CS378W, History of Computing
Week 1, Weekly Report
Due 2004 Aug 26
Reports for CS378 History of Computing
Donald I Good
2004 Aug 24
Reports for this class are to be submitted in same basic structure as this page. Unless directed otherwise, use SF Express (1) as your guide for English composition and document your sources as explained in CMS Modifications. Within that broad framework, I encourage you to exercise your own creativity.
Reports as Web Pages. Create each report as a web page. You may use whatever tools you wish to create the page, and you may put it in whatever web space is available to you. The only other requirement is that we course instructors be able to view your page. We may view your reports with Mozilla, Netscape, or Internet Explorer. So create pages that will display properly in any one of them. The easiest way to do that is to use only simple web page features and stay away from the exotic ones, particularly the ones that are unique to one particular browser. If you want to see the HTML for this page, save it from your browser, and look at it with a text editor.
Heading Lines. Look at the first six lines of text of this page. They should appear on every report. The information on the first three lines should come from Weekly Topics. Don't make up your own week numbers. The report title describes the subject matter of your report. It isn't something like "Week Two Report." The title is followed by your name and the date of submission. (The dates that I use are a modified form of the ISO standard. You can make your own choice.)
Body. The body of your report is the part between the date of submission and the notes. Create the body of your report by doing your research reading, understanding it in your own mind, and composing your report in your own words. Document carefully all of the sources of information used in your report. However, don't try to use extensive quotations and paraphrases to write your report for you. Most of your report must be in your own words.
The body of your report must contain 100%-200% of the minimum number of words specified in Grades. The body may have more words if you wish, but we may not read them. Words outside the body of your report will not be counted. If it is useful to include additional material with your report, use an appendix.
The body of your report is a sequence of paragraphs that embodies a logical flow of thoughts that describes the results of your research. A paragraph is a sequence of sentences that is unified around a central idea which is expressed in a single topic sentence. The rest of the paragraph supports the topic sentence and makes the transition to adjoining paragraphs (1, sec. 4c). A sentence has both a subject and a verb (1, p. 152).
A report of more than 500 words should be broken into sections, each with its own heading. Your 1500 word topic report should have an opening and a closing paragraph which embody the main ideas of the report. Together they should provide a short summary of the entire report.
Documenting Sources. Document all sources of information that you use in your report. This is a matter of professional ethics, and the rationale is simple. Give credit to whom credit is due. Failure to do so is plagiarism, and it carries a severe penalty in this class. See Grades.
Read and understand the research part of SF Express (1, pp. 39-58). It gives a general guide to doing research, using sources, and avoiding plagiarism. You will need to apply these methods correctly on every report. Pay particular attention to the material on quotations, paraphrases, and plagiarism. You also should understand the UT Dean of Students statement on academic integrity (2) and the examples of plagiarism it contains.
SF Express gives four different methods of documenting sources, MLA, APA, Chicago style (CMS), and CBE (1, pp. 59-131). For this class, use only the modified form of Chicago style that is explained in CMS Modifications.
Those are your guidelines for happy report writing!
Notes
1. John Ruszkiewicz, Maxine Hairston, and Christy Friend, SF Express (New York: Longman, 2002).
2. "Academic Integrity," http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/academicintegrity.html (The University of Texas at Austin, accessed 2004 Aug 18).
Bibliography
If a bibliography is assigned, this is where it goes.
Appendix A. Descriptive Title
Attach additional related material here in one or more appendices if you wish.