1. Week 9 - Tuesday
COMP 4100

2. Project 3

3. Assignment 5

4. Writing

5. Writing Why do we write? Why do grammar and spelling matter?
Why do citations matter?

6. A few common issues
Many papers still had comma splices and sentence fragments
See earlier slides or come talk to me for help on those
Many papers contained contractions
Many papers contained repetitive statements, either grouped together or sprinkled throughout
Once a person has been introduced, a standard practice is to refer to that person, especially the subject of a paper, by his or her last name:
"Samuel L. Jackson is an actor famous for playing violent roles. Jackson graduated from Morehouse College in 1972."
However, it is also acceptable to use the pronouns "he" or "she" for variety when the antecedent is clear

7. This This problem was so common that it deserves its own slide
The pronoun "this" allows writing to be vague and confusing:
"These assassinations were commissioned by the rich. This left millions of poor people fearing for their lives."
What does "this" refer to?
Better: "These assassinations were commissioned by the rich. This unequal access to justice left millions of poor people fearing for their lives."

8. It The pronoun "it" has the same problem: Guidelines:
Darth Revan forced his apprentice to wait three days in the snow before granting him an audience. It was a symbolic act.
What is the symbolic act? Forcing him to wait? The fact that it was in the snow? The audience itself?
Better: Darth Revan forced his apprentice to wait three days in the snow before granting him an audience.  This humiliation was a symbolic act.
Guidelines:
Always put a noun after "this"
Never use "it" unless it's crystal clear what "it" refers to
Never use "it" or "this" as the subject of a sentence

9. Keep it simple
Students have a terrible temptation to write words that sound fancy:
besought
athwart
elucidate
etc.
Or overly complicated:
"The differences in banking technology and sophistication in both countries are miles apart in advancement."
Better: "England has a more advanced banking system than Bolivia."

10. Quotations
A strong research paper supports every piece of information that isn't common knowledge with a citation:
These robots are able to kill hundreds of snakes every minute (citation).
The support is not necessarily made stronger by using direct quotes:
"After tabulating data for hours, our lab is able to report that the VX98 tyranobots kill three to five snakes per second" (citation).
The paraphrase is simpler and likely contains all the information the reader needs
Only use direct quotes when there is special value in the exact wording
Never butcher the grammar of your own sentences to shoehorn in a direct quote

11. Citations The two main citation styles are MLA and APA
I don't care which you use, as long as you're consistent
MLA requires author and, if available, page number, using the smallest amount of information needed to identify the source from your works cited
APA requires author and year but only requires page numbers for direct quotes (still encouraging for paraphrases)
In either case, there is no need to repeat information (like the name of the author) in the citation if it's already in the sentence

12. Formatting citations
The period ending your sentence always goes after the citation
Many students got this wrong
Paraphrase (MLA):
Dillon Beresford was interested in the damage Stuxnet could do with PLCs (Zetter 144).
Paraphrase (APA):
Dillon Beresford was interested in the damage Stuxnet could do with PLCs (Zetter, 2014).
Direct quote (MLA):
"The news in August 2010 that Stuxnet was sabotaging Siemens PLCs caught the interest of a twenty-five-year-old computer security researcher in Austin, Texas, named Dillon Beresford" (Zetter 144).
Direct quote (APA):
"The news in August 2010 that Stuxnet was sabotaging Siemens PLCs caught the interest of a twenty-five-year-old computer security researcher in Austin, Texas, named Dillon Beresford" (Zetter, 2014, p. 144).

13. Formatting works in the reference list
For both MLA and APA, alphabetize by the last name of the first author
Use the title if there is no author
Put last names first but don't change the ordering of other items that are not the names of people
Indent all lines after the first line, a hanging indent
Word can do this automatically for you
There are many details: Read MLA or APA references and look at examples

14. Resources
There are many online references for APA, but here is one from my alma mater, Purdue:
And one for MLA:
And other reference for MLA, maintained by Cornell:

15. Software Development Plans

16. Until the end of the semester
I'll meet with each group on Tuesday so that we can plan what we want to get done by Thursday
On Thursday, you'll show me what you got done
It's fine if you miss deadlines, but the planning is important
Update your Trello accordingly

17. Upcoming

18. Reminders
Project 3, the initial implementation and unit testing, is due Friday, March 22
Assignment 5, the final draft for your papers, is due Friday, March 29