Syllabus

1. Administrative details

Location and time
Kresge 327, MWF 2-3:10
Instructor and TA

Kevin Karplus 315B Appl. Sci. Thurs 2-3 and by appt. 459-4250 karplus@cse
Kevin Karplus Cowell Dining Hall Mon 12-1    
John Callaway Lobby Wed 5-6, Thurs 12-1:30   callaway@cats
  (Baskin Engineering Building)      

Tutors
Jonathan Casper Baskin Lounge (behind labs) Wed 8:30-10:30 a.m.   jcasper@cats
  Cowell Coffee Shop Th 8:30-9:30 a.m.    

You will be expected to see a tutor every other week--we have been budgeted enough tutor time to average fifteen minutes a week per student, so half an hour every two weeks is a fair share. Some of the students with a weaker background in writing may need to work with the tutors more frequently. Past experience has been that the best writers were also the most diligent about seeing the tutors (or that the students who used the tutors most ended up writing best--cause and effect are a little hard to separate here).

2. Homework Assignments

The homework assignments will be posted to the web in three formats: Postscript, dvi, and HTML.

To read the files on-line, use Netscape (or one of the other World-Wide Web browsers), and open the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/~karplus/. This is the home page for Kevin Karplus, and contains pointers to several other documents, including the assignments for this course. If you have not used Netscape before, almost any of the CATS consultants in any of the computer labs can help you, because browsing the World-Wide Web has become a major form of recreation for the consultants.

The easiest to read on-line is the HTML, but the Latex2HTML translator occasionally makes mistakes, so there may be some strange behavior. Although it is possible to print directly from many World-Wide Web browsers, I'll also provide PostScript files generated directly from the LATEX originals. These will generally produce a better looking printed copy that will take up less paper. There will be hypertext links (pointers) from the WWW pages to the PostScript files. The .dvi format is now readable on Macintoshes and UNIX machines with free software, and is much smaller to download than the Postscript.

Please read each of the assignments carefully--don't rely on a vague memory of in-class discussion. Common problems that have come up with the assignments in the past are discussed in the assignment writeups, but still about half of the problems I see in turned in work are things that I specifically warn about.

3. Evaluation

CMPE 185 has no mid-term or final exams. You will be judged about 75% on the papers you write, 15% on the oral presentation near the end of the quarter, and 10% on in-class work, participation in discussions (both in class and electronic) peer editing, and so forth. The final paper is about a quarter of the total weight for the papers.

Everything must be turned in by the last day of class, Friday Dec 3.

4. Special guest lecturers

I may arrange to have some guest lectures this quarter. As a courtesy to our guest lecturers, please make an extra effort to be on time for their lectures.

5. Schedule (due dates)

The following schedule lists the assignments for this quarter with due dates. If the due dates are changed, I will inform you in class. Note that many assignments overlap; this is the normal case for people who write for a living, as engineers do (30-50% of the work day).

You are required to turn in your early drafts, as well as the final copy--the early drafts allow us to see how well you edit and how well you respond to suggestions from your peers.

Save your assignments after I return them to you! I will ask you to turn them all in at the end of the quarter, so that I can write a fair evaluation of your work. Get a large envelope to keep all returned assignments in, so that you can turn in the entire portfolio at the end of the quarter.

  original revised
assignment draft(s) final draft final
        (or redo)
0. intake survey (not graded)   Sep 27    
1. job application and résumé Sep 27 Sep 29    
2. in-class hiring memo   Sep 29    
3. describing an algorithm Oct 8 Oct 11   10 Nov
4. in-program documentation Oct 15 Oct 18   10 Nov
5. naive user documentation (HTML manual) Oct 22 Oct 25 Oct 27 Oct 29
6. library puzzle   Oct 29   1 Nov
7. survey article Nov 5 Nov 8    
8. term project proposal memo   Nov 10    
9. recommendation letter Nov 12 Nov 15    
10. term project document specs   Nov 17    
11. term project progress report   Nov 22    
12. term project Nov 24 Dec 3    
13. oral presentations Nov 22, 29, Dec 1,3,8    

Note: no final exam is scheduled, but the time slot (12-3 Dec 8) may be needed for oral presenations. Please be sure to come to provide your colleagues with an audience. All written work must be completed and turned in by Dec 3, the last day of class.

6. Reading assignments

I have collected all the reading assignments scattered through this reader into the following schedule, and have included chapters to read that are not mentioned explicitly in the individual assignments. Several of the chapters are listed repeatedly--this does not mean you need to read them repeatedly, but that you should read them the first time they appear, and review the relevant parts for the later assignments. Note that this reading is in addition to reading the material in this workbook, which should be read in order, with each section read a week or two before the corresponding assignment is due.

It is probably a good idea to read ahead, since you wil have more time at the beginning of the quarter than the end of the quarter.

Please turn in a page of notes on the required reading on each of the due dates! The notes will not be evaluated for content, but are our way of ensuring that you read the material actively, getting the most out of these somewhat expensive books.

assignment read before
[HO91, Chapters 1, 3, 7, 10, 11, and 13] Sep 27
[HO91, Chapters 12, 14, 21, and 27] Oct 4
[SJW79] Oct 11
[HO91, Chapters 8, 9, 22, 23, 29, and 30] Oct 18
[HO91, Chapters 3, 5, 9, 12, 17, 24, 25, and 26] Oct 25
[HO91, Chapters 2, 4, 5, 12, 16, 18, 21, and 28] Nov 1
[HO91, Chapter 16] Nov 8
[HO91, Chapters 11 and 13] Nov 15
[HO91, Chapters 15 and 19] Nov 22

I have not scheduled the reading of Chapters 6, 20, and 31-38, but you should make time to read them. Non-native speakers are particularly encouraged to read Chapters 29-38 early in the quarter.

Bibliography

HO91
Thomas N. Huckin and Leslie A. Olsen.
Technical Writing and Professional Communication for Nonnative Speakers of English.
McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1991.

SJW79
William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White.
The Elements of Style.
Macmillan, New York, third edition, 1979.




Kevin Karplus
Computer Engineering
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
USA
karplus@cse.ucsc.edu
1-831-459-4250

HTML version created 1999-10-25