Writing Your Masters Proposal Report David A Watt 2010 11...

Writing Your Masters Proposal Report

David A Watt

2010‒11

www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~daw/masters-projectsDavid.Watt@glasgow.ac.uk

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Overview

Structure

Content

Writing

Submission

3

Structure

First decide the structure of your report.

The main decision is how your report will be divided into chapters.

You might then decide to subdivide some chapters into sections.

Then write brief notes summarising what will be in each chapter/section. This gives you a synopsis.

Use the synopsis to check that everything is covered in an orderly fashion, and that nothing is duplicated.

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Structure of MSc development proposal

Typical structure of a development project proposal report:

Title page1. Introduction2. Problem Statement3. Background Survey4. Proposed Approach5. Work Plan

Bibliography

Recommended length: 15–25 pages.

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Synopsis of MSc development proposal (1)

1. IntroductionBrief explanation of the software development problem and its context.

2. Problem StatementPrecise statement of the problem; why it is worthwhile to solve this problem.

3. Background SurveyOverview of relevant previous work including articles, books, and existing software products; critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the previous work.

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Synopsis of MSc development proposal (2)

4. Proposed ApproachHow you propose to solve the problem; choice of software development method; feasibility and risks of the proposed method.

5. Work PlanPlan of your work schedule with dates; intermediate deliverables.

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Structure of MRes research proposal

Typical structure of a research proposal report:

Title page1. Introduction2. Research Problem Statement3. Literature Survey4. Proposed Approach5. Work Plan

Bibliography

Recommended length: 20–30 pages.

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Synopsis of MSc research proposal (1)

1. IntroductionBrief explanation of the research problem and its context.

2. Research Problem StatementPrecise statement of the problem; why it is worthwhile to solve this problem.

3. Literature SurveyOverview of literature relevant to the research problem; critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the work reported in the literature.

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Synopsis of MRes research proposal (2)

4. Proposed ApproachHow you propose to solve the research problem; feasibility and risks of the proposed research method.

5. Work PlanPlan of your work schedule with dates; intermediate deliverables.

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Content: work plan

Your work plan should estimate when you will start each stage of the work, and how long it will take.

E.g.:

Implementation

Design

Evaluation

Dissertation

week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Require-ments

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Content: bibliography (1)

The bibliography must list all sources (books, articles, web sites, etc.)

– that are cited in your report

– that provide useful background information.

Order the sources by author’s surname and date.

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Content: bibliography (2)

For every source, include the author’s name, its date, and its title. Include also:

– for an article: the title of the journal or conference record in which the article was published, and the page range

– for a book: the name of the publisher

– for a web site: the URL.

Also, briefly summarize the source’s content.

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Content: citations (1)

The Harvard style (author surname + date) is usually best for citations. E.g.:

Downey, A., Elkner, J., Meyers, C. (2002) How to Think Like a Computer Scientist – Learning with Python, Green Tea Press.

Hoare, C.A.R. (1962) Quicksort, Computer Journal 5, pp. 10–15.

Martelli, A. (2006) Python in a Nutshell, O’Reilly.

Wikipedia (2007) Quicksort, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicksort.

bibliographycitations in the text

The quick-sort algorithm was invented by Hoare (1962); see also Wikipedia (2007).

Python (Downey et al. 2002, Martelli 2006) is a highly dynamic language, suitable for object-oriented and functional programming.

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Content: citations (2)

The Vancouver style (numbered items in bibliography) is an alternative. E.g.:

MS Word does not support this style.

1. Downey, A., Elkner, J., Meyers, C. (2002) How to Think Like a Computer Scientist – Learning with Python, Green Tea Press.

2. Hoare, C.A.R. (1962) Quicksort, Computer Journal 5, pp. 10–15.

3. Martelli, A. (2006) Python in a Nutshell, O’Reilly.

4. Wikipedia (2007) Quicksort, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicksort.

bibliographycitations in the text

The quick-sort algorithm was invented by Hoare [2]; see also [4].

Python [1, 3] is a highly dynamic language, suitable for object-oriented and functional programming.

LaTeX supports automatic numbering.

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Content: avoiding plagiarism (1)

Plagiarism means using another person’s work without acknowledgement: presenting another person’s work as if it were your own.

You must cite the source of anything that is another person’s work, including:

– text (either direct quotation or paraphrase)

– ideas

– designs

– code

– data

– diagrams, images, etc.

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Content: avoiding plagiarism (2)

If you must use another person’s words exactly, include quotation marks as well as a citation.

Almost always it is better to paraphrase the other person’s words (using your own words) – but still include a citation.

“Testing can prove the presence of errors, but never their absence.” (Dijkstra 1968)

direct quotation

Dijkstra (1968) observed that testing might expose errors in a program, but no amount of testing can ever prove the program free of errors.

paraphrase

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Writing: terminology

Terminology is critically important in technical writing.

Use technical terms as defined in good textbooks and refereed articles.

Where two or more technical terms mean the same thing, choose one term and use it consistently.

If you use any unusual technical terms, define them precisely.

Don’t imitate computer magazines and web sites!

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Example: terminology

Modern computers have vast amounts of memory. But a program that creates millions of objects can easily run out of heap space. From time to time it is necessary to reclaim the space occupied by objects that are no longer being used. A garbage collector is an algorithm that discovers unreachable objects and recycles the space they occupy.

bad better

Modern computers have vast amounts of memory. But a program that creates millions of objects can easily run out of memory. From time to time it is necessary to reclaim the memory occupied by objects that are no longer reachable. A garbage collector is an algorithm that discovers unreachable objects and reclaims the memory they occupy.

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Writing: acronyms

Use acronyms sparingly, and only for frequently-used multi-word terms.

Introduce every acronym by expanding it at its first occurrence.

Do not invent your own acronyms.

Always write acronyms in upper-case letters.

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Example: acronyms

IR is about searching a large collection of documents for those that are most relevant to a particular user query. IR is the basis of web search engines such as Google.

A FAQ about IR is why so many search results are irrelevant. The basic answer to this FAQ is that relevance is a difficult concept for users to express and for computers to process efficiently.

bad better

Information retrieval (IR) is about searching a large collection of documents for those that are most relevant to a particular user query. IR is the basis of web search engines such as Google.

A frequently-asked question about IR is why so many search results are irrelevant. The basic answer to this question is that relevance is a difficult concept for users to express and for computers to process efficiently.

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Writing: grammar and spelling (1)

Good grammar and spelling are important.

– A book, article, or report with poor grammar or spelling is likely to be dismissed as incompetent and untrustworthy.

Always check your own writing.

Then ask a friend to check your writing (not to rewrite it).

– If English is not your native language, ask a fluent English speaker to check your writing.

Your supervisor will read your draft report. But do not expect the supervisor to correct all the errors in your writing.

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Writing: grammar and spelling (2)

Automatic spell-checkers are useful tools. But they are not entirely reliable, and will miss some spelling errors, e.g.:

Automatic grammar-checkers might also be useful. But they are rather unreliable.

Their is no hope off recovering your stolen bicycle hole.

wrong

There is no hope of recovering your stolen bicycle whole.

right

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Submission

Start writing your report at least 3 weeks before the deadline.

Show a draft to your supervisor well before the deadline.

Submit one printed copy and one PDF copy of your report.

Deadline: Friday 25 March 2011 at 12:00.

Late penalty: 2 bands per day (or part-day).

www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~daw/masters-projects/Res-Proposal.html

www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~daw/masters-projects/Dev-Proposal.html

except for part-time students