Term Paper Submission

• All papers must be stapled or submitted in a report binder.
• Each term paper must have a title page with the title of the paper, the author, the class information (CS4345 - Summer 1998) and the date of submission.
• Term papers should be around 14-15 pages in length.  No term paper should exceed 20 pages.  Write concisely and clearly.  Avoid excess verbiage.
• Students are responsible for determining the exact outline and organization of the paper but it must include the following:
• Introduction
• Discussions presenting both sides of the argument
• Critical analysis of the discussions
• An answer to the resolution supported by logical argumentation
• Bibliography - all references should be numbered and should adopt the following formats (please pay attention to punctuation and formatting - for example, titles should be in italics).
• Journal / Magazine - Ousterhaut, J., Scelza, D., and Sindhu, P., "Medusa: An experiment in distributed operating system structure." Communications of the ACM, Feb 1980, pp. 132-143.
• Book - Erodoes, R. and Ortiz, A., American Indian Myths and Legends,  Pantheon Books: New York, NY, 1984.
• Edited book, anthology, proceedings -
• Pfister, G. et al., "The IBM research parallel processor prototype (RP3): Introduction and architecture", in Proceedings of the 1985 International Conference on Parallel Processing, St. Charles, Ill., Aug 1985, pp. 764-771.
• Kling, R., "Computerization at Work." In R. Kling (Ed.), Computerization and Controversy.  Academic Press: New York, NY, 1996, pp. 104-111.
• Web Reference - Grunwald, M., "Lawsuit Surge May Cost U.S. Billions", Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/winstar/winstar081098.htm, Aug 10, 1998.
• Personally conducted interview - Freeman, Peter, dean, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Aug. 6, 1998, 5:50 pm.

Page Formatting:

• All papers must be typed.  A word processor is strongly suggested (use the spell checker).  .
• Text must be double-spaced, Times or Times Roman 12 point font, with 1.25" left/right margins and 1" top/bottom margins
• Page numbers will be located at the bottom of the paper as a centered footnote.  Use an Arial or Helvetica 8 point font and the following format: <last name of author> - Page #    Example: Hsi - Page 5
• Each heading and subheading must be preceded by a description of the heading in a different style and font from normal text.  Word 95 provides this function by hitting Alt-Shift-Right Arrow to select the next heading and Alt-Shift-Left Arrow to use the last heading (for multiple sub-sections.

Paper Style:

• The term paper must adopt a technical writing style.
• You are to articulate and defend your arguments in a professional and logical manner.
• All arguments must be supported using source material gathered through your research or by provable, supported, technical information (design specifications, mathematical proofs, or schematics).
• Excessive personal orations or citations as well as unbridled use of colloquial expressions will be frowned upon.
• Reference citations should adopt the following (last name of author, year) - Example: (Lightman, 1994).  If a paper has not been cited in the text, it should not be in the bibliography.
• The paper must be grammatical and accurately spelled.  This means that it must be Spell-checked and Proofread.
• The term paper will be graded for style. Sentences and paragraphs must have good transitions, organization, vocabulary, and flow.  The following books are good references:
• Dupre, Lynn, Bugs in Writing : A Guide to Debugging Your Prose, Addison-Wesley, 1995, ISBN: 0201600196.
• Strunk, William, The Elements of Style, 3rd Edition, Macmillan: New York, NY, 1979.
• http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk/
• A paper with glaring grammatical or spelling errors will receive a 20% deduction.  As a suggestion - if you have time, get someone else to read and proofread your work.

Paper Grading:

• Papers will be graded on the following:
• Conformance to Submission, Formatting, and Style guidelines.
• Depth, variety, and quality of the reference sources.
• Quality of the factually supported background that establishes the context of the resolution for the reader.  Is the reader provided with enough background to understand the nature of the
• Objective and detailed argumentation of each side of the argument.
• Critical analysis that summarizes the arguments presented, analyzes their strengths and shortcomings, determines where they agree and where they disagree.
• Quality of argument and support that determines the course of the resolution.  Student must have expressed an opinion and successfully argued in support of this opinion.
• Other factors that will be examined include:
• Readability - Is the paper easy to read and follow?  Does the student compose and communicate in a coherent and concise manner?
• Organization of the paper - Does the paper present an ordered argument or does it ramble?  Does the paper clearly establish and prove a series of arguments or does it just use facts and references as the sole argumentation tool?
• Quality of the analysis - How far does the paper go to explain the resolution and the arguments involved?  Does it simply stop at the superficial arguments of the debate or does it attempt to analyze the underlying rationales and motivations behind the respective supporters?
• Does the student exhibit a degree of thoughtfulness, healthy skepticism, and attention to detail in writing the paper?

Late Policy:

• Late papers will receive a 10% grade deduction per day after the submission date.

Academic Honesty

All students are expected to maintain traditional standards of academic integrity by giving proper credit for all work referenced, quoted, etc.  Unless otherwise stated, all work is individual work by each student.  Students are encouraged to discuss and debate the issues with the instructor, the teaching assistants, and each other but the work submitted must be that student's thought and writing.  All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be aggressively pursued.