I somehow feel that in Comp Sci I dun really need to write like 5000 word reports/essays like people in other fields of studies. Sure you might need to write User manuals, analysis findings etc but not the big 500 page final year reports that students of other fields need to do. All we do is doing complex programming assignment, mind you those are still mind breaking still. But I still prefer it to a those big essays where you need to do research upon research and numerous visits to the library database.
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Anonymous2005-09-09 19:59
You'll find that most real computer science revolves around method rather than direct application. So yeah, pretty long essays are quite frequent as you get to the interesting stuff (machine learning, NLP, etc).
Are you sure you don't do computer engineering?
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Anonymous2005-09-10 0:14
And in the non-academic environment (ie, the industry) those massive reams of paper are even more prevalent. In the last 6 months of my software engineering career, I've written about 300-500 lines of prototyping/proof of concept code and I've written well over 200 pages of requirement docs, functional specs, and various results of varying test runs of that prototyping/proof of concept code.
Don't do Comp Sci b/c you don't think you'll have to write much. On the contrary, you'll end up doing a *great deal* of it. You're not being paid as a software engineer b/c you're a code jockey. You're being paid because you can *communicate* your designs and ideas to others.
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Anonymous2005-09-10 3:49
BUt aint it in all the documentations we make its something we create ourself?
COmpared to like an economics essay where one will have to justify every point he/she made with quotes or proven point from a separate source. Biblio after Biblio.
At least our paperwork is something we create ourself. References we put in is to point into existing algorithms we do and theories we are basing it on.
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Anonymous2005-09-10 4:39
What are you whining about?
zOMG! 3y3 d0n7 li|< 2 rit3!!1!
Did you just post this thread to tell everybody that there aren't many essays in CS, and you're happy about it?
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Anonymous2005-09-10 7:25
Most of my assignments were either highschoolesque maths assignments or Java programming assignments. There was the occasional essay but they were rare and short.
Then of course there was the dissertation, which was a bitch. It wouldn't have been so bad but the lecturers all pretended it didn't exist and piled on massive amount of work - mainly huge programming projects that required months of work. Since I was working two jobs and supporting my lazy wife, lazy mother-in-law and lazy daughter at the time I flunked out faster than your mother flunked out of the nunnery.
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TokenMacGuy2005-09-15 20:20
If you're not doing a TON of research when coding, especially the interesting, bleeding edge cool stuff that invents cool new ways of coding, then you're probably in the wrong program. Forget about a masters in engineering and get an A+ cert. Okay, maybe you're smart enough for an MCSD.
Real code requires research on existing algorithms, tools, and API's.