Reading Summaries

At regular intervals, you will be assigned to read articles and excerpts related to the course material. You must turn in a written summary of each reading in class at the start of lecture, on the due date. The summary should be typed. It should occupy no more than one page (expected length: approximately 1/2 - 2/3 page). Quality is valued over quantity. Assume that the reader of your summary is a competent computer scientist who has not read the article before.

Each summary should contain the following:

• a heading that states the name, author, and chapter(s)/section(s) (if applicable) of the reading
• one paragraph containing the main idea and several important supporting points and ideas from the reading
• one short (1-2 sentence) paragraph about how this material relates to what has been covered so far in class or in your project
• one paragraph of your own analysis of the concepts described by the paper (Does the author present valid points? Do you agree with the material and/or position presented? What's your opinion?)

The summaries will be graded on the following four-point scale:

• 4: All main concepts and skills mastered and all major questions answered, with only minor errors.
• 3: Important points made, but contains some significant omissions or errors.
• 2: Substantial missing concepts or errors.
• 1: Effort shown, but not a significant amount of relevant or correct content.
• 0: Not turned in, or almost no effort or understanding demonstrated.

Be sure to include specifics and back up your statements with data from the article/your particular experiences. Provide minimal, if any, direct quotes - this is your summary. Overall, our intention is to use the summaries as a learning tool, promoting analysis of the readings. They should not take very long to complete. If you summarize the main points from the article, and provide a reasonable critical analysis, you should get full points.