Texts

There is no text book for this course.  It is a unique offering and the standard textbooks do not serve it well.  You will have handouts, required readings, and assignments that cause you to research related topics.

In class exams

There will be three exams. The dates in the class schedule are tentative and we can change them if it appears in the best interest of the class. Material on the tests will come from the text book, from supplementary materials, from laboratories, and from class notes.

Article summaries

During the semester you will find, read, and summarize two articles about some aspect of computer use in the storage or manipulation of text. The purpose of this assignment is to allow you to find sources of current information on the use of computers in this area.  The practice in writing is always useful and is important in everything you do.

 

 

This assignment has some very specific rules. Be sure to read these carefully. If there is anything you do not understand, ask well before the due date for the assignment. Before you hand in an article summary, check that you have met each of these requirements! These rules apply to each of the article summaries:

• Each article that you select must be relevant to the course. Articles concerning privacy issues in recorded information are suitable.  So are articles about encryption techniques and rules about the use and export of encryption methods.  Articles comparing the effectiveness of various compression techniques are fine.  General application of computing is not appropriate for this assignment. If you have any question about the suitability of an article, show it to me.
• Your summary will consist of the following parts:
1. A cover sheet containing your name, your section number or the time your laboratory session meets, the name of the article, the author's name, the magazine where you found the article, the date of publication
2. A one page summary of the article in your own words. Be specific about what the article says. For example, do say something like this: " The U.S. export policy on encryption techniques prohibits.....". DO NOT say something like this: "The article talks about encryption export rules. " In other words, you should provide specific information obtained from the article, not just say what the article is about.
3. At the end of your summary, include the following specific items:
1. What did you learn from reading this article (one sentence)
2. What question did you have after reading the article? The question may be something you did not understand about the article or something peripheral that occurred to you while you were reading the article. Be very specific in your question. I will answer as many of them as I can.
3. Was this article biased? Did it try to convince you of the merit of a product? Was it written for the benefit of a company trying to sell something or was it an impartial presentation? Was it promoting a political agenda?
4. Include a copy of the article with your summary. Note on the article if you want to have the copy back. (Sometimes something interesting is found that can be incorporated into the course for the good of the whole class. I will keep the copies of materials that look useful if I do not already have them. If you hand in a magazine, you will get it back. If you hand in a copy of an article, I may keep it.)
5. ALWAYS keep a copy of your summary.  It is extremely rare that something gets lost, but it does happen -- especially if I am handed something at an odd time or if you hand in an article during the lab session.  Just to be safe, be sure to keep a copy of the submission in case there is any question.
6. LENGTH of the article.  Your article must be at least 3 full magazine pages, not counting figures, diagrams, and sidebars.  This means most articles will be somewhat longer than 3 pages.  The reason for this requirement is to make sure there is enough of an article to have some depth, not just a surface review of a topic.
7. ARTICLES FROM THE INTERNET.  It is perfectly fine to get your material from a Web site.  In that case, use the browser to check the length of the article.  The length is given in bytes (characters).  To be accepted, the article must have at least 20,000 characters (about 5,000 words).  Don't be fooled by the number of pages the article takes when you print a copy to submit.  There is often a lot of white space on Web pages, and pictures take up space also.  Do print any Web article you want to use and submit the printed copy with your summary.

Laboratories

The members of this class will meet in small laboratory sections on Wednesday. The laboratory sessions are an integral part of the course. Completion of the lab work is required. Some of the labs will be closely related to the material we discuss in lecture sections. The lab work will give you a chance to work with the concepts and apply them in some way. Some lecture material is not well suited to a laboratory experience and some laboratory material does not require lecture introduction. Thus, some labs will be independent of what we do in lecture. All lab work is important to the course, whether or not it is related to the lectures.  Your laboratory instructor will give you the information about the way laboratory sessions will be conducted and how to make up for missed work if there is weather-related postponement of a laboratory session.

Final Exam

The final exam for this course will be cumulative. It will include material from the entire semester including readings, supplemental materials, class notes, laboratories,  and presentations. Some questions on the final will be similar to questions on the other exams. Other questions will cover things that did not appear on the earlier exams. Extra review classes will be held if there is interest. Just ask.