CS 670

I will grade each lab report using four criteria: data, analysis,  grammar, and style.

• Data.  This grading criterion is where I evaluate the accuracy of  the data.  This includes the following:
• Do you get the answers that you should?
• Is the data from one experiment consistent with data from other experiments?
• When there is randomness in the data, do you run enough experiments and present averages?
• When there is randomness in the data, do you report variability around averages (using, for example, confidence intervals or variances)?
• Analysis.  It is not sufficient to just report accurate data.  You must also analyze this data.  This includes the following:
• Generating explanations for the data and supporting these explanations using your data.
• Generating hypotheses and evaluating these hyptheses.
• Limiting the work properly --- there are just too many experiments to try in the allotted time, so you should identify important experiments, run these experiments, and then list other interesting experiments as part of future work.
• Clearly identifying assumptions.
  
• Grammar.  You should use proper grammar.  Some common mistakes include
• Switching verb tenses throughout a paragraph.
• Switching voices throughtout the document (e.g., first person active voice in some places, and third person passive voice in others).
• Using possessive apostrophe's incorrectly.
• Omitting the subject in a sentence; assuming that I can infer the subject from context.
• Improperly using articles (a, an, the).
• Improperly using "that" and "which".
• Misusing or not using possessive apostrophes.
• Misusing figure/table captions.
• Failing to label axes.
• Using incorrect spelling.
• Style.  It is not sufficient to just have proper grammar.  You should also create a document that is persuasive and informative.  This includes the following:
• Begin the document with an introduction and end it with a conclusion.
• Use segues between portions of the document.  State what you have done in the previous section and what you are about to do.
• Use figures/tables and refer to these figures/tables to support your analysis.  Discuss what the figures/tables mean; do not rely exclusively on captions to describe the data in the figures/tables.
• Use good paragraph structure and good sectioning.
• Avoid run-on sentences.
• Avoid contractions in technical documents.
• Avoid ending sentences with prepositions, and beginning them with a conjunction.
• Clearly stating the experiments that you have performed including parameter settings.  Do not assume that the reader of your report will have the lab specifications in front of him or her.

Please realize that one of my goals of this course is to give you critical feedback on your technical writing skills.  Plan to spend enough time on your reports, edit them properly, and structure them well.  Hopefully, your techincal writing skills will improve with this feedback.