CS 91/191
Spring 2019
Writing, Presenting, and Evaluating Technical Papers in Computer Science
Writing Test

In order to gain admission to CS 191, you are required to complete the following assignment. The purpose is to ensure that you already are a reasonably competent writer of expository prose in English.

Write a description of how to do something (chosen from the list of topics below). Your description must adhere to the following rules:

  1. It must be written in English.

  2. You must write it entirely by yourself. No other person is allowed to assist you in any way. The Academic Honor Principle applies here.

  3. It should be about two pages in length. (I give this length as a guideline. A little over or under is OK.)

  4. It should contain introductory material (at least one paragraph) telling me what I'm about to read and why I should care, and it should contain some concluding material (again, at least one paragraph) telling me what I just read and possibly foreshadowing related topics. Between the introductory material and concluding material should appear the main material telling me how to do whatever it is you're telling me.

  5. The description should make no assumptions about my technical knowledge in the topic. For example, if you write about how to change the oil in a car, do not assume that I know where the drainplug is or even what a drainplug is.

  6. It may be a PDF, a Microsoft Word file, or a plain text file. If it's a plain text file, put one blank line between paragraphs and create the file so that each paragraph takes one line in the file.

  7. To submit your description, email it to thc@cs.dartmouth.edu by 5:00 pm on Tuesday, March 26.

Topics

Here is a list of suggested topics. Please choose one:
  1. How to change the oil in a car.
  2. How to select and buy a car. (You may focus on either a new or a used car.)
  3. How to grow tomatoes.
  4. How to give a haircut.
  5. How to win at Scrabble.
  6. How to travel cheaply.
  7. How to train a dog.
  8. How to get a child to eat broccoli (or some other vegetable that children typically dislike).
  9. How to drink substantial amounts of alcohol without the resulting hangover.
  10. How to cure a hangover.
  11. How to break up with your boyfriend or girlfriend.
  12. How to get over it when your boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with you.

If you do not feel qualified to write about any of the above topics, please see me and we'll come up with something about which you can write.

Thomas H. Cormen <thc@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Last modified: Fri Feb 1 10:07:17 2019