Short Papers: the process

when you're acting as an author...

1. Note that you have two fellow students who will be responding to your paper (see author/responder list). You will be offering a "first finished draft", by which I mean not a draft in the sense of notes or unfinished prose, but your first attempt at a final copy of the paper. You probably will still have problems with the paper, perhaps many, but (as a courtesy to your responder!) you should not have spelling or punctuation errors, or incomplete sentences, or the like.

2. Once you have completed your first finished draft, take a break and then think about the state of the paper as it now stands. Add to the paper a paragraph that summarizes for your responders (1) what you think you've done in the paper that is successful, (2) where and in what ways you think the paper still needs work. Then add specific questions you have (does this part seem to make sense? do you see what I'm driving at here? not the right word, can you think of a better one?). Feel free to put these specific questions in brackets into the middle of the text, if you like.

3. As soon as you have completed your first finished draft, use your e-mail program (usually Eudora) to send the text to (1) the two responders, (2) me. The e-addresses of the two responders are provided on the class list. My e-address is:

The "subject line" should read: "draft: Paper Title".

If you are unsure how to send an e-mail to more than one person, or if you don't know how to move the text from your word processor to the e-mail program, see the Technical Notes below.

4. Now wait for the responses to come in. (An easy step!)

5. Once you receive the responses, work on your final revisions. Feel free to write or talk to your responders if you have questions, or want more input. You can write to me too, of course, but you're more likely to find out what a responder means if you write (or talk to) that person directly. (But do write or come talk to me if you have questions or problems of any kind.)

6. Send the revised text to (1) the responders, (2) me. The "subject line" should read: "revised: Paper Title".

7. Note that throughout this process, I will be posting the results to our class web page. Feel free to read other papers and responses. Also note that I will be reading the papers and responses before I post them, and will intervene if a paper or response is very poorly done or otherwise unsuitable.

[Technical notes]

Technical note 1. To send the text to more than one person, write each e-address in the "To" line in succession, separated by a comma and a space.

Technical note 2. If you prefer to use a word processor to construct your paper (good idea: that way you can make use of the spell checker!), you may wonder then how to move the paper into your electronic mail. In fact it's easy. (1) In your word processor, select the entire text ("select all"). (2) Now "copy" the text. (3) Now move to your e-mail program (usually Eudora), create a new message, go to (usually click on) the part where you would write your new message, and "paste in" the text. (4) You will want to read over the message, in order to correct for infelicities of format (such as adding indentation or a blank line to mark new paragraphs).

If you have technical problems of any type (or if the above doesn't help!), don't be shy. Ask the computing services help desk, another student, me.

Note on writing the paper as a web page. If you'd like to write the paper as a web page (that is, in "HMTL"), that's wonderful! And you should feel free to add images, java scripts, whatever you like-- as long as you still fulfill the spirit (and letter) of the assignment. If you do create the paper as a web page, you can then just send the address (the "URL") to your responders and me, and we can use Netscape to read your paper.

Short Papers: the process

when you're acting as a responder...

1. Note that you are assigned two authors whose papers you are asked to review. Take this seriously. Whether you do a thoughtful, careful job of thinking about your fellow student's paper could have a big impact on the quality of the final revision.

2. Wait for an e-mail from the author containing the first finished draft. (An easy step!)

3. Read through the entire paper, at least once, before writing any comments. Some (but not all) people like to print out the text in order to read and make notes.

4. Use the reply feature of your e-mail program (usually Eudora), and add your comments. Note that you may want to add comments on mechanical matters (such as spelling, punctuation, minor problems with wording) between the lines of the text. You will in any case need (1) to respond to the specific questions the author has on the paper, and (2) to use the guidelines (on the back of this sheet) to offer your point-by-point response.

5. Be prepared to clarify or add to your comments if the author writes back with questions.

6. Note that throughout this process, I will be posting the results to our class web page. Feel free to read other papers and responses. Also note that I will be reading the papers and responses before I post them, and will intervene if a paper or response is very poorly done or otherwise unsuitable.

7. If you feel more comfortable meeting with the author face to face in order to discuss the work, that's fine, in fact I encourage it. But: after the meeting, briefly summarize your comments and discussion in writing and send the response to me in the format outlined above so that we can share it with the rest of the group.

Response guidelines:

Answer all the questions thoughtfully, carefully, and, above all, honestly. Your honesty is most likely to be thanked as truly helpful-which is, after all, the point.

Note: If you would like to cut and paste these questions into your e-mail response as a template for your answers, use the text below. If you don't understand how to do this, don't be shy. Ask the computing services help desk, another student, me.

1. Make sure to respond to the author's questions and comments. (I have asked each author to comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the paper, and also to ask questions on specific problem points.)

2. What did you like best about the paper?

3. Does the structure seem best? How might the organization of the paper be improved? Try to make positive suggestions. (Finding the problems is a lot easier, and less helpful, than suggesting the solutions!)

4. Pick out the three sentences that need the most work, & mark the beginning of each of these sentences with three asterisks (***). Indicate any suggestions you have for how to reword the sentence, or what specificly seems wrong. (This is probably best done between the lines of the text in your e-mail reply.)

5. Read over the paper for mechanical errors, and point these out. These can be problems of spelling, punctuation, wording, or minor problems with sentence structure and flow. Since this is a first finished draft, you do not expect to find many of these. (It's often easiest to mark mechanical errors between the lines of the text in your e-mail reply.)

6. How much additional work, and what type, do you feel is needed on the paper?