Paper Reading Report Guide
The goal of the paper reading report is to demonstrate that you understand the paper’s problem, key insight, technical approach, and evidence, rather than simply summarize its content.
Your report should normally be 1–2 pages. Answer the following questions concisely and in your own words.
1. Problem and Motivation
What problem does the paper address? Why is this problem important or difficult?
Explain the problem in your own words rather than copying or closely paraphrasing the abstract or introduction.
2. Key Idea
What is the paper’s main idea or insight?
Explain the key idea in 2–4 sentences, as if you were explaining the paper to a classmate who has not read it.
3. Technical Approach
How does the proposed system or technique work?
Identify the major components or steps and explain how they work together. Focus on the ideas necessary to understand the paper rather than low-level implementation details.
4. Concrete Example
Give one concrete example that illustrates how the proposed technique works.
You may use an example from the paper or construct your own. Be specific enough to demonstrate that you understand the mechanism.
5. Evaluation and Evidence
Choose one important experiment, figure, or table from the paper and explain:
- What question is the experiment trying to answer?
- What is being compared or measured?
- What does the result show?
- How does this result support, or fail to fully support, the paper’s claims?
6. Limitations
Identify one important limitation, assumption, or weakness of the work.
Explain why it matters. Avoid generic comments such as “more experiments are needed.”
7. Your Idea
If you were continuing this research, what is one specific improvement, extension, or new research question you would pursue?
Explain how your idea relates to the paper and how you might evaluate whether it works.
What You Should Be Able to Explain
After completing the report, you should be able to explain the following without referring to your report:
Problem → Key Insight → Approach → Evidence → Limitation
You may be asked in an in-class quiz to explain specific design choices, algorithms, examples, figures, or experimental results from the paper.