COM 529 Research & Methodologies

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    • Project Summary Example
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FOURTH DELIVERABLE 15 points
Now that you have your question, your tentative answer, as well as an annotated bibliography, you will assemble a more Extensive Thought Letter. With this submission you will:

a. Formally identify your question, and your best answer so far ("hypothesis").

b. Identify what has been done previously with this subject, who are the big players in this area, and what are the gaps in knowledge.

c. Explore how b. affects your ideas and hypothesis. You should refine your thesis/main claims and objectives for the project.

d. You should suggest what further research (such as surveys and other primary sources) might be required to fill in the gaps.

e. Conclude with a few paragraphs that use key research to do the following:
- briefly provide any context to understand the problem

- summarize the problem.

- summarize the proposed answer (thesis/proposal).

- outline (storyboard) how you'll proceed with the rest of the proposal.
- list main reasons and evidence for answer (per The Craft of Research).
- list any definitions, or history needed to understand the above.

This last requirement gives you the chance to draft up (and get feedback on) what will ultimately become the introduction (project summary) that you'll submit as your final paper.

Here's an example.

Due before 5:59 p.m., May 8th, via Collect-It.

If you still have questions about this deliverable, e-mail me. Here's how I responded to one group's query:

a. this is simple.  pretty much a refined version of what you submitted to me when you identified your group.

b. you can base this on the bibliography you produced last week.  You can identify the gaps in knowledge as what you're trying to answer, but have yet to see anything concrete written on the subject.  I don't see more than a paragraph or two out of this.

c. does (a) change based on (b)?  Explain why briefly.

d. your bibliography was all written sources.  who would you interview, what kind of primary research (surveys, focus groups) would you do to supplement it?  Again, this shouldn't require much effort, just justify each item you list.  You don't have to do any of this primary research...

e. these few paragraphs put it all together based on your "thinking out loud" from (a) to (d)..The research you've already done for the bibliography should help immensely, especially in trying to provide the context to understand the problem.

Fundamentally, I don't see the need to do any in-depth research at this point.  You've covered most of it in your bibliography.  At this point, you just need research for the context, and to identify what other research you would need to do if you were actually carrying out this project.  Be creative in you what you might use for primary sources.  Then, based on what you know, try and piece together what would ultimately serve as the introduction to your actual project.

You can probably pull this all off in 2-3 pages.  I suspect you know the answers already, you just need to put it on paper.

Since you wrote your preliminary thought letter, you'd have a chance to do some basic research to put together your bibliography.  That should be your starting point for advancing this thought letter from your initial one.