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I prepared the midterm guidelines after the 2004 class, in which some students told me that my instructions in class for the midterm were not clear enough. I told the students that since there was not enough time for us to cover all of the relevant background topics during lectures I would assign each of them a topic to read about (in textbooks and online) and prepare a briefing for the other students about.
My specific instructions had been
I will assign each student a basic topic which we cannot cover in class due to time constraints. The student will then write a 3 – 7 page brief — like an article in a technical encyclopedia or student handbook — about the topic to share with the rest of the class.
All of your essays should have a title page (with your name, the due date, the course name, etc.) and be double-spaced with 1 inch margins, a 12-point font, and numbered pages. Labeled sections and a table of contents are recommended, but not required, for essays with more than 3 pages (not including the title page and references). I expect proper structure, grammar, and spelling (English or American). You must submit both a hardcopy and a softcopy of your essay. I prefer to receive the softcopy on a CD-ROM or by e-mail.
Essays will be graded for breadth and depth of understanding, originality of synthesis, and quality of research. I expect the best term papers to be good enough to be published in a scholarly journal. All of the term papers should be good enough to appear in the ACM Student Magazine Crossroads.
