Formatting instructions

Specification of word limits and other rules that you must follow, plus the structured marking scheme.

You must:

  • submit a single document in PDF format. When submitting to Learn, the electronic submission title must be in the format “exam number_lab report wordcount” and nothing else (e.g., “B012345_1857+438”)
  • state your exam number at the top of every page of the document
  • state the word count below the title on the first page in the document (e.g., “word count: 1857”)
  • use a line spacing of 1.5 and a minimum font size of 11pt (and that applies to all text, including within figures, tables, and captions)

Marking is strictly anonymous. Do not include your name or your student number – only provide your exam number!

Structure

  • Word limit: 2000 words, excluding bibliography but including all other text (such as headings, footnotes, text within figures & tables, captions, examples). Numerical data and phonetic transcriptions do not count as text.
    • The +/- 10% rule applies to this word limit, but if you go over 2000 words, try to really think about whether the extra words are really enhancing your report (otherwise your markers may not thank you!)
  • Page limit: no limit, large margins are fine but avoid blank pages
  • Figures & tables: no limit on number

Structure of the lab report

You must use the following structure and section numbering for the lab report:

  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 Background
  • 3 Finding and explaining mistakes
    • 3.1 Text normalisation
    • 3.2 POS tagging
    • 3.3 Phrase break prediction
    • 3.4 Pronunciation
    • 3.5 Waveform generation
    • 3.6 Other types of mistakes
  • 4 Discussion and conclusion

You may add further subsections below any of the above, if you wish (e.g., to divide your Background section into subsections of your own choosing).

Figure, graphs and tables

You should ensure that figures and graphs are large enough to read easily and are of high-quality (with a very strong preference for vector graphics, and failing that high-resolution images). You are strongly advised to draw your own figures which will generally attract a higher mark than a figure quoted from another source. Tables must have column or row headers, as appropriate.

There is no page limit, so therefore there is no reason to have very small figures.

Your work may be marked electronically or we may print hardcopies on A4 paper, so it must be legible in both formats. In particular, do not assume the markers can “zoom in” to make the figures larger.

And finally,…

Marking scheme

You are strongly advised to read the marking scheme because it will help you focus your effort and decide how much to write in each section of your report.

Here is the structured marking sheet for this assignment (this is the version for 2022-23)