netscape, ghostview, and emacs. If you are not submitting plain ASCII it would be wise to check ahead of time whether your format is readable to me.

Expectations on the papers to be turned in: The papers accepted for satisfactory performance in this class will be supreme examples of technical writing, in which your complete mastery of the English language--with its power and beauty, its ability to distinguish fine nuances and describe vast undertakings--will be evident to the most casual reader, much less the critical review of the faculty. You may wish to review your work in technical writing, and/or obtain a new reference in this domain.

Pointers for Technical Writing

  1. Read the assignment thoroughly.
  2. Design the paper as a good program would be designed--top down, with a logical flow of major points, considering the function each paragraph is to perform. Be encouraged to use subheadings-- they are of great help in making the organization of your thoughts (and the paper) evident to other readers of your work. They are also helpful in assuring that similar topics are clustered together, and that the flow of logic is appropriate to represent your thoughts on the topic at hand.
  3. Read the assignment again, more thoroughly.
  4. See 2. again to make certain you've considered ALL of the parts of every question in the problem statement.
  5. Begin writing text, using only the third person. That is, avoid using "I", "me", and "we", as these are first person. Also avoid using "you" and "yours", as these are second person. Please be encouraged to use a good paper (the paper "Populating the Hermitage Museum's New Web Site", by Mintzer et al, CACM August 2001, pp 52-60, comes to mind as a good example of technical writing) as a model. Notice how they word sentences that could have been written using the first or second person (almost always) but are able to avoid those constructs by the various means illustrated in the paper. Avoid stating opinions--everyone thinks his/her program/interface/project is great, so what is needed is a more objective evaluation. Also please note how references are handled, both in the text and in the bibliography at the end of the paper (see 7. below).
  6. Read the assignment again, even more thoroughly, and be very critical of yourself in the context of forcing yourself to respond to every aspect of every question, in a sensible order which flows gracefully with the powerful logic you've brought to bear on the topic.
  7. The first rule for references has two parts: First, each reference that appears in the reference list (bibliography) at the end of the paper should be referenced in the context in which it contributes, within the text of the paper. Second, each reference discussed in the text should be included in the reference list at the end of the paper. The third rule of references is to avoid plagiarism, or the appearance of plagiarism, by referencing all work that is obtained from some source outside the team or author (i.e. reference all work that is not original with the members of the team). A fourth rule for references is that whenever a claim is made, it must either be proven, or a source in which it has been proven or demonstrated must be cited. Unsupported claims have no place in technical writing!
  8. When you have finished writing (and this should be interpreted as "filling in the stubs", as in a program), (a) check your writing once more against the problem statement(s) to be certain that all aspects of the problem are addressed in what you've written, and (b) check for correct spelling and grammatical constructs.