Technical writing in computer systems and networks -- DAT147

Autumn semester,
study period 1, 2014

(Course code for Göteborg University: DIT665)
   

News:

• [2014-12-01] The course questionnaire was opened on November 28th and will close on December 12th.  
                        Please submit your viewpoints.
• [2014-12-01] The last student presentations were given Thu 141128. We have started to check whether
                        students have fulfilled the requirements of the course. For those who have done this a 
                        grading list will be sent in within the next few days. For a few others we might come back
                        for extra clarification.
• [2014-11-12] It is only partly compulsory to attend the paper presentations on the 20th, 26th and 27th
                        of November. See Course schedule below. 
• [2014-11-07] We have now received the revised versions of your surveys.
• [2014-10-27] The schedule for the student presentations of November 20, 26 and 27 was added.
• [2014-10-27] The submission page on EasyChair is now open for updates of previously submitted papers.
• [2014-10-27] All reviews have been shared among reviewers of each survey.
• [2014-10-24] Information about the remaining review procedure can be found here.
                        The Milestones and deadlines document was also updated accordingly.
• [2014-10-22] All reviews have been sent to the authors.
• [2014-10-21] The course evaluation questionnaire will be distributed after Nov. 27th.
                        This is due to the fact that the course is not finished until then.
• [2014-10-20] The deadline for review resubmission (if asked) is on Tuesday, November 21, 23:59.
                        On Wednesday, Nov. 22, you will receive the reviews on your surveys.
• [2014-10-14] The reviewing tasks have now been allocated to all students. The deadline for
                        submission is Friday, October, 17th. 
                        Further, please do not forget to send your reports to Urkund.
• [2014-10-09] This is the review form that the form on EasyChair is based on.
• [2014-10-06] Guide to EasyChair was updated
• [2014-09-06] Topic allocation to groups is now done
• [2014-07-03] A template paper for the lectures was added
• [2014-06-16] The course page was created

Course Description

This course aims to develop the student's awareness of the underlying structure of scientific and engineering research papers, and to improve proficiency in reviewing and writing scientific research papers as well as presenting such papers in public. To this end the student examines and surveys current state of the art in a specific field, such as e.g. data communication, computer networks, distributed systems, computer security, real-time systems, computer architecture and computer system engineering and writes an analytical survey paper in this field. Ethical issues in general and in connection with scientific writing, e.g. plagiarism and authorship, is an important part of the course.

Recommended text book
Writing for Computer Science, 2nd ed., by Justin Zobel, ISBN 978-1-85233-802-2
(Full Text Online, Chalmers Library)

Template papers
These papers will be used as illustrative survey examples in the lectures and workshops:
"Model-Based Evaluation: From Dependability to Security" by Nicol et al
 
"Prudent Practices for Designing Malware Experiments Status Quo and Outlook" by Christian Rossow et al.

"Little words can make a big difference for text classification" by Ellen Riloff

Examiner and teachers

Course schedule

Lectures and workshops
(Participation in Lectures below is mandatory. Paper presentations are partly mandatory.)

• Lecture 1: Course introduction overview (Erland), Milestones and deadlines (Iosif).
  Presentation of eight paper topics
  Mon 2014-09-01, 13-15, room EE 
  
  
• Lecture 2: Short briefing by Linda Bradley. Presentation of more paper topics.
  Here is the list of all topics
  Thu 2014-09-04, 8-10, room EB
  
  
• Lecture 3: Lecture and workshop on Scientific reading and writing,
  Guide to Easychair, Workshop comments
  Mon 2014-09-08, 13-17, room EB - and EL43 for splitting the class
  
  
• Lecture 4: Lecture and workshop: "Making Ethical Considerations, part I"
  Mon 2014-09-22, 13-16, room EA - and EL43 and ES51 for group work
  
  
• Lecture 5: Lecture and workshop on Critical reviewing and peer response,
  Review form
  Thu 2014-10-09, 8-12, room ED - and ES51 for splitting the class
  
  
• Lecture 6: Lecture and workshop: "Making Ethical Considerations, part II"
  Mon 2014-10-20, 13-16, room ED - and EL41 and EL42 for group work
  
  
• Lecture 7: Lecture on presentation techniques:
  Paper presentation guidelines
  Giving a talk -  guest lecturer Dave Sands
  Wed 2014-11-12, 15-17, room EB)
  
  
• Lecture 8: Lecture: "Introduction to Ethical issues in Research"
  Ethical issues in research, science and engineering
  Authorship and co-authorship - ethical guidelines
  Research fraud and deceit
  Programmers, professors and parasites: Credit and co-authorship in computer science (paper)
  Thu 2014-11-13, 10-12, room ED
  
  
• Paper presentations (occasion "20"): The students' presentation of their papers
  Thu 2014-11-20, 15-17, room EB
  
  
• Paper presentations (occasions "26A" and "26B"): The students' presentation of their papers
  Wed 2014-11-26, 13-15 and 15-17, room EA
  
  
• Paper presentations (occasion "27"): The students' presentation of their papers
  Thu 2014-11-27, 15-17, room ED

Milestone dates - overview
(for details see Milestones and deadlines)

• 2014-09-15: Survey synopsis and abstract submitted
  
• 2014-09-22: Supervisor acceptance of survey synopsis and abstract
• 2014-10-12: Full survey paper submitted
• 2014-11-07: Full survey paper reflecting reviewers' comments submitted
• 2014-11-19: Expected acceptance of survey 
  
• 2014-11-20, 26 and 27: Survey presentations
  Schedule for presentation days
  
  
• 2014-11-28: Very final deadline for acceptance of survey papers
  (in exceptional cases)
  

Extra Reading

Course Evaluation

• Information on the process of course evaluation is found on the Course Evaluation page.

• Student representatives for the course are:
   
• Ying Dong Dong
• Chaltu Tadesse Gemechu
• Simon Heywood
• Hedvig Jonsson