CVA Report Preparation

Oral Reports (to be given during last meeting)

Outline:

1. The role of your task in the overall project, e.g., which passage you're working on, what you're trying to do with it, etc.

2. What you have accomplished, including:
   1. a report on any human protocols you ran
   2. your demos

3. What the immediate next steps in your part of the project are
   • i.e., what you would have done had you had another week or so to work on it

4. What longer-term future steps need to be taken
   • i.e., a recommendation to whomever continues your project about what they should do.

Written Reports

1. be on 8.5 x 11-inch paper
2. be bound in the upper left-hand corner using a staple or binder clip
   • Do not use folders or covers, unless your report is too thick to be stapled or binder-clipped.

3. have your own title page (not the printer's cover page!)
   1. The title page should include the following information:
      1. descriptive title (not: "CVA Project")
      2. your name
      3. course number and/or name (if applicable)
      4. date completed (e.g., 10 May 2011, or whatever).

   2. followed by the abstract (see below)
   3. followed immediately by the body of your paper (which does not have to start on a new page).

• A LaTeX template is available here.

The intended audience is the person who will be continuing your project next semester.

Therefore, the report should be self-contained and detailed enough to tell that (possibly hypothetical) person exactly:

1. what has been done
2. why it was done
3. what problems were faced
4. how you solved them
5. what needs to be done next
6. and how to get started doing it.

In the real world, you will be expected to write papers, either for presentation at conferences, publication in journals, or presentation to your boss or co-workers. Users and other people want to read about the program, what it does, how it works, etc., and to see it in action. Consequently, the main product of your work is the paper (including, but not limited to, the demo)! In the paper, you should say what you have done, and say (in English summary, not in programming detail) how you have done it. It should also include your annotated demo. You should read Goldfain, Albert (2003), "Computationally Defining 'harbinger' via Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition" [PDF], to see an example of a such a paper or browse through the "Progress Reports" section of the CVA website.

Thus, each report must consist of the following components:

1. abstract of the project (a 1-paragraph summary), consisting of brief, 1-or-2-sentence summaries of each of the following points (2a-g, below)
   1. This is the sort of information you might find yourself having to give, extemporaneously, in a job interview, in an informal discussion at a conference or convention, or even in a "real" job when your boss sees you in the hall or even in the mall :-)

   2. The abstract should be completely self-contained; i.e., it should be understandable by someone who is not familiar with our CVA project, as well as by someone who does not bother to read the rest of your paper!

   3. And your paper should not assume that the reader has read the abstract!
      • Consequently, your paper should include—and probably begin with—any important information from the abstract.

2. description of the project (the body of the paper), including:
   1. brief descriptions of the CVA project and SNePS

   2. the role of your task in the overall project, e.g., which passage you're working on, what you're trying to do with it, etc.

   3. what you have accomplished, including:
      1. a report on any human protocols you ran

      2. an annotated transcript of your demos including commented SNePS representations of the sentence and prior knowledge.

   4. the syntax and semantics of new SNePS case frames,

   5. full explanation of any SNePS networks.

   6. what the immediate next steps in your part of the project are
      • i.e., what you would have done had you had another week or so to work on it

   7. what longer-term future steps need to be taken

   8. list of references (if appropriate)
      • Such lists should cite all and only documents that you explicitly mention in the body of the report.
      • Please be sure to cite only published materials (or unpublished papers from websites).
      • Do not cite websites unless there is a very good reason to do so. If in doubt, ask me.

Please prepare all documents using a word processor (preferably LaTeX), and hand in hard copy to me on or before the due date announced in the syllabus.

For inclusion on the CVA website, I would also like online versions of:

1. your complete report, with all appendices (preferably in PDF format)
2. your demo file (plain ASCII text, not .doc)
3. a transcript of your demo (plain ASCII text, not .doc)

For further information on how to prepare your report, as well as pointers on grammar, etc., see my webpage "How to Write".