DQ and AB Suggestions

Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences

Nova Southeastern University

Suggestions for

Discussion Questions

and

Annotated Bibliographies

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

A Discussion Question is your chance to show your knowledge of the question domain, present your knowledge in a logical manner and draw valid conclusions based on these facts. Your response should be limited to two- to three-paragraphs.

When using a reference, a complete citation and reference source must be provided. Care must be taken to use references that are appropriate. See comments regarding in “ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY” - “Poor or Unreliable Source” and “Appropriateness”, below.

Most important is to correctly and succinctly answer the question!!

A good discussion will include the following:

- Complete and succinct definition and discussion of the topic(s).

- Appropriate applications and limitations of each of the topics discussed above.

- Valid conclusion and complete rationale based on your definitions and applications presented above.

- Any appropriate personal comment. For example, was the article complete, fair and technically correct? What are your views of the depth and breadth of coverage. What is your evaluation and recommendation of the article?

Your grade is determined by your responses to the above.

Insure that your name, class and assignment is clearly identified.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Submissions are graded with the following criteria:

-10 percent. Missing or partial article title and/or author

-10 to -50 Content. A good annotated bibliography is a great assist to the potential reader/researcher. First, summarize the article - subject, coverage, limitations, specific domain knowledge required to understand the material (heavy statistics, high level math, etc.). Then, include your thoughts and comments regarding the article.

There are two extremes in content - too short and too long. Often submissions are VERY brief and VERY partial. Three or four sentences are woefully inadequate. Conversely, two pages of technical details from the article is not a succinct annotated bibliography.

-5 to -20 percent. Poor or inadequate source. The worth of the article is a function of the source. Refereed journals such as IEEE and ACM are great. Many .com sources are good - but usually biased. These should be used with care - usually as one of several articles used to evaluate products. For example, use ford.com and gm.com as biased sources to evaluate a SUV. Other .com sources are good when they provide accurate and balanced white papers on a topic. Educational sources, .edu, are OK if selected as white papers rather than class notes or "ego postings". Keep in mind that most .edu papers are not refereed and are somewhat suspect. Sources such as Popular Mechanics and PC World are unacceptable; the Wall Street Journal is marginal as a source at this level; local newspapers are generally unacceptable. Use your judgment about the validity of your source.

-10 to -40 percent. Appropriateness. All articles must be appropriate to the class' subject material and technical depth. Select articles as if they were to be used as term paper references.

-50 percent. No link to the source is provided. This is a basic requirement. Without the link, the annotated bibliography has little to no value to this class.

-5, 10 or 15 percent if submitted past the due date.

Insure that your name, class and assignment is identified.