Paper Writing

  For this assignment, you are to get into the mindset of a reviewer, and to practice the skills of hunting down references to find clarifications and explanations.

• Find a research paper from the list below; let’s call this Paper 1. 
• Now imagine that you were assigned Paper 1 as a reviewer. The first part of any paper review is a succinct summary (at most two short paragraphs) of the major contributions of the paper. Write that summary. Your summary should be objective; keep your opinions about the paper limited. (An actual paper review would also include your opinions about the paper after the summary, but they will not be a part of this assignment.) Your summary should also be easy for a program committee member / editor to read. Remember that even if they have more general expertise, they know less about the paper than you do!
• Identify and explain the major components of the paper , using up to one full page. Again, your summary should be objective and easy for an inexpert editor / program committee member to read. (Imagine you six months ago.)
• Skim the rest of the paper to get a general idea of what is going on, and then read as much detail as you can. Describe where you got lost , using up to one full page. (This is not normally part of a review.) Include enough context that your point of confusion is clear to someone who is not familiar with the paper. If you can’t figure out the major contributions of the paper, start over with a different Paper 1. If you never get lost, start over with a different Paper 1.
• Identify another paper that would help enhance your understanding of Paper 1; let’s call this Paper 2. This could be a paper that Paper 1 cites, a paper that cites Paper 1, or just a result of your mad googling skills. Read Paper 2, first skimming to get a general idea of its content, and then trying to read as much detail as you can. Briefly summarize paper 2, describe its connection to where you got lost in paper 1, and describe where you got lost in Paper 2. Use up to one full page.
• Repeat the previous step one more time. Identify yet another paper that would help your understanding of Paper 2; let’s call this Paper 3. Read Paper 3. Briefly summarize Paper 3, describe its connection to where you got lost in previous papers, and describe where you got lost in Paper 3. Use up to one full page. Altogether, your writeup should be roughly 3–5 pages long. Don’t forget to properly cite the papers you read (and any other papers that you reference in your writeup).