CS 552 Fall 2004
Paper Review Assignment

Overview

In this assignment, you will review 2 position papers. You evaluations should run about 1-2 pages (500-800 words) each.

Due Dates
Reviews:  Midnight, Friday, Oct 29^th , 2004
Email reviews in PDF or plain text to the instructor.

What to write in your reviews:

1: Did the paper accomplish the goals of a position paper? You should critique the paper on at least the following points. You may add other points if you wish. Please be as specific as possible; e.g. pointing out problem paragraphs, and counter-arguments. Just saying “I didn't like the paper” is not helpful to the author.

• Is the position well defined?
• Are the communities of people involved with the position (and their positions) identified?
• Are the opposing positions articulated? Are rebuttals given to the opposing positions?
• What evidence is used to support the position?
• Is the paper logically organized?
• Is the paper easy to read?
• Would a skeptic be convinced, or at least swayed, to the position in the paper?

2: Provide 2-3 suggestions to improve the paper. Again, be as specific as possible with your suggestions.

3: Provide a Final Score:

Rank the paper on a scale from 1-5: 1=best, 5=worst.

1. Excellent: The paper could only use some extremely minor improvements.

2. Very Good: The paper has some problems, but nothing that couldn't be fixed without a quick clean-up.

3. Good: The paper has some problems, there are some gaps in the overall positions, counter-positions, or supporting evidence.

4. Fair: The paper has more serious problems. These may include (1) ill-defined position, (2) elements of the evidence are missing, (3) counter positions are not addressed, (4) really bad grammar, or (5) poor organization.

5. Poor: The position in not well explained or defined. The paper is confusing or internally inconsistent.

Review Assignments:

I tried to keep the topics to review close to the author's topic. Below is a list of papers as well as the papers you need to review. Find the column with your paper number, the “paper to review” in your paper row are those papers you should review.