Homework Four

Primary Objectives:

  1. Extensive research continues on your topic
  2. Define your 3 problems/questions
  3. Expand on the outline of your project, following the template

Overall Requirements:

  • Write new blog posts for your research, explain things, include links to resources
  • Continue to use Google Docs for your work; put things in your shared folder: papers you find, pdf's, spreadsheets, notes and figures you create
  • Add subsections and content to your outline
  • Find and add citations to high quality references; begin building the References section in your outline
  • Fully write up 3 problems/questions in Section 3 of your outline

Questions/Tasks:

  1. Continue to do research appropriate to your topic. Time is passing by rapidly and you need to progress at a steady pace in understanding your topic and the problems you're choosing.

  2. Write up blog posts about your research. Write at least one where you try to teach your reader something. Don't just write about something, write as if you are teaching another person what you've learned. Can you teach it to them?

  3. Write more in your outline. Now might be a good time to focus on the Background section. This is where you "set the stage" for the reader. Explain what came before and what leads to your current questions. What has led to the current situation? Cite high quality references to show how others have written about your topic. Some call this a "Literature Review". Your work is not in isolation -- you're building on top of work that others have done. Present and recognize this. Use proper citations and start building a References section at the end of your outline/paper. I prefer Chicago numerical style, but there are other acceptable formats. Here is a comparison of popular styles: Source Citation Style Comparison (.pdf). The library also has a collection of style & citation manuals.

    The subjects of some of these are completely unrelated, but here are a few papers to review for style and general organization.

  4. Lastly, follow the template format and write up complete sentences to describe your 3 problems/questions. Use the Vision -- Issues -- Methodology format. These are short: one sentence for the Vision and one or two sentences each for Issues and Methodology. This is where you are stating and defining them, not explaining and solving.