ling 4424/cogst4240/cs3740
Computational Linguistics
Fall 2009 Grading

If you elect to receive a grade in 4424, it will be based on three factors

participation

The instructor tries to gauge the degree to which the student is intellectually engaged with the material. The basis of participation is coming to class well-prepared by reading and taking the time to experiment with example programs. Articulating the difference between what is currently understood vs. not-understood is one of the most valuable forms of class participation. But equally, this kind of intellectual engagement can also be shown outside lecture with thoughtful questions by email or in office hours.

homework

On a semi-weekly basis, homework assignments are distributed that encourage the student to do something related to what has been discussed or demonstrated in the lecture. Assignments typically bundle a mix of easy and hard questions: some verify basic understanding of a concept, others require moderate programming effort, and some prompt the student to reflect on the limits and implications of the ideas under study that week. These assignments are graded either pass/fail or on a seven-point scale.

final project

Rather than having any kind of exam, the final project provides a space for students to learn about a part of computational linguistics that particularly interests them. It is meant to take about two weeks of effort during reading period and extend some technique or consider some issue introduced in class. It should concern the computational treatment of some linguistic phenomenon. To do well on the final project, follow these steps

1. As soon as you come upon an interesting topic, talk to the instructor. Although a fully-formed idea is great, it is enough to have narrowed your interest to a particular sub-area that can be appropriately sized to both feed your curiosity and satisfy the course requirement. This conversation will likely result in some references to books in the library.
2. Go to the library and gain some familiarity with what other people have already done in your chosen topic area.
3. Even while class is still continuing, begin programming algorithms, writing grammars or proving theorems about your chosen topic.
4. Explain your topic, and your work so far at the Festival of Final Projects during the last week of class. In response to your verbal presentation you'll get feedback from other class participants, including the instructor.
5. By Friday December 11th 2009, turn in a writeup documenting your work on the final project. This writeup should explain
   • what your topic is and why it is interesting from the perspective of computational linguistics
   • what you did about it; what method did you apply to address this topic?
   • what resulted from your efforts --- did everything go as planned? (if so, the project may have been too easy!)
   • what you learned from it and what you would do if you had three more months