March 13, 2007

Go over concepts in Chapters 12 and 13.

Writing Assignment.

• Write a 800-1000 word summary of one of the first two articles of a summary of the last two articles listed below:
  • Benton, N., Kennedy, A., and Russell, G. 1998. Compiling standard ML to Java bytecodes. In Proceedings of the Third ACM SIGPLAN international Conference on Functional Programming (Baltimore, Maryland, United States, September 26 - 29, 1998). ICFP '98. ACM Press, New York, NY, 129-140.
  • Benton, N. and Kennedy, A. 1999. Interlanguage working without tears: blending SML with Java. In Proceedings of the Fourth ACM SIGPLAN international Conference on Functional Programming (Paris, France, September 27 - 29, 1999). ICFP '99. ACM Press, New York, NY, 126-137.
  • Splosky, J. 2006. Can Your programming Language Do This? http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/08/01.html
  • Splosky, J. 2005. The Perils of JavaSchools. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchools.html

The summary will include citations to at least three resources. The audience for the summary is other students in this class.

Some links on the Web that describe how to write a summary:

• Resources for Writers: Summary Writing, C. Sandra Jamieson, Drew University
• Writing Summaries, Columbia University, School of Social Work
• How to Write a Summary

 

Consult/Read "The Elements of Style," http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html, by William Strunk, Jr.

• ELEMENTARY RULES OF USAGE
  1. Form the possessive singular of nouns with 's
  2. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last
  3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
  4. Place a comma before and or but introducing an independent clause
  5. Do not join independent clauses by a comma
  6. Do not break sentences in two
     In other words, do not use periods for commas.
  7. A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject
  8. Divide words at line-ends, in accordance with their formation and pronunciation
• ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION
  9. Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic
  10. As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence; end it in conformity with the beginning
  11. Use the active voice
      The habitual use of the active voice, however, makes for forcible writing. This is true not only in narrative principally concerned with action, but in writing of any kind. Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a transitive in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as there is, or could be heard.
      

      There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground.	Dead leaves covered the ground.
      The sound of the falls could still be heard.	The sound of the falls still reached our ears.
      The reason that he left college was that his health became impaired.	Failing health compelled him to leave college.
      It was not long before he was very sorry that he had said what he had.	He soon repented his words.

  12. Put statements in positive form
      Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language.
  13. Omit needless words
      Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
  14. Avoid a succession of loose sentences
  15. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form
      This principle, that of parallel construction, requires that expressions of similar content and function should be outwardly similar. The likeness of form enables the reader to recognize more readily the likeness of content and function.
  16. Keep related words together
  17. In summaries, keep to one tense
  18. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Ernest Ackermann Department of Computer Science, Mary Washington College
CPSC 401 | CPSC 470S

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