ICS 139w: Critical Writing
— ASSIGNMENT 2: SYSTEM OVERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION TUTORIAL —

Assignment Prompt

For this assignment, you will write a document that introduces and explains a technological system to the reader. This write-up should teach the reader about the system: after reading the paper, the reader should understand what the system is (what it is used for), how to use it (in the case of a software package), and why it is notable (why it's worth knowing about and using this system).

You can write about any system you are familiar with, or use this assignment as a chance to learn a new system. You can write about software (an application, a website, a game, etc), hardware (the newest gadget or device), or a "system" in a more abstract sense (a network protocol, a socio-technical system). If you are unsure if a topic would be appropriate, ask the instructor or TA

You will want to pick a particular target reader for the paper--is the reader someone who has used the system before, but needs a more in-depth explanation of how it works? Is the reader a user of a competing system who understands the purpose, but is looking for alternative capabilities?

For example, if I were a power user of Zotero—a Firefox extension for collecting, managing, and citing research sources—I might decide to write a paper explaining this system to my fellow graduate students. I could start with an explanation of how Zotero works (as compared to similar systems, such as Endnote), and quickly walk the reader through using the basic features, such as capturing citations and creating bibliographies. I then might detail the more advanced features such as important data and sharing libraries, explaining how these features would be useful to graduate students.

This assignment should be 4-5 pages in length, not including any images or figures.

Deadlines

An outline of this assignment is due in class on Wed 08/10.

A draft of this assignment for peer editing is due in class on Mon 08/15.

A final, polished version of the assignment is due Tues 08/16 at 11:59pm to the EEE Dropbox.

Scoring Rubric

Scoring will be based on The Upper Division Writing Rubric. A somewhat more assignment specific version of the rubric can be found here.