Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering
EEC 414/503 - Writing in Electrical and Computer
Engineering
Homework
Assignments
The first rule for doing well on homework assignments is to follow directions. Do no less than required, and do no more than required. For the class discussion topics for each homework assignment, you should be prepared to give a presentation to the class about five minutes long. For each discussion period, the instructor will randomly select the students for these presentations.
Homework 1
1. Write the following sentences more clearly.
a. I was so angry about my grade that I punched the professor in the jaw with my fist and broke it.
b. The reason that the student criticized the professor is because he is an idiot.
c. Opening the door to the lab, the computer came into view.
d. Just like men, heart disease is the number one killer of women in the U.S.
e. A purple lady’s bicycle was stolen from Stilwell Hall last week.
f. I spent my vacation sitting on the beach watching the birds flying kites and reading.
2. Hand in a reference list that includes one journal paper, one conference paper, one thesis, and one on-line article. Use the IEEE citation formats from www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf with the following exception: do not abbreviate the periodical title for your journal paper reference.
a. To find a journal paper, go to the CSU library web site at www.ulib.csuohio.edu and click on the “Journal Finder” link. When the Journal Finder web page appears, find a recent IEEE Transactions issue in your area of interest, and then find an interesting article in the issue.
b. To find a conference paper, go to the library and find a conference paper in your area of interest.
c. To find a thesis, go to www.csuohio.edu/engineering/ece/research/thesis.html.
d. To find an on-line article, go to www.eetimes.com.
3. Page 36 in the first set of lecture slides for this course shows an example of inconsistent reference formatting. Rewrite the references in a consistent format.
4. Find an example of an undefined acronym in a technical paper. Hand in the paper reference, the acronym, and its definition.
5. Purchase one of the recommended references that is listed in the syllabus, write your name inside the front cover, and show it to the instructor. If you are frugal, you can instead print out one of the references from an on-line source, put it in a binder, and write your name on it.
6. Class Discussion: Come to class prepared to give a brief explanation and example of one of the topics in Oliver Strunk’s book, “The Elements of Style” (available on the course web site).
Homework 2
1. Find an example of a technical paper that uses a trademark that is not properly noted. Hand in the paper reference, give the first sentence in the paper that uses the trademarked word, and give a corrected version of the sentence.
2. According to www.mathworks.com/company/aboutus/policies_statements/trademarks.html, how many registered trademarks does The MathWorks own? How many unregistered trademarks?
3. Consider the following original material: “Inserting the dongle into the Donkin valve prematurely may result in a temporary loss of network connectivity.” Specify if the following two sentences are paraphrasing plagiarism or word-for-word plagiarism. Correct them so that they are not plagiarism.
a. Reference [3] shows that inserting the dongle into the Donkin valve prematurely can cause the network to go down.
b. Some sources have claimed that insertion of the dongle in the Donkin valve too early can cause the network to go down.
c.
How is the following sentence incorrect, and how can it
be corrected?
Some sources have claimed that putting the dongle into the Donkin value will “result
in a temporary loss of network connectivity” [3].
4. According to www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/a-23-2006-08-23-voa4-83131507.html, how many Master’s degree graduates at Ohio University were accused of plagiarism in 2006? What were the consequences for the professors and students who were involved?
5. Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accuracy_of_Wikipedia. What do you conclude from that article about using Wikipedia as a reference in your technical papers?
6.
Class
Discussion: Look at the plagiarism web pages at the following URLs:
http://www.bobbyelliott.com/Plagiarism.htm
http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/plagiarism/famous-examples-of-plagiarism.html
Come to class prepared to present a brief discussion of one of the items on one
of the above web pages, or a similar web page.
Homework 3
1. Hand in your signed instructor contract.
Homework 4
1. Find a sentence in a technical reference that is too long and break it up into two or three shorter sentences. Hand in the original sentence along with your shorter sentences.
2. Find a sentence in a technical reference that uses expletives, and rewrite it so that it does not.
3. Find a passive sentence in a technical reference and rewrite it in the active voice.
4. Find a sentence in a technical reference with filler words, and rewrite it without filler words.
5. Find a sentence in a technical paper with a misuse of capitalization, and rewrite it correctly.
6. Class Discussion: See http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriter3e/20errors/4.asp for the 20 most common writing mistakes, according to Andrea Lunsford. Come to class prepared to explain one of them, give an example of the mistake, and give the corrected version.
