|
STAtistics / Mr. Hansen |
Name: ______________________ |
|
10/13/2009 |
|
Group Project Requirements
1. Length is not important. Clarity, interest, and
relevance are.
2. Three to five pages (plus attachments for raw data
printouts, figures, and tables) should suffice. This is only a rough guideline
to help you scale your writing effort. In some cases, the report may be
shorter.
3. Your report must be stapled or securely bound in some
effective way (use binder clip for large reports). Loose sheets will not be
accepted.
4. If your diagram tells the story, cite it in the text
but let the picture do most of the talking. Assume that your reader is a Scientific
American or Smithsonian reader; intelligent, though not necessarily
an expert in statistics.
5. Number your figures (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.), provide
captions, and use a consistent citation style for any external sources. The
library has guidelines on “Electronic Footnote Citations” available upon
request. Before the construction, the guidelines were on the east wall,
underneath the lunar phase chart. If you cannot find the guidelines, there are
many available online.
6. Remember that your raw data table (one row per test
subject) must be included in your final report. There will be a significant
penalty if the raw data table is missing.
7. Grammar,
spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and consistency of formatting all count
for points. Use active voice wherever possible. Use “we” to refer to your
project team, except in the group leader report, where you may use “I” and the
names of your group members. Tone should be semiformal throughout: no
contractions, no colloquialisms unless necessary as part of your project, no
sentence fragments for dramatic effect, and no irrelevancies or inside jokes.
1. Title is required. Your title can be the same as your research
question. A separate title page is not required, but the title of your report
must be prominent. Names of authors, with the group leader’s name underlined,
should appear in the upper right corner of the page that has the title.
2. Table of contents (optional) can be helpful, especially if your report is long. No
points will be added or subtracted for the use of table of contents as long as
the format is reasonable and consistent with the rest of your document.
3. Subheadings for each section of your report are required and
should follow a consistent formatting style.
4. Abstract (optional) is a brief overview of your project and your most
interesting findings. If your report is longer than about three pages, the abstract
(called an executive summary in business writing) is a great kindness to the
reader, since it allows the reader to get something of value without investing
the time to read the report. If the subject matter is relevant or interesting,
the reader will then read the report to get more details.
5. Research question must be stated in the form of a question.
6. Methodology
must be presented in paragraph form and should be sufficiently detailed that
anyone of reasonable intelligence could replicate your entire study from the description
you furnish. If you used a testing instrument (survey, interview script, external
quiz), be sure to describe the instrument and furnish a specimen (blank copy)
in an appendix.
7. Findings
should be a summary of the routine findings you saw and a more in-depth
treatment of anything surprising or interesting that you saw. If nothing was
surprising or interesting, then that fact is somewhat interesting and should be
discussed in its own right. Use charts and graphs to make your point more
clear, but do not be wasteful. For example, an entire page devoted to a boring
bar chart is a gratuitous use of time, ink, and paper. Pie charts, in general,
are to be avoided. Every figure must have both a figure number (Fig. 1, Fig. 2,
etc.) and a caption, and every figure must be mentioned in the text by number before
it appears in the report. Long tables, if any, should be placed in appendices
in order to avoid interrupting the reading flow.
8. Caveats,
if any, should describe the limitations of your findings. For example, if you
were unable or chose not to recruit any freshmen for your study, you should
mention that the results cannot be generalized to the entire student body. If
your sample size is small and your ES (effect size) is small, then your
findings are probably not statistically significant, and you should mention
that the results could well be the result of chance alone. You can use the
well-worn cliché of study reports everywhere: “More research is needed to
confirm these results.”
9. Lessons learned and areas for future research. Surely, during the course of your study, you thought
of many questions you wish you had posed or questions you would like to
investigate if you had unlimited time. In retrospect, perhaps you can think now
of better wording or better formatting for some of your survey questions. Recognizing
that your study was imperfect is not a problem (since all studies are
imperfect, after all). In fact, showing evidence of your awareness of areas for
improvement is one of the best ways you can convince the reader that you
grappled with the subject matter and are prepared to do even more high-quality
research in the future.
10. Appendices
should contain your raw data table (required), survey or testing instrument
specimens, and any other bulky, less relevant, or ancillary materials that
should not interrupt the reading flow. Each appendix should be mentioned somewhere
in the text and/or in the table of contents, if you have a table of contents.
1. Keep your group working productively. Assign tasks,
or resolve disputes if two people want the same task. It’s OK to be laid-back
if you wish, but be prepared to step in and take charge if things are bogging
down.
2. You are the person ultimately responsible for the
quality of the final product. That doesn’t mean you have to write everything
yourself, but it does mean that have to juggle other people’s schedules and
make things come together.
3. If people shirk their responsibilities, you may need
to use small sanctions (a few points here, a few points there) to encourage
them to do the right thing. Last year only a few groups had this problem, so
let’s hope we don’t run into it too often.
4. The 240 final report points are subdivided as follows:
30 for interest, 80 for technical accuracy, 30 for the presence and
completeness of the raw data, 50 for quality of writing (including spelling and
grammar), and 50 for format, style, and neatness.
5. If your project uses human subjects, your report will
not be accepted for grading if the signed consent forms are not provided upon
request.
6. The group leader report is not necessarily the final
say, but in most cases I will support the group leader’s decision provided it
is based on merit, not need. (For example, you can’t divert points from people
who already have a solid “A” average in order to help someone else raise his or
her grade.)