CS121 Software Development

Writing Abstracts

During the course of the semester you will read several seminal papers in the area of software development. You are required to write a brief abstract for each paper. The point of the abstract is to (1) summarize and to (2) review the paper. Your abstract should be one to two single spaced pages prepared in Word, LaTex, or some other text formatting program.
  1. Review
    In the review portion of the abstract you should include a short description of the major points that you found in the article. These should demonstrate your understanding of the content.
  2. Analysis
    In the analysis portion of the abstract you should critique the information content (are the ideas valid, important, useful), presentation (is it clear, understandable, well-written), and anything else you feel is important.
Grading: Five percent of your final grade is based on "individual assignments;" these are primarily abstracts. Each abstract will be graded 0, 1, or 2. An abstracts that does not demonstrate a reasonable understanding of the paper will garner a 0. A truly outstanding abstract will garner a 2. All others will get a 1. But a 1 average equates to an A! Writing decent abstracts is an easy way to get 5% of an A in this class.