Objective

Writing critiques will help you develop critical thinking and teach you how to evaluate and extract deep understanding from original research papers.

Reading

You should expect to read for one to four hours for each week and to think and write for an additional hour or two to develop an interesting critique. Your emphasis should be on the innovation and insights that the papers provide and the avenues of new research that these papers pave.

Format

Critiques are due at the beginning of the class via gradescope.The critiques must be typed and submitted in pdf format.

Your critique should not exceed two pages (that is a single physical page, front and back) and must reflect on what you learned and thoughts provoked by the paper. The critique must includes a short summary of the paper, but most of it should be based on your original thoughts about the paper, what you learned form the paper, and your new ideas provoked by the paper. Please seek concision and clarity and avoid unnecessary commentary. Your and my time is priceless! Make sure that you use an active voice in your critique.

The following specific format is required.

Please submit your readings on gradescope
First, set the stage and start with a paragraph (quarter page) that states the problem addressed in the paper, describes the proposed solution, and summarizes the insights resulting from the empirical study.
Second, state the strength(s) of the paper in one to three sentences.
Third, state the weakness(es) of the paper in one to three sentences.
Forth, include two of the following and discuss each in a separate paragraph:
- What future research directions should be explored?
- What ideas or thoughts the provokes?
- What potential impact does it have on the field?
- Why will the papr be cited?
- What questions remain open?
- What experiments can provide deeper understanding about the work?
- How does it relate and extend the previous research?
- Why the work in not interesting?
- In which situations the approach will work or will not work?
- How can your own research be mixed with the insights provided in the paper?
- Other interesting analyses and commentary.

Grading

I will evaluate your critiques on a ten-point scale. You can also get a bonus point; however, I expect most critiques to receive a ten.

Required sections (8 points): summary (1 point), strengths (1 point), weaknesses (1 point), analytical discussion (each 2.5 point).
Grammar and spelling (1 point).
Clarity and grace, i.e., clear, well organized arguments in well organized paragraphs (1 point).
Deep analysis and/or surprising me with a really interesting idea (1 bonus point).

Late policy

For each assigned paper, critiques are due at the beginning of the corresponding class. I will not accept late critiques, except in the case of illness.

Reading material for writing critiques

I very much recommend you to read "The task of the referee by Alan Jay Smith" before wrting your first critique.
Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace, Joseph M. Williams, 4th Edition 2010.
Notes on Constructive and Positive Reviewing by Mark Hill and Kathryn McKinley
The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX
Creating a PDF document using pdflatex

CSE 240A: Principles of Computer Architecture (Fall 2018)

Instructor: Hadi Esmaeilzadeh

Email: hadi [AT] eng [DOT] ucsd [DOT] edu

Office: CSE 3228

Office hours: 6:20 - 8:00 PM, Mon

Course time/location: MW 5:00p-6:20p CENTR 216

TAs:

Sean Kinzer: skinzer [AT] eng [DOT] ucsd [DOT] edu;