The work you do on this paper will be helpful to you and to the entire class, since it will point out what you find interesting, easy or hard and that in turn will help to guide me in teaching the class. So thanks in advance from Professor Futrelle.
Choosing your paper: By 6pm Tuesday, January 20, email me your top two or three ranked choices. You need only send me the pair of page numbers, e.g., "56-63" for each. That way I will have time to look over and compare the lists and see where there are conflicts that need resolving in class Wednesday morning, the 21st.
Here is the list of papers for you to choose from.
The instructions for accessing SIGIR are here. I have showed you how in class also.
Guidelines: Below I've included very rough guides as to the minimum number of words you should write for each part. I also grade on spelling, grammar and style, so pay attention to how you write. Remeber the first rule of good writing: There's no such thing as good writing, only good editing. That is, write something, then edit it, then edit again, and so forth.
Print a copy and find Glossary terms: Once we've decided on what paper you'll be doing, print out a copy and read it through once or twice. With your textbook's Glossary in hand, try to find five terms from the Glossary used in the paper and highlight or otherwise indicate the occurrences in the paper. Write a brief note about how each Glossary term you've found is used in the paper, something beyond the brief definition in the Glossary itself. If you find less than five, pick out some important technical terms in the paper to bring your total up to five. Discuss and explain those terms too. (200 words total)
Do the same for index terms: Do the same for technical terms drawn from the index of your textbook. Find five if possible, or add some to bring your total up to five and discuss each of the five. Highlight and discuss these just as for the Glossary terms. (200 words total)
Find one of the papers referenced in your paper: Figure out which of the papers referenced in your paper are particularly significant ones. Find an e-copy of one of these through the Library or on the Web, print it out and hand it in with your marked up paper. Include a brief note as to what role the referenced paper plays in your paper. (150 words)
Write a summary of your paper: Once you've done all the above, you should have a reasonable understanding of what your paper's about. Paste the paper's abstract into your summary and then add some notes of your own to fill in what you feel are important points not included in the abstract. (abstract plus 250 words)
Write about your successes and failures (if any): Be sure to describe what you were and were not able to understand about the paper. You may need to look at your textbook or other resources to help you figure out what your paper is about. Point out which parts you could understand, which were hard or impossible and why. (150 words)
Go to ISU535 home page. or RPF's Teaching Gateway or homepage