TML Laboratory

Suomeksi

TML / Studies / Tik-111.590

Tik-111.590 Writing Instructions

To pass the seminar students must write a paper about their topic. Writing the paper is the most difficult part of the course, so you are better off reserving some time for it.

All of the papers will be put to the web after the seminar. Due to this you must not put copyrighted material to your paper. In practice this implies that if you wish to use some-one else's pictures you must ask for permission to use them.

Language

Papers can be written in English or in Finnish. Post-graduate students must use English.

Length

The paper must be 10-12 pages long. The only exception to this rule are those who wish to get three credits for the course, their paper must be 15-17 pages long. The cover sheet is not counted as a page.

References

Each student must collect at least three references outside the book (relevant scientific conference/journal papers). If your topic is outside the book then you should have at least five references outside the book.

You should introduce all the references at the beginning of the text (unless you have lots of references). It is also good to tell the reader which are the most important references and which are not so important.

If you have many references it does not make sense to list all of them at the beginning of the paper. Rather one should introduce the most important references at the beginning and use the other references as needed.

The General Approach

The aim of the papers is to describe the state of the art (=current state of the technology) at the moment. Since the audience may not be familiar with your topic you must go first thru fundamentals. You should not spend too much time with fundamentals tough, it is more important that you describe the technology.

The paper should be written in scientific style - with clear arguments and without ambiguous expressions.

You are free to criticise the references and give your own opinions.

Structure of the Text

It is impossible to give guidelines that would cover all the possible topics. For many people -- how ever -- the following approach should be fine:
  1. Introduction (what are we talking about)
  2. Background (how did we get here)
  3. Overview of the state of the art (the level of technology, technical solutions)
  4. The most difficult problems (what is still the trouble)
  5. Future guidelines
  6. Conclusions

Schedule and Returning

The articles will be returned twice - the preversion before 29.10.2001, 16:00 and the final version before 26.11.2001, 16:00. The preversion must be retured before 11.11.2001, 16.00. If you fail to meet this deadline you will be dropped from the course. If you return the paper late then your grade will be dropped by -1. If you are late twice, then the grade will be dropped two steps. In any case the final paper must be returned before the seminar session.

If you return a physical paper, then you should return it to your instructor. We work in the the T-building in the third floor, rooms A342 and A344. If there is nobody in neither room you can leave the paper to one of the secretaries.

Pre-version

The pre-version can be a full article, but at least you should have a five-page mini-version of the article with all the references. If your paer does not meet these requirements by 29.10.2001, 16:00 then it will considered as being late. The course personnel will read your pre-version and give feedback. It is wisest to return a five-page paper, because then it is easier to do the necessary changes.

So the minimum requirements for pre-version are:

The final paper

The final paper will be returned elctronically in pdf-format. The paper lyout must follow the given definitions (these can be found in the example document).

The paper must have the correct number of pages, all the necessary references and formatting. Unless these requirements are met 26.11.2001, 16:00 the paper is consireder to be late.

Layout and formatting

The paper will be returned in pdf-format. The paper should follow the format of the guide paper. It is probably easiest to take the version that you can load to your text-editor and replace the contents with real content.
sempaper2000.doc Instruction in MS-Word
sempaper2000.pdf Instruction pdf-format
sempaper2000.ps Instruction in postscript-format
sempaper2000.rtf Instruction rtf-format

For LaTex users we give one older paper for template. You should also read the instructions in some of the above versions.
sempaper2000.tex LaTex-format
ti_article.cls Paper formatting style (modified LaTex-article)
authordate1-4_2.sty Citation format (if you use automatic citation)
authordate1_ti.bst More automatic sitation format
sempaper2000.bib BibTex citation database 

latex  xyz
bibtex xyz
latex  xyz

This page is maintained by Tommi Ilmonen - Tommi.Ilmonen_at_tml.hut.fi.
Last update 14.11.2001.
URL: http://www.tml.hut.fi/Studies/Tik-111.590/2001s/paper-instructions.html