Course policies

Grading

The focus of the class is on reading, discussing, and writing about research papers. All work must be your own, original work. You may discuss the papers with other students in the class, but you must write up all final submissions on your own unless otherwise specified. You are expected to maintain the utmost level of academic integrity in the course.

Lead one class discussion (35%)

  • Students will form groups of 3 to be presenters for a class. Each class will have one group of student presenters. During the quarter, every student is expected to present once.
  • Please sign up your group and present date on this spreadsheet by 11:59pm on April 4. The present dates are first-come-first-serve.
  • Presenters should post their slides on Ed by 11:59pm two days before class.
  • All students in a group will get the same grade, barring exceptional circumstances.

Participation in the discussions (25%)

  • All students are expected to ask questions and participate in paper discussions in person. Please email the course staff if you are unable to attend class in person.

Paper review (15%)

Due 11:59pm on Friday, May 2

We will provide the list of papers for the paper review. Check here for instructions for paper review. The paper review should not be longer than 2 pages. Submit the paper review via GradeScope. Also, to see some more samples for paper reviews you can check the open review website https://openreview.net. For example, these are sample reviews from the most recent ICLR conference: https://openreview.net/group?id=ICLR.cc/2025/Conference

Research proposal (25%)

Due 11:59pm on Tuesday, June 3

Write a 4-page research proposal paper describing a line of research in NLP. The research proposal should be about a new project that would extend a clearly identified past research contribution. The research proposal should:

  • Build upon or extend what was done in the past work;
  • Address challenges or weaknesses in the past research;
  • Propose logical extensions or next steps to the focus research; and
  • Describe a possible evaluation methodology, experimental design, and required evaluation resources.

You can find some guidelines in the link, or schedule a meeting with the instructor or the TA to learn more.

The 4-page limit is a hard constraint and will be enforced seriously. References don’t count toward the page limit. Please use the ACL 2025 style files without modification.

Late submissions and accommodations

  • You have 3 late days in total for submitting the paper review and research proposal.
  • If you have DRS accommodations that the course staff should know about, please contact us at the beginning of the course.