Homework 5
1. Write a possible abstract for your term paper for this class.
2. Hand in a possible outline for your term paper, including section and subsection titles.
3. Ask your content-based course instructor which voice (first, second, or third person) they prefer that you use for your term paper.
4.
Rewrite the following paragraph using appropriate
connectors.
“Each of the Russian manned space exploration projects had specific major
goals. The Vostok project was designed to test whether or not human beings
could survive and function in outer space. The Voshkhod project was intended to
find out whether people could work in the weightless environment of space. One
Voshkhod cosmonaut experimented with weightlessness by taking a
"spacewalk." He floated in a spacesuit outside his Voshkhod
spacecraft, connected to it by a tether. The Soyuz project’s goal was to see if
people could fly long missions in Earth orbit.”
5. Class Discussion:
a. A discussion of SpellCheckLimitations.doc will be led by the course instructor.
b. Choose one of the topics from www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial and give a brief presentation and a couple of examples to the class.
Homework 6
1. According to www.slideshare.net/rajivbajaj/intro-to-basic-business-communication, what percent of employers say that employees must have good communication skills?
2. Hand in three types of graphics with appropriate captions.
a. A photo of the TRS-80 Model 1, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TRS-80_Model_I_-_Rechnermuseum_Cropped.jpg. Note from the web page that the photo is distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Therefore, your caption should include the text, “Photo by Flominator [1], available under the GNU Free Documentation License.” Reference [1] should refer to the web page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80.
b. A plot created by you that you might use in your term paper.
c. A table created by you that you might use in your term paper.
3. Class Discussion:
a. The instructor will give a tutorial about www.turnitin.com.
b. Choose one of the ideas from Andy Ruina’s web page at http://ruina.tam.cornell.edu/hplab/Practical_Writing_advice.html and give a brief presentation about it to the class.
Homework 7
1. Read Victor Li’s paper “Hints on Writing Technical Papers and Making Presentations” at http://academic.csuohio.edu/simond/courses/tech-pres.pdf. The paper includes 11 hints for good presentations. Write a one-sentence description of each hint in your own words.
2. http://cats.eiu.edu/speakingrubric/Rubric_new_txt.htm has 24 speaking examples which illustrate the following characteristics: (1) organization, (2) language, (3) material, (4) analysis, (5) nonverbal delivery, and (6) verbal delivery. Listen to the best (“highly competent”) and worst (“not competent”) examples in each of the six categories. For each of the six categories, hand in the following.
a. A brief description (one or two sentences) of the speaker’s topic.
b. A brief description of what the speaker did wrong in the “not competent” example.
c. A brief description of what the speaker did right in the “highly competent” example.
3. Class Discussion:
a. A discussion of OralPresentationGrading.doc will be led by the course instructor.
b. Bring in a technical paper (journal paper, magazine paper, thesis, or conference paper) and explain to the class how it could be improved.
Homework 8
1. Make a set of slides for your oral presentation. The subject of the presentation should be the same as that of your written report. Submit your presentation slides to www.turnitin.com. Note that you are not required to use these slides during your oral presentation; these slides are just your first draft.
2. Class Discussion: Choose one of the oral presentation tips at www.aresearchguide.com/3tips.html or one of its links, and give a brief presentation about it to the class.
Homework 9
1. Submit Report Version A at www.turnitin.com.
2.
Class
Discussion: Read the resume and interview tips from ResumeTips.doc
and InterviewTips.doc.
Select one tip and give a brief presentation about it to the class.
Homework 10
1. Pretend that you are applying for a job. You can base your job application on either a real or a make-believe job positing. Submit a one-page cover letter and a one-page resume at www.turnitin.com.
2. Class Discussion: Richard Hamming and Malcom Schuster make many points about good research in the papers You and Your Research and Advice to Young Researchers. Select one point and give a brief presentation about it to the class.
Homework 11
1. Class Activity: Bring at least six copies of OralPresentationGrading.doc to class to evaluate the oral presentations. Note that you need to do this each class period for which we have scheduled oral presentations.
Homework 12
1. Write a proposal in response to the Dan Simon Foundation Request for Proposals (RFP). Submit your proposal at www.turnitin.com. See the course syllabus for a couple of sample proposals; however, note that the sample proposals are not necessarily in the format that you are required to satisfy for this assignment.
Homework 13
1. Submit your Report Version B at www.turnitin.com.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Last Revised: November 16, 2011
