Specifics for Secretaries

When you are secretary you are responsible to get a copy of the written notes to the section TA within 24 hours. Once the report is acceptable to the section TA, the instructor will grade it and get it forwarded to the reviewed pair.

The HTML memo from the secretary to the presenters must include the following information:
  1. the presenters

  2. the panelists

  3. the title of the project presented

  4. the date and time

  5. an enumeration of problems discovered:

    • Describes those problems in enough details so that the presenters can reconstruct it.

    • Describe the problems in terms of code, not in terms of what the presenters did.

    • You may offer suggestions of how to fix problems, but label them as such.

    • It remains the task of the presenters to fix the problems.

  6. If the panel discussed potential solutions with the presenters, you may include these suggestions with the appropriate item. You don’t have to.

Recall that panels do not usually discuss solutions, however, with the presenters.

Email the memo as an HTML attachment to the section instructor.

The evaluation of a memo will take into account the timely delivery of the first draft, its format, its information content (focus on problems), and basic English writing (typos, grammar mistakes, incomplete sentences). The latter will affect your grade in a serious manner if the mistake allows a misinterpretation of a sentence or if the mistake makes an interpretation extremely difficult.

The phrase "first draft" implies that the instructor may give you a chance to fix your submission and thus earn a grade before it goes to the presenters. Those will appreciate a fast turn-around time—and one day it could be you who depends on fast turn-around.

Alternatively, and to make it code-clear, the protocol diagram below specifies it all in gory detail.

    

      STUDENT                                  SECTION TA                  INSTRUCTOR

    

      ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    

      sit on panel

      take notes

    

      turn notes        send to section TA     checks

      into memo        -------------------->   basics

    

    

                                                    forward to instructor    reads,

    response 1:                                OK  ----------------------->  evaluates

                                                       cc student

    

    xor

    

    response 2:

                         request for fixes

                       <===================    feedback

    

      fix basics                                       send to instructor    reads,

      double check     --------------------------------------------------->  evaluates

    

    

                         evaluation, requests for changes

                         plus instructions to section TA

                       <======================== <========================

    

    

    within 24 hours:

    

                              send to section TA

            finalize       -------------------->   assign grade

    

    

Practice It is encouraged to practice code walks with another pair.

But do not use work-in-progress code for practice reviews.

The goal is to practice technical explanations, questioning, and reacting properly to questioning. So there is no need to use code that you still have to submit. Doing so will only create the danger that you accidentally copy code. And you don’t want to do that.