lecture 2: introduction to the essay assignment
TRANSCRIPT
MARINA SANTINI
P R O G R A M : C O M P U TAT I O N A L L I N G U I S T I C S A N D L A N G U A G E T E C H N O L O G Y
D E P T O F L I N G U I S T I C S A N D P H I L O L O G Y
UPPSALA UNIVERSITY, SWEDEN
14 NOV 2013
Semantic Analysis in Language Technology
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Course Website: http://stp.lingfil.uu.se/~santinim/sais/sais_fall2013.htm
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Mats Dahllöf for the many slides I borrowed from his previous course.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Essay Assignment
Work alone or in groups of two students
Essay length: 5-6 pages for 1 student: 9-12 pages for 2 students
Oral presentation: 10 minutes for 1 student; 20 min for 2 students; 5-7 minutes for questions and discussion
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Essay Assignment: Deadlines
1. Submission first version: 5 Dec 2013
2. Oral presentation: 12 Dec 2013
3. Feedback on another group’s work: 17 Dec 2013 1. Links to the essays will be published on the course website;2. Each student must choose one essay submitted by another group and
write a 1 page essay review; 3. Send one copy of your essay review to me and one copy to the group
members; 4. Each group must take the reviewers’ feedback into account for the
final essay submission.
4. Essay final version and final submission: 20 Jan 2013
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
The purpose of the Essay Assignment
Training in ”critical thinking”
Training in writing and reviewing academic texts
Independent study of a system, an approach or a problem withing semantic-oriented language tecnology
Oral and witten presentation
Review procedure
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Essay Topics
Hands-on testing and description of a system: see demos and systems listed in the course
website.
Proposal, discussion and motivation of a future semantic-oriented application – unleash your imagination -- that could solve a real-word problem (similar, for ex, to the use case on cross-linguality we discussed last time);
Literature study on an approach or an issue in a semantic-related area. Think of it as a review article that you want to publish.
Testing of online demos may be included.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
The topic sentence (Björk and Wickborg, 1981)
A paragraph is a thought unit. It consists of a series of sentences unified by ONE controlling idea or topic, which is usually expressed in a topic sentence.
When you plan a paragraph the main thing is to have one central topic clearly in mind.
State your the basic topic early in the paragraph.
Once you have established your controlling topic or idea you must let it control the whole paragraph. Delete any sentence in the paragraph that is not related to the main idea.
Text coherence and cohesion can be controlled by an expert use of topic sentences and well-structured paragraphs.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Who is your audience?
Any piece of academic writing should be structured with reference to a clearly stated aim in a way that is easy for the reader to understand.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Critical Evaluation
The essay (as most academic texts) should present a critical evaluation of some claim.
Critical evaluation means assessing the relative merit of a piece of work, such as an implemented system, a more general method, or the “state-of-the-art” in some field.
“Critical” (as in “critical thinking”) means that evidence is evaluated with the aim of reaching a conclusion about what to think or do.
“Critical” in this sense does not mean being “negative” or “disapproving” about something. That is rather a secondary more informal – but very common – sense of the word. Critical evaluation may lead to the conclusion that something is perfect as well as that it is worthless. Perfection: We prove that an algorithm solves the problem it is presented as solving. Worthless: We show that a certain NLP method makes performance worse for a wide
variety of data.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Critical Evaluation: Examples
We compute metrics showing different changes in performance for different data using different NLP methods for solving a certain problem.
We also consider computational and economic costs of using these methods in a more general evaluation of their value.
Basically, everthing must be interpreted, measured, and assessed on the positive side and on the negative side!
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Oral Presentation
Highlight the important points. What is the main message to convey?
Be realistic about the amount of information the audience can process – Think of yourselves and your attention span.
Use a visual presentation program in a way that supports the presentation. Slides are highly recommended.
Make sure you reach a proper ending. (Prepare your talk in such a way that some sections may be cut.) Rehearse.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
References, Citations and Quotations
In academic writing you should give citations for each work you use in your own writing. These works should be listed in the References section. Exactly the ones cited!
When you use the methods, concepts, conclusions of other people – using your own words – plain citation.
When you use the words of other people – quotation (citat) should be marked as such.
Handle all these things in a strict way according to some typical standard (e.g. IEEE citation standards)!
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Cf. Also the Thesis Structure(self-reading)
Content structure of a thesisAimBackgroundMain body and conclusionsAbstract
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Content Structure of a Thesis
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Aim
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Background
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Main Body and Conclusions
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Abstract
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Suggested Readings
Academic writing: Features of academic writing Academic writing conventions etc.
How to write an essay: Easy steps General guidelines etc.
Peer-to-peer evaluation: "Do's" and "Don't's” Steps
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
This is the end… Thanks for your attention !