CIS 775 Final Paper, Fall 2004

A major portion of the grade for CIS 775 is a paper on an approved topic. A typical paper would be based on a problem or set of problems from one of the required or recommended textbooks, but other topics will be considered as well. The paper must include a title page and the following sections:

An introduction describing the problem that will be solved in the paper. The introduction should include a context for the problem.
The body of the paper, which may span several sections. The body should include any definitions you need to make and should present your solution. It must include the following items representing your own work:
- an algorithm;
- a proof of correctness; and
- a time-complexity analysis.
If you use results of others, they should be explained in your own words in enough detail so that your work is understandable. Furthermore, you should make it clear what you have done and what you have used from other sources.
References. Multiple sources are not required, but you will need to at least reference the source in which you found the problem. Make it clear in the text what material comes from these sources. See my Guidelines on the Use of External Sources for more details.

The paper should be formatted in 10-12 point font, with side margins of at least one and one-half inches and top and bottom margins of at least one inch. The pages should be numbered. The paragraphs should use one-and-one-half line spacing. If the paper contains any algorithms, they should be single-spaced and formatted so that a single algorithm is not split onto two pages. The references should be single-spaced with a blank line between references, and they should be numbered. Citations in the text should consist of the reference number in square brackets.

When you believe you have an appropriate topic, email me a brief summary of what you want to do. Make it clear what you will be doing yourself, and what material (if any) you intend to use from other sources. Be specific in describing any sources you plan to use, how these sources may be found, and what material you plan to use from these sources. I will then let you know whether I approve of this topic. Papers will not be graded unless I have given this approval. Furthermore, failure to disclose the extent to which external sources are used will be considered cheating.

Papers must be well-written, typeset, and independently done in order to be acceptable. Submissions must include:

a hard copy; and
an electronic submission to turnitin.com to be used for plagiarism detection. Please refer to the Turnitin Student Quickstart for information on how to use this service. The Class ID and enrollment password are posted on K-State Online under Class Modules. Papers may be submitted in one of the following formats: MS Word, WordPerfect, PostScript, PDF, HTML, or RTF.

You may submit a paper for grading up to three times. Allow five full working days for the grading of any submission; e.g., if you turn in a paper by 5:00 pm on a Wednesday, it will be available by Thursday of the following week, assuming no holidays intervene. Any submission made after 5:00 pm, Dec. 6, will be considered the last submission of that paper. No submissions will be accepted after 3:50 pm, Dec. 17. The highest score of all of your submissions will be the grade you receive for the paper.