Snapshot from C612 (Computer Science) – A Writing-Enriched Course
By: Dr. Lonnie Welch

This is an advanced graduate course that is intended for students who have experience and/or prior course work in the area of real-time systems. The course is for students who have an interest in conducting research in the area of real-time systems. Students develop breadth and depth of understanding of the research literature in the field of real-time computing and identify and articulate open research problems.

An important learning objective is that students will learn how to “plan, organize and draft a report that poses a significant problem and offers a convincing solution” (quoted from The Craft of Research). The students use the following textbook to learn these skills: The Craft of Research, by W. C. Booth, G. G. Colomb, and J. M. Williams, The University of Chicago Press, 1995, ISBN: 0-226-06584-7.

Grading in the course is based on the following activities:

• research article summaries – due at the start of each class in weeks 3-10 (15%)
• research article presentations – one per week, in weeks 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10 (20%)
• in-class activities (10%)
• implementation activities (10%)
• report - (45%)
• topic – due at the start of the 2^nd class (1%)
• bibliography I – due in the 2^nd class of week 2 (1.5%)
• draft I – due in the 1^st class of week 5 (3%)
• writer’s workshop I – week 5 (3%)
• bibliography II – due in the 1^st class of week 6 (1.5%)
• draft II – due in the 1^st class of week 9 (5%)
• writer’s workshop II – week 9 (5%)
• final draft – due in the final exam session (12.5%)
• final presentation – final exam session (7.5%)
• annotated bibliography – due in the final exam session (5%)

The research article summaries are informal. They are intended to help the students to gain experience in reading and summarizing scientific articles, and to cause them to learn the material in the articles by reflecting on the material. They are typically about ½ page.

In-class activities involve informal writing activities (such as guided free-writes), which are used to help the students to reflect on material being discussed in class and to provide feedback to the instructor about the depth of understanding that the students are achieving. Peer critiques of students’ formal research reports are also conducted in some classes. The peer critiques are conducted as writer’s workshops. The peer critiques allow students to learn how to give and receive feedback from each other, and help successive drafts to be of high quality.

The students write a formal research report. The report is developed incrementally (topic selection, bibliography, draft 1, writer’s workshop, enhanced bibliography, draft 2, writer’s workshop, final draft, and annotated bibliography). The first drafts were around 5 pages, the second drafts were about 10 pages, and the final draft was 20 pages.