CS 553 Spring 2003

Position papers and Commentary

Below are all the papers the class submitted, along with some of my commentary. Please give me feedback in class on how helpful (if at all) reading your classmates' papers was.

Grading Criteria:

• Is the position well defined? This will help:

Define a real issue: one with genuine controversy and uncertainty.

Make the issue narrow enough to be manageable.

Is the position quantified? That is, put in numerical terms, if possible?

• 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?

Quantitative evidence based on experimentation?

General facts about the systems in question?

Ancedotes only?

• Is the paper logically organized?

Is it easy to follow the position, counter-arguments, and evidence?

Are there transistions between sections?

• Is the paper easy to read?

Was a name and title put on the paper?

Are a consistent writing style and tone used throughout?

Is vocabulary is correct and conforming to standard practices?

Are the grammar and spelling correct?

Is a consistent tense used throughout?

• Most importantly, would a skeptic be convinced, or at least swayed, to the position in the paper?

Evaluation scheme

This evaluations might seem harsh, which is true. Here are my evaluation catagories and their meaning:

1. Excellent: The paper could be sumbitted as a "letter" --- a short position paper-- to a journal as is.
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 addressesed, (4) really bad grammer, or (5) poor organization.
5. Poor: The position in not well explained or defined. The paper is confusing or internally inconsistent.
6. Atrocious: What a piece of junk! I'm surprized it was turned in at all.

Helpful Hint

This essay "Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell is an excellent guide to good writing. You should read it. Hopefully Orwell's famous parody from the essay will inspire you to read it further. He illustrates the effect modern writing has on expressive power The first quote is from the King James Bible, the second, Orwell's modern version:

• I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

• Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.