Homework 6 HT2022

Homework 6 - Scientific writing

Due Nov 9 17.00.

An essential goal of this course is academic writing, in particular with the aim of improving your skills
ahead of your master's thesis. This involves practicing specific skills relevant to scientific text, 
such as the correct use of references, but also general language skills such as
writing in an appropriate style depending on the context, and using grammatically correct and
(reasonably) idiomatic language.

Some of you may find some literature on academic writing helpful, not just now
but as preparation for your thesis. One reference that could be useful is
Justin Zobel: Writing for Computer Science. An earlier edition is available as a
pdf-file here Download here  (downloaded from the KTH library). A more recent edition
primarily adds material on research methodology, so the older edition is equally useful.

Another shorter article on academic writing for computer scientists (slightly dated) can be found here. Links to an external site.

A very well-known source on English writing and style in general is the book by Strunk and White,
The Elements of Style, originally published by William Strunk Jr. in 1920, and updated and expanded
in several editions over the last 100 years. The later editions are recommended - a photocopy of
somewhat poor quality can be found here Links to an external site..

Academic manuscripts with technical or mathematical content are almost always written using LaTeX,
and you are strongly recommended to start using LaTeX for your homework assignments right away
(this may be demanded in later assignments). We also recommend using an online editor such a Overleaf,
which allows collaboration on a manuscript.

And in general, one can learn a lot by reading scientific articles, and reflecting on how they are written, 
in particular articles by native English speakers. 

And finally, everyone needs to learn to use spelling and grammar checking tools such as Grammarly.
This is required in this exercise. Even if your writing is nearly perfect, there will be occasional lapses
that can be found in this way.

Part 1 -  A technical summary

Write a 300-500 word technical summary of the article you have read in Homework 5. This
should include for example:

• the motivation for the work
• the essential methoods and results
• some context in terms of other research

As a model for your text, imagine that this is one or a few paragraphs from your 
master's thesis where you describe background knowledge to your own work. This
means that the technical level assumed of the reader should be slightly lower than in
an actual scientific article, but you do not need to explain concepts and terminology that are
generally understood by CS master's students.

You should include some references to other articles that provide context to the article
you have read. These should appear in a reference list at the end of your text, and should be written
in a complete and correct way in the IEEE format mentioned in HW5.

Part 2 - A popular science introduction

Write a brief popular science introduction to the work in the article you have read (300-500 words). 

Your text should be understandable for the general public (such as your parents and grandparents),
which means that excessively technical terminology must be avoided unless it is explained in the text.
Your goal here is not only to summarize, but to explain and creat interest in the topic, which means that
you can treat the subject with more freedom and imagination.

In this case, references except to the original article should be avoided.

Part 3

Both your texts must be checked for spelling and grammatical errors using a tool such as Grammarly.

Handing in your solution

Please save your solution as a pdf file and hand it in BOTH here in Canvas and on the Peergrade page. 

Peer grading

You will be asked to review the homework of two other students in Peergrade. Your submission will also be
reviewed in this way. The peer review is a mandatory part of the course. 

Feedback from your TA

Your TA will grade your submission and report the result in Canvas.

Complete means you have passed the assignment.

Incomplete means you have to hand in a revised version.