This document provides an introduction and guidelines for an essay assignment in a course on Semantic Analysis in Language Technology. It outlines the requirements, including length, deadlines for submissions and presentations, peer review process, and topics. Acceptable topics include testing and describing a system, proposing a future application, or literature review. The document emphasizes writing a critical evaluation, using topic sentences and coherent paragraphs, considering the audience, and properly citing references. It also recommends reading materials on academic writing, writing essays, and peer review.

1. Semantic Analysis in Language Technology
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment
Course Website: http://stp.lingfil.uu.se/~santinim/sais/sais_fall2013.htm
MARINA SANTINI
PROGRAM: COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY
DEPT OF LINGUISTICS AND PHILOLOGY
UPPSALA UNIVERSITY, SWEDEN
14 NOV 2013

2. Acknowledgements
 Thanks to Mats Dahllöf for the many slides I
borrowed from his previous course.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

3. Essay Assignment
 Work alone or in groups of two students
 Essay length: 5-6 pages for 1 student: 9-12 pages for
2 students
 Oral presentation: 10 minutes for 1 student; 20 min
for 2 students; 5-7 minutes for questions and
discussion
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

4. Essay Assignment: Deadlines
1.
Submission first version: 5 Dec 2013
2.
Oral presentation: 12 Dec 2013
3.
Feedback on another group’s work: 17 Dec 2013
1.
2.
3.
4.
4.
Links to the essays will be published on the course website;
Each student must choose one essay submitted by another group and
write a 1 page essay review;
Send one copy of your essay review to me and one copy to the group
members;
Each group must take the reviewers’ feedback into account for the
final essay submission.
Essay final version and final submission: 20 Jan 2013
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

5. The purpose of the Essay Assignment
 Training in ”critical thinking”
 Training in writing and reviewing
academic texts
 Independent study of a system, an
approach or a problem withing
semantic-oriented language tecnology
 Oral and witten presentation
 Review procedure
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

6. Essay Topics
 Hands-on testing and description of a
system:

see demos and systems listed in the course website.
 Proposal, discussion and motivation of a
future semantic-oriented application –
unleash your imagination -- that could solve
a real-word problem (similar, for ex, to the
use case on cross-linguality we discussed
last time);
 Literature study on an approach or an issue
in a semantic-related area. Think of it as a
review article that you want to publish.
 Testing of online demos may be included.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

7. The topic sentence (Björk and Wickborg, 1981)
 A paragraph is a thought unit. It consists of a series of sentences
unified by ONE controlling idea or topic, which is usually expressed
in a topic sentence.
 When you plan a paragraph the main thing is to have one central
topic clearly in mind.
 State your the basic topic early in the paragraph.
 Once you have established your controlling topic or idea you must
let it control the whole paragraph. Delete any sentence in the
paragraph that is not related to the main idea.
 Text coherence and cohesion can be controlled by an expert use of
topic sentences and well-structured paragraphs.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

8. Who is your audience?
 Any piece of academic writing should be structured
with reference to a clearly stated aim in a way that is
easy for the reader to understand.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

9. Critical Evaluation
 The essay (as most academic texts) should present a critical evaluation of
some claim.
 Critical evaluation means assessing the relative merit of a piece of work,
such as an implemented system, a more general method, or the “state-ofthe-art” in some field.
 “Critical” (as in “critical thinking”) means that evidence is evaluated with
the aim of reaching a conclusion about what to think or do.
 “Critical” in this sense does not mean being “negative” or “disapproving”
about something. That is rather a secondary more informal – but very
common – sense of the word. Critical evaluation may lead to the conclusion
that something is perfect as well as that it is worthless.


Perfection: We prove that an algorithm solves the problem it is presented as solving.
Worthless: We show that a certain NLP method makes performance worse for a wide variety
of data.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

10. Critical Evaluation: Examples
 We compute metrics showing different changes in
performance for different data using different NLP
methods for solving a certain problem.
 We also consider computational and economic costs
of using these methods in a more general evaluation
of their value.
Basically, everthing must be interpreted, measured,
and assessed on the positive side and on the negative
side!
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

11. Oral Presentation
 Highlight the important points. What is the main
message to convey?
 Be realistic about the amount of information the
audience can process – Think of yourselves and your
attention span.
 Use a visual presentation program in a way that
supports the presentation. Slides are highly
recommended.
 Make sure you reach a proper ending. (Prepare your
talk in such a way that some sections may be cut.)
Rehearse.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

12. References, Citations and Quotations
 In academic writing you should give citations for each
work you use in your own writing. These works should be
listed in the References section. Exactly the ones cited!
 When you use the methods, concepts, conclusions of
other people – using your own words – plain citation.
 When you use the words of other people – quotation
(citat) should be marked as such.
 Handle all these things in a strict way according to some
typical standard (e.g. IEEE citation standards)!
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

13. Cf. Also the Thesis Structure
(self-reading)
 Content structure of a thesis
 Aim
 Background
 Main body and conclusions
 Abstract
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

14. Content Structure of a Thesis
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

15. Aim
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

16. Background
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

17. Main Body and Conclusions
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18. Abstract
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19. Suggested Readings
 Academic writing:
 Features of academic writing
 Academic writing conventions
 etc.
 How to write an essay:
 Easy steps
 General guidelines
 etc.
 Peer-to-peer evaluation:
 "Do's" and "Don't's”
 Steps
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment

20. This is the end… Thanks for your attention !
Lecture 2: Introduction to the Essay Assignment