FINAL PROJECT
 

This will build on the materials that you've already turned in. The length of the final project will be about two or three three pages, single-spaced (plus one more page for the bibliography, which you've already done). Also, please paper-clip to the final version the original bibliography and the project abstract (which you did 2-3 weeks ago).

Your final project will contain the following five sections:

First page

1. (One sentence) A statement of the research problem -- what is it that you and others are looking at

2. A review of what previous research has already found out about the research question. Include references to the articles listed in your bibliography. For example,

Jones (1997) found that ....., while Alexander and Smith (2003) found the opposite, that ....

One to two pages

3. (One sentence to one paragraph) A clear statement of how your project relates to the previous research, whether it is:

• a replication of one of the previous studies

• a modification of (one of the) previous studies, and why you've decided to modify the previous study the way you have

• a brand new study, and why you think there is a need for such a study

4. A description of the project

• Overall, what is the general methodology -- corpus-based, interviews, experiment, case study, etc., and why you've chosen this research methodology

• Describe in detail the project and how it will be carried out

  • The data pool -- who will be the subjects, or what the corpus will be, etc

  • Step by step, how process that you will go through in carrying out the project. For example:

    • If you are administering a test or test, give examples of some of the test or survey items, how the survey or test will be administered and graded, how the data will be calculated, etc

    • If an experiment, exactly what will happen in the experiment

    • If a corpus-based study, what searches will be carried out, how the results will be organized and evaluated, etc

    • Etc etc

  • What some of the problems might be (e.g. observer's paradox, unrepresentative corpus, difficulty in working with children, etc), and

  • How you will try and account for these potential problems

5. The finalized bibliography