# Format for weekly readings

Each week, I would like you to send me a summary of the papers that
you have read for the class. This should include the required
readings, as well as any of the recommended readings that you've done
(and each week you must read at least 1 related paper beyond the
minimum of what's required).

You must email your summaries to the TA before class on Friday. This
should include the readings required for Friday's class, but not any
"after class" Friday readings (those go with the next week).

Mike Swift's page for 736 readings provides lots of good food for
thought on how to do this. I highly recommend reading it:
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~cs736-1/reading.html

One other thing to think about as you read the paper (and this will
often be the first question I will ask to open the discussion) is: Why
did I ask you to read this paper?

As an initial guess on how to do summaries, I would like to suggest
that you answer these questions (you should only need a sentence or
two for each)

1. A one or two sentence summary of the paper.
1. A one or two sentence description of the problem the paper is
trying to solve.
1. A one of two sentence description of the method used to solve the
problem. 
1. A list of short (approx one sentence) descriptions of the key
ideas of the paper.
1. A list of short (approx one sentence) descriptions of the
contributions of the paper.
1. Any questions that the paper raises for you. This might be some
flaw that they do not address, something that is unclear, some piece
of background knowledge that you don't have that would help you
understand the paper, ...


I am fine with you preparing these summaries with a partner (you only
need to send me one copy), as long as you really prepare them as a
team effort and use this process as an opportunity to discuss the paper.