Assignment 1: Scientific writing critique

Due: Monday, February 6, 2017 at 23:59.

Goal

The goal of this assignment is to practice reading scientific writing and writing a critique.

cri·tique |krə-ˈtēk, kri-| n.
A detailed analysis and assessment of something, especially a literary, philosophical, or political theory.

The purpose of writing a critique is to get experience in distilling the essence of a piece of writing and critically evaluating it. Note that critique does not mean you are merely looking for flaws in the work. Since these will all be good, if not great, pieces of writing, I don’t expect you to find too much to criticize. However, if you find flaws, by all means write them down. Nor is a critique merely a summary. You should be analyzing the work.

Collaboration

You must write your own critique. Unlike traditional homework assignments, you are encouraged to read your peers’ critiques and make suggestions for improvement. These suggestions can take the form of:

• Suggestions on content (e.g., “you should expand on this point” or “you should discuss how X relates to Y”);
• Suggestions on organization (e.g., “the paper would have a better logical flow if you moved these paragraphs earlier”); and
• Suggestions on spelling and grammar.

The Assignment

First, choose a general audience science or technology written piece of work. This can came from the Science or Technology sections of newspapers, magazines, or web sites as long as they are of high quality. For example,

• New York Times
• Chicago Tribune
• Huffington Post
• Scientific American

Next, write a critique which addresses at least the following (related) points:

• What is the main point the paper makes? Express it in your own words; do not simply extract one or two sentences from the abstract or introduction.
• What is this important?
• What are the open problems that are discussed?
• Which open problems do you think are not addressed?
• Is the paper well-written? If not, what would make the paper more clear?

Format

Your critique should be at least a page and a half but no more than two pages long (not counting the bibliography). Use 11 pt font with a 1 in margin, single spaced. The critique must contain a bibliography wherein you include full bibliographic references to everything you cite. The bibliography can push your critique over two pages.

You must use LaTeX and BibTeX to format your critique and bibliography. You may use these files as a template: assignment1.tex references.bib.

Your critique must be professional: check your grammar and run a spell-checker–including one last time before submitting. You also need to clearly identify the article and any other source to which you refer.

Submitting

Submit a PDF of your critique using Blackboard before the deadline.