Your final paper is due Monday, March 16 at 11PM.
The main goal of this course is to carry out a novel analysis research project in small groups. The final paper will summarize your findings in the format of a conference paper. It could well serve as the launching point for submission to an NLP conference. The final presentations will have the same format as a conference talk, and so will be good practice for that.
Your paper should be between 4 and 8 pages, not including references. You may also include appendices with additional details. But your paper should not depend on the appendices, but must be self-contained.
Many NLP conferences accept short submissions of 4 pages, and long submissions of 8 pages. Those are good target lengths to aim for, but you can do any length in between as well.
Note: longer does not mean better! Aim to write as succinctly as your methods and results require. While writing, think about what role each section, then each paragraph, and finally each sentence are playing in the context of the larger research story that you are telling in your paper.
Your paper should have roughly the following structure:
For more details about these sections and writing an NLP paper in general, see these slides from week 5 and the pointers therein.
Your group only needs to submit one copy of the final paper. It must be uploaded in PDF format. Designate one person from the group to upload the proposal on Canvas.
If you are not the designated person, you must, on Canvas, upload a file readme.pdf, containing:
On March 12, the final day of classes, each group will give a talk about their project. Talks will be maximum 15 minutes, including questions; you should aim to talk for 10 minutes. As before, not everyone from each group needs to present.
The slides linked above have some guidelines about talks as well. In general, you can think of the talk as a condensed version of the paper: don't try to cover every detail, but hammer home the important ones and the main message. The main take-away should be repeated about three times: in the opening, in the results/discussion, and at the very end. Audiences are seeing this for the first time, so help them understand!
To expedite all of the presentations, we will use one computer, on which I will pre-load them all.
Please send me your slides (in PDF, PPT, Keynote, or web) via email by 11AM on March 12.
Because the final day will roughly resemble a conference, and because all of you have put a lot of hard work into your projects, I will also be organizing a small reception afterwards.
For those who want to join, we will move across the hall to Savery 138, for some light drinks, snacks, and general conversation and celebration.