The assignment is intended to be an exercise in the publication side of the scientific process. The purpose of this process is to communicate results to others, so clarity in writing and speaking are essential. Here is some advice on how to approach the three parts, writing, review, and presentation.

Writing Advice

A paper is written as prose text. Mostly avoid bulleted or numbered lists. Keep the language simple and clear, but don't force unnatural simplicity on the text. Remember, most people reading your paper will not be native English speakers, so writing clearly and correctly is important.

The paper should have a logical structure, a clear progression from the start to the end. Introduce new concepts and things gradually so the reader is not overwhelmed by new information. Summarizing the covered concepts may also be useful if the coverage has taken a lot of space. Clear figures will also promote understanding, but avoid stuffing too much into a single figure.

Justify all significant non-obvious claims you make. A claim is significant if it is presented in support of the conclusions. Judging obviousness properly is more difficult, and in a student paper you should err on the side of caution. Usually, in a scientific paper, justification by simple reference to existing work is sufficient, but in a student paper it is good to provide some reasoning in addition to the reference.

Be consistent in your terminology. Don't use two different words for the same concept or the same word for two different concepts. This is especially a problem in survey-type papers, since existing independent work is rarely fully consistent.

The usual structure for a scientific paper consists of

1. An abstract, summarizing the whole paper,
2. An introduction that briefly presents the topic area and justifies why the topic of the paper is important,
3. A background section that provides the necessary context for the reader to understand the paper's contribution,
4. The actual content, the structure of which may vary greatly depending on the paper's topic and venue, and finally
5. Conclusions that summarize the paper's contribution

For a paper on this course, the content will mostly be a short survey of existing work. Still, a student's own contribution, examining or evaluating some aspects of the topic, is required to demonstrate an understanding of the topic and the capability to produce new information. For a course, this contribution does not need to be publishable in a scientific venue, but it does need to be the student's own.

Usually in short scientific papers there is no explicit background section; rather, it is covered partly by the introduction and partly by a section on related work, as the audience is assumed to know the foundations of the topic already. But in papers aimed at a larger audience or  in papers that treat a combination of disparate areas, it is not uncommon to see an explicit section containing sufficient background on the topics not assumed to be known by the audience.

The point of a paragraph is to cover one single concept. Usually the appropriate length of a paragraph is 3 to 6 sentences; shorter text will not manage to cover the concept sufficiently, but longer text will stray into separate concepts. If a paragraph seems to be getting too long, try to split it naturally.

Remember to read and reread your work constantly! Read individual sentences to pick up spelling and grammatical errors, read paragraphs as units to see whether the concepts are covered logically, read sections as units to verify the text flows logically, and finally, read the whole paper from start to finish to see whether the topic is covered logically, in appropriate order, and whether every important piece of information is present.

Review Advice

A good way to start a review is by reading the paper straight through and seeing whether you understand it. It can be helpful to write a summary of the paper in your own words.

Point out both strengths and weaknesses in the paper. Pointing out strengths gives an indication of where the paper does not need to be modified as well as sets a more positive tone for the review. When pointing out weaknesses, also try to suggest how they could be corrected. Simply saying "The paper is poorly written" is difficult to take into account when preparing the final version.

Start from the paper's assumptions, that is, use its terminology in your review. This way, the author will easily understand what you are referring to.

Provide comments on both the overall aspects of the paper (structure, language in general, knowledge of the subject matter, ...) and specifics (explanations of individual concepts, clarity of figures, ...). You're welcome to provide your overall feelings of the paper as well.

If you are familiar with the topic, how well does the author cover its important points in your opinion? Are the references what you would expect or are some missing? Do the references say what the author claims they say?

Presentation Advice

Make simple slides. For a bulleted slide, the usual recommendation is 4 bullet points with one line of text each, but you should not treat this as a hard and fast limit, more like a guideline. Using figures is recommended, but avoid clutter and prefer stop motion to animation. The slides are not the presentation, but only a tool; the presentation is the combination of the slides and your speech.

Speak to the audience: make eye contact and react to the audience. Don't read from the slides or from paper, and don't look too much at your laptop or the screen (occasional glances are acceptable to help in recalling the topic to cover). This is not to say you shouldn't write the presentation down, which helps some people remember it better; just don't read from the paper at the presentation itself.

Remember to rehearse! A 15-minute presentation can be practiced several times in advance, so do that until you are confident enough. It may be helpful to have some audience too when you practice, but that depends on the person. Some people also use a mirror when rehearsing as a substitute for an audience.