(Last Revision: 02/25/99) ARTICLE REVIEW ASSIGNMENTS YOU WILL BE WRITING REVIEWS OF FOUR ARTICLES Throughout the term the student of this course needs to independently develop an understanding of the hardware and software issues important to networking. To foster your inquiry into these topics, I am assigning you to do four reviews of articles on various aspects of networking. WHERE TO LOOK FOR ARTICLES Materials for the reviews can be found in our Vasche library and in other libraries. Consider journals such as the Communications of the ACM, the IEEE Computer magazine, and other ACM and IEEE publications. Be careful to choose objective, quality articles. If you bring candidate articles to class, I'll be glad to look them over. The magazine or journal you choose must be a reputable periodical. It must have an identifiable title, editor, and date of publication. A reputable periodical will publish only articles that have been reviewed and accepted by the editorial staff. ARTICLE SELECTION CRITERIA Here are some examples of the kinds of article that could be appropriate: A. A thorough comparison of networking products -- either hardware or software, B. A discussion of advances or trends in networking hardware or software, C. An article containing advice on how to design an network or how to upgrade the design of a network, D. A discussion of social or ethical issues that relate to networking, or E. A critique or commentary on the current state of networking. The items above are just examples. Other possibilities exist, of course. The main idea is to select an objective, high-quality article that is likely to teach you something valuable. Choose material that you can understand. It is alright if you don't understand a few parts of an article, but you must understand most of it. Substantial credit will be withheld if the choice of article is inappropriate for this assignment. Newspaper articles, mere product announcements, and "hype" or "sales talk" are examples of inappropriate articles. ARTICLE LENGTH The length of an article must be no less than two thousand words. One thousand words will completely fill a page in a typical magazine, leaving no room for headlines or illustrations. Therefore you will almost certainly need to choose an article that spans at least three pages. Substantial credit will be withheld if your article is too short. (If you like, ask me how I estimate the length of an article.) THE FORMAT OF YOUR REVIEWS Use a word processor A. Double space the review on standard 8-1/2 by 11 inch paper. B. For the main part of the document use a font size from 10 to 12 point. C. In a header that appears on all the pages, enter your name, class identifier (CS 3000), the due date, and the serial number of the review (e.g. review #1 or review #3). If you ask, I will demonstrate in class how to create headers and footers using MS word and/or ClarisWorks. Space the content of your header so that there is at least 3/8" of vertical space between the bottom of the last line of the header text and the top of the first line of text on any page of the main document. Make the font *style* (e.g. courier or helvetica) of the header the same as that of the main text. Make the font *size* of the header two point sizes smaller than the size of the main text. D. Center the title of your review at the top of the first page but below your header. The title of the review must be different than the title of the article, but must reflect the content of the article. There must be at least 3/8" of vertical space between the bottom of the title and the top of the first line of the rest of the main document. Make the font *style* (e.g. courier or helvetica) of the title the same as that of the rest of the main text. Make the font *size* of the title two point sizes larger than the size of the rest of the main text. E. Justify the left margin (only). F. Indent the first line of each paragraph. G. Set the left and right margins to 1-1/4 inches. Set the top and bottom margins to 1-1/2 inches. (Here, by "top margin" I mean the distance from the edge of the paper to the top of the first line of the text body. Thus I view the header as being *inside* the top margin. The bottom margin is the distance from the edge to the bottom of the last line of the text body, and the footer is *inside* the bottom margin.) H. Number all the pages. Put the page numbers in a footer that appears on all pages. Space the content of your footer so that there is at least 3/8" between the bottom of the last line of text in the main document and the top of the first line of text in the footer. Make the font style and font size of the footer the same as that of the header. I. Start each review on a new page, even if you will be turning in two or more reviews at the same time. THE CONTENT OF YOUR REVIEWS In your reviews: A. Cite the editor of the periodical, the title of the periodical, the date of publication of the periodical, the name of the author(s) of the article (if available), and the title of the article. (The *only* optional item is the name of the author of the article. The article is not acceptable unless you can cite the other items.), B. Include a short summary of the article. (no more than 3 paragraphs), C. Give an explanation of why you chose the article (e.g. what did you hope to learn?), D. Discuss what you gained and learned from the article, E. State what further questions you now have concerning the subject of the article, F. Explain any new concepts or terminology that you discovered, and G. Report any other interesting outcomes. The length of a review must be more than one page and less than two pages. You must turn in a copy or photocopy of each article along with its corresponding review. Staple the article copy in back of of the review. Do not staple together multiple reviews. THE DUE DATES OF YOUR REVIEWS Check the class schedule for due dates. HOW TO TURN IN AN ASSIGNMENT Turn in the assignment in class on the due date or on any class day before the due date. Put your paper on the desk before class starts. ================================================== ==================================================