Topic outline

  • Paper takeaways + questions

    Goal

    The goal of writing the takeaways from each paper you read is to learn how to identify and to summarize the most important aspects and findings of a large project. This skill is important when you want to report the findings of others and also when you have to present crisply and in short amount of time a project you are working on, e.g., to convince others of its value.

    The questions you have to find about the papers will help foster the discussions we will have during the contact/discussion sessions. Finding these questions will make you think about the paper and if it raised any questions while reading it and for which it did not provide any answer. We aim to discuss those and try to find an answer together during the contact sessions.

    Content

    Takeaways: When writing the takeaways, it is important to focus on your personal takeaways rather the contributions listed by the authors in introduction and/or conclusion of the paper. Focus on the findings of the paper that change your understanding about the different concepts treated during the course. Aim to remain crisp and take no more than 1-2 pages to summarize the takeaways of the 3 papers you will read for each session (max 0.5 page per paper takeaways). Takeaways must be selective rather than comprehensive. Do not summarize the whole paper.

    Questions: You must find one or two questions per paper your read. These questions must be used to foster discussions. They can focus on the following topics: significance of the contribution, concerns that were raised, limitations you identified, validity/impact of results, etc. They questions must preferably:

    • be opened (no straightforward yes/no answer)
    • be controversial (trigger different answers)
    • not have a definite answer in the paper
    • contradict findings from the paper (while remaining reasonable)

    Submissions

    Before each discussion session (DL: 11:55 on discussion day )
    Submit the title of the 3 papers you have read together with the takeaways and 2-4 questions/remarks/thoughts on these papers. (2 pages altogether)



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