Format Word Count Due date
Marking Weighting
1
Advanced Natural Language Processing (968G5): Assessed coursework 2
Julie Weeds February 18, 2021
Submit a single pdf or a zip file containing a pdf 2000 words
Submit your assignment online before 4pm on Thursday 13th May (A2 week 1). Submissions will be accepted up to 7 days late but there is a penalty for this.
You will be told your mark and receive feedback via Canvas before Thursday 3rd June This assignment is worth 40% of your mark for this module.
Essay (2000 words)
Write an essay of no more than 2000 words which compares and contrasts at least two approaches in ONE of the following topics in Natural Language Processing:
• Named Entity Recognition • Paraphrase Identification • Machine Translation
In your chosen topic, you should outline the problem and introduce the different approaches you are considering – these may be completely different or quite similar. You should make references to the literature to support your theoretical discussion of the approaches. You should discuss practical results from the literature (you are NOT expected to do any experiments). This evaluation should lead to a conclusion as to which you believe is the best approach. You should comment on further work which could be done in this area.
2 Marking Criteria and Requirements
This coursework will be marked out of 40. Table 1 shows the number of marks available for each requirement.
Requirement
Max mark
Interpretation
quality of essay problem outline
description of 2 (or more) approaches
theoretical compari- son
practical comparison
references to litera- ture
conclusion
further work
5 6 6
6 6
5 3 3
Is the essay well-written, well-structured and using a formal writing style?
Does the essay explain what the problem is? Why is it not easy?
Does the essay describe at least 2 approaches? Is there ev- idence that the author understands the basic principles un- derlying the approaches?
Does the essay explain what is fundamentally different about these approaches from a theoretical point of view?
How are these approaches different in practice? From the point of view of accuracy, efficiency, cost and/or ease of im- plementation? Is there quantitative evidence of these differ- ences in the essay?
Are each of the major points in the essay backed up with at least one reference to the academic literature?
Is there a sensible conclusion as to which is the best approach to use (possibly in the context of different scenarios)?
Are there sensible suggestions for further work to do in this area (these do not need to be novel provided citations are given).
Table 1: Breakdown of marks
For each requirement, the following scale will be used when deciding the number of marks awarded.
85%-100% Outstanding. Demonstrates a thorough understanding and appreciation of the material without significant error or omission; supported by evidence that the student has gone beyond what was taught by extra study or creative thought
70%-84% Excellent. Demonstrates a thorough understanding and appreciation of the material producing work without significant error or omission
60%-69% Very good. Clear understanding demonstrated, substantially complete and correct. There may be minor gaps in knowledge/understanding. Evidence of independent thought
50%-59% Reasonable knowledge and understanding of basic issues demonstrated.
45%-49% Basic knowledge and understanding demonstrated with some appreciation of the issues involved. Gaps in knowledge and understanding; confusion over more complex material.
40%-44% Significant issues neglected with little or no appreciation of the complexity of the problem.
20%-39% Some correct or relevant material but significant issues neglected or significant errors or misconcep- tions
0%-19% Very little or nothing that is correct and relevant