Home Page > IS 364 - DollyThis page holds work for the Fall 2008 IS 364 Course with Dr. Gondy Leroy. It is based off of this assignment . You can view other people's portfolios by clicking on the IS364 tag on the bottom of this page, or by editing this page and looking in the sidebar.
1. What were the three most damming elements that led to a rejection of a paper, a difficult to read paper, a boring paper, etc. Describe them in a few sentences. Explain why you include them.
(i) Poorly structured and too many grammatical errors
Papers that are poorly structured and have too many grammatical errors will dampen the spirit of the reviewer in reading the paper. How the paper is structures is important because it will give the reviewer a good understanding of the flow of content of the paper. If the structure is all over the place, this will definitely confuse the reviewer where he/she needs to go back and forth to facilitate his/her understanding. Too many grammatical errors hinder the flow of reading and comprehending a paper.
(ii) Poorly explained technical papers
Technical papers should be explained clearly because this will facilitate the reviewer who is not familiar with the subject matter in understanding the paper. Acronyms should be specified.
(iii) Results not conclusive
It is important to have a brief explanation as to how the results of the study were obtained. If there were no explanation, this will make the reviewer wonder the rigor of the study and this could lead to the reviewer making judgment that the results are inconclusive.
2. What are the three elements that you didn't know yet and that you plan to include in your papers from now on, to increase their chances of being published and read by others. Example: be specific and honest about the results in the abstract.
(i) Actual results and discussions
It is good for an academic paper to have results and discussion because it will give a complete picture of the study. Without the results and the discussions, the paper is half-baked and does not bring much satisfaction both to the author and the reader.
(ii) Analysis
It is very important to ensure that the analysis portion of a paper is comprehensive so that readers would be able to understand how the data collected was analyzed. Other than that, the analysis would also substantiate the findings of the paper.
(iii) The transition from one section to the next section
It is very essential that the author writes a few sentences at the end of a section which will describe to the reader how that section relates to the next section in the paper. This practice will definitely facilitate the reading in his/her flow of understanding the subject matter being addressed in the paper.
3. What are other elements will you look out for, either positive or negative. Example: their/there, then/than, if/whether.
(i) Writing out the citations
The author should pay attention to the formatting requirements of the paper such as what type of style is required for the citation. Different conferences have different requirements as to how the paper should be formatted. For example, the HICSS paper required a numbering citation. It is important to note also that a numbering citation can have different ways of presentation in the reference section such as, the numbers in the reference section is based upon the order when that reference is made in the text, or the numbers in the reference section is based upon its alphabetical order and that number will be used in the text.
1. What were the three most damming elements that led to a boring presentation, an uninteresting presentation, a presentation without content (you didn't learn anything). Describe them in a few sentences. Explain why you include them. Example: too many details of an algorithm without explaining the big picture.
(i) Speaking too fast
When the speaker speaks too fast, it will be hard for the audience to catch up with him/her in understanding what is being presented. This action will have an impact on the audience as they will eventually lose interest in the presentation, and divert their attention else where such as checking their email or reading the newspaper.
(ii) Not making contacts with the audience
When the presenter keeps on looking at the slides and turning his/her back to the audience, this action implies to the audience that the presenter is not actually presenting to them, and the presenter will lose the attention of the audience.
(iii) Too much technical materials which is incomprehensible
The presenter should consider who is going to be his/her audience, particularly, gauging their level of understanding on the topic that is going to be delivered. If the audience varies, then the presenter should prepare the slides as comprehensible as possible so as to facilitate the non-technical savvy audience in following the presentation. It would be different if the targeted audience has the background on the subject matter, because this type of audience would be easily bored by a simplified presentation.
2. What are the three elements that you didn't know yet and that you plan to include in your presentations from now on. Example: visually showing the structure of the presentation (audience will always know if it's the introduction, or conclusion).
(i) Anticipate questions and be prepared for them
When doing a presentation, the presenter should try to anticipate the questions that are going to be asked as this will further enhance the confidence of the presenter in answering the questions asked.
(ii) Nervousness which led to lost for words
Despite having practice the presentation thoroughly, the presenter should also learn to control his/her nervousness because this situation can lead to lost for words during the presentation, and this can lead to the presenter referring frequently to the notes.
(iii) Not having too many texts on one slide
The texts on the slide should not be a paragraph of sentences. If possible, there should be a sentence (doesn’t have to be a full sentence, just key words) for one point which needs to be emphasized upon. If there are too many words or sentences, the audience will ends up reading the texts instead of listening to the presenter’s explanation.
3. What are other elements will you look out for, either positive or negative. Example: when to use title slides or not.
(i) Making sure presentation settings slides is properly set
The presenter must not take for granted that the presentation slide settings are acceptable for his/her presentation. It is important that the presenter go through the slides thoroughly and check the presentation slides settings because there are settings which might not be suitable for the presentation such as when the presentation transition setting is set to automatic, the slides will be clicked automatically and this can disrupt the presentation’s flow when presenting the slides.
