Lecture, Week 6

After watching this week’s lecture, watch for Prof. Ellis’ email to your team to begin peer review on your Expanded Definition project. Use the model below for your Expanded Definition memo. Remember to copy-and-paste your completed memo draft into your “Reply-All” email to your team along with your ask-and-offer.

TO:         Prof. Jason Ellis
FROM:     Your Name
DATE:         Due Date
SUBJECT:     Expanded Definition of Your Term

Introduction [Heading Level 2]
What is the purpose of this document? What term are you defining? How are you discussing the way it is defined and the way it is used in context? Describe a road map for what follows (definitions and context). This content should be published as paragraphs, unlike the heading for this section, which is a level 2 heading.

Definitions [Heading Level 2]
Compare and contrast at least two quoted definitions from different sources of the term that you selected. Provide quotes and IEEE in-text citations for each definition, and include your sources in the References section at the end of the document. Each definition that you include deserves discussion in your words about what it means and how it relates to the other definitions that you include. Consider how they are alike, how are they different, who might use one versus another, etc. And, as a part of your compare and contrast, discuss the etymology or history of the word (e.g., one definition might be more like what the word meant originally or more recently). Each quote should have an IEEE in-text citation and reference entry.

Context [Heading Level 2]
Compare and contrast at least two sentences that use the term as it appears in different sources. This discussion should focus on how the context of the word shapes its meaning. A range of sources would provide the best source material for your discussion of how the term is used in these contexts. For example, a quote from an academic journal, a quote from a newspaper or magazine, a quote from a blog, and a quote from social media would give you a range of uses that might have different audiences. For each quote, you should devote at least as much space as the quote discussing what it means in that context and how it relates to the other quotes in context. Each quote should have an IEEE in-text citation and reference entry. 

Here’s a quote example from The New York Times: Technology Opinion Writer Kara Swisher wrote about the bombshell allegations made by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in a television interview: “Everything the former product manager on Facebook’s dispersed/disbanded (depending on whom you believe) Civic Integrity team said in her interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday rang true, including her allegations that the company’s algorithm is a wildfire that feeds on rancor and that the company always chooses its business over safety” [3]. The use of the term algorithm here refers to how Facebook surfaces certain content and submerges other content on a given Facebook user’s feed. 

Another quote example from a book on optimizing Rust language programming applications: While Swisher uses the term algorithm to refer to a specific decision-making technology at Facebook, Moraza uses it in a more general way where he writes: “You will also understand the difference between the common standard library collections so that you can choose the right one for your algorithm” [4, p. 1]. Algorithm here refers to the programming code that the reader of Moraza’s book is developing using the Rust programming language. Any computer code that is performing a process would qualify as an algorithm in this context while Swisher’s use of the term algorithm referred to a specific algorithm developed and used by a specific company.


Working Definition [Heading Level 2]
Based on the definitions and word history that you quoted and discussed, and the contextual uses of the term that you quoted and discussed, write a working definition of the term that's relevant to your career field or major, which you will need to identify (this is the specific context for your working definition).

References [Heading Level 2]
Order your IEEE references in the order that they appear in your document. The first would be [1], the second would be [2], etc.

[1]    "Algorithm," in Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press, Mar. 2012, def. 2. [Online]. Available: https://www.oed.com
[2]    “Algorithm,” in Science and Technology Encyclopedia, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. [Online]. Available: https://archive.org/details/sciencetechnolog00univ/mode/2up 

[3]      K. Swisher, "Brazen is the order of the day at Facebook," The New York Times, Oct. 5, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/opinion/facebook-blackout-2021.html

[4]      I. E. Moraza, Rust High Performance: Learn to Skyrocket the Performance of Your Rust Applications. Birmingham, UK: Packt Publishing, 2018. [Online]. Available: ProQuest Ebook Central.