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Latest revision:
October 17, 2008
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REVIEWING A MAGAZINE ARTICLE
In this course the student needs to develop an understanding of the personal
computing environment. What kind of software and hardware is available, and
what is the potential of these tools? To foster your inquiry into these
topics, you are assigned to do reviews of magazine articles on various aspects
of personal computing.
WHERE TO LOOK FOR ARTICLES
Appropriate magazines for the reviews can be found in our Vasche library,
other libraries, bookstores, newsstands, supermarkets and drugstores.
Consider magazines such as the ones in my list of
Magazines Relevant to Personal Computing.
Some examples are Consumer Reports, Macworld, PC,
Technology Review, and Wired.
You can also browse for magazine titles in the
Yahoo directory of computer and Internet magazines.
Frequently it's a good idea to examine journals and/or scholarly magazines
related to your major because it is likely that they will contain articles
about computer applications of specific interest to you.
If you consider yourself very much a novice, then for your first review it
might be good to choose a computer-related article from Consumer
Reports.
ARTICLE SELECTION CRITERIA
Here are some examples of the kinds of article that could be appropriate:
- A thorough comparison of a group of personal computing products -- either
hardware or software
- A discussion of advances or trends in personal computing
- An article containing advice on how to enhance a personal computer, or
how to use one more intelligently
- A discussion of social or ethical issues that relate to personal
computing
- A critique or commentary on the current state of personal computing
The items above are just examples. Other possibilities exist, of course. The
main idea is to select an objective, high-quality article that relates to
personal computing and is likely to teach you something valuable.
Substantial credit will be withheld if the choice of article is inappropriate
for this assignment.
Examples of
inappropriate
articles:
- Newspaper articles,
- Mere product announcements,
- "Hype" or sales talk,
- Information that is out of date (likely, if it's more than two years old),
- Material that is too simplistic, but also
- Articles you don't understand (It's OK if a small percentage of an
article is beyond you.)
ARTICLE LENGTH
The length of an article you read for your review must be no less than 2000 words. That is approximately the amount
of text it would take to fill up two full pages in a typical magazine.
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
Adhering to the formatting rules below is very
important.
It is an aid to clear communication and it demonstrates your mastery of the
use of your word processor.
- Write a review using a word processor on a computer.
- Print the review on standard 8-1/2 inch by 11 inch paper.
- For the main part of the document, use a font size from 10 to 12 point.
- In a header that appears on all the pages, enter
- your name,
- your class identifier (CS 4000),
- the serial number of the review (e.g. review #1 or review #2), and
- the due date.
I will demonstrate in class how to create headers and footers. Space the
content of your header so that, on every page of your review, there is at
least 3/8 inch of vertical space between the bottom of the last line of
the header text and the top of the first line of text on the rest of the
page.
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 sizes smaller
than the size of the main text.
- Double-space the main text and single-space the header.
- 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 inch of vertical space between the bottom of
the last line of the header and the top of the title.
There must be at least 3/8 inch of vertical space between the bottom of
the last line of the title and the top of the first line of text beneath
the title.
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 sizes larger
than the size of the rest of the main text.
- Justify the left margin (only).
- Indent the first line of each paragraph by 1/2 inch and skip a line
between the last line of a paragraph and the first line of the next
paragraph. (Remember it looks like you skip two lines when you
double-space and skip a line.)
- Set the
- left and right margins to 1-1/4 inches.
- top and bottom margins to 1-1/2 inches. (Here, "top margin" means
the distance from the top edge of the paper to where the first line
of the main text goes. Thus the header is inside the
top margin. Similarly, the bottom margin is the distance from the
bottom edge of the paper to where the last line of the main text
goes, and the footer is inside the bottom margin.)
- 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 inch
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.
- Start each review on a new page, even if you will be turning in more than
one review at the same time.
THE CONTENT OF YOUR REVIEWS
In your reviews:
- Cite the name of the author of the article, the date of publication of
the article, the title of the article, the title of the publication, the
volume and issue numbers, and the page numbers. For example:
Gibbs, W. Wayt (2006, August). A great leap in
graphics. Scientific American, 295(2), 80-83.
If author name, volume number, or issue number are missing from the
in-print (paper) copy of the magazine, it is OK to leave them out of the
citation. Otherwise credit may be withheld for missing items. (Look
carefully - the information is usually there.)
- Include a short summary of the article. (200 to 400 words),
- Explain why you chose the article (e.g. what did you hope to learn?),
- Discuss what you gained and learned from the article,
- State what further questions you now have concerning the subject of the
article,
- Explain any new concepts or terminology that you discovered, and
- Report any other interesting outcomes.
The length of a review must be more than one page and
less than four pages. (For example, it could be 1-1/2, 2-1/2, or 3-1/2
pages long.) You must turn in a high-quality copy or photocopy of each article
along with its corresponding review. Attach 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 counter in front of me before class starts.