Assignments

Deadlines and Submissions at a Glance:

Due

Assignment

18 Sept, 11am

Assignment 1a: Workshop presentation on your research statements. (Google Slides)

25 Sept, 11am

Assignment 1b: Written, revised statement. (Submission folder)

02 Oct, 11am

Assignment 2a: Workshop presentation on literature and prior work strategies. (Google Slides)

02 Oct, 11am

Capstone brief and MOU for signature.

09 Oct, 11am

Assignment 2b: Annotated bibliography. (Submission folder)

16 Oct, 11am

Peer review of Assignments 1b and 2b. Leave comments inline in the documents found in our section Google Drive.

23 Oct, 11am

Assignment 3: Workshop presentation on Methods and Measurement (Google Slides)

30 Oct, 11am

Assignment 4: CITI Training due (Google Drive)

Assignment 5a: Refinements via Hypotheses, Gaps, and Arguments (Google Slides)

06 Nov, 5pm

Assignment 5b: Written detailed “outline” (Submission folder)

13 Nov, 5am

Assignment 6: “Ugly draft” — Informal deadline only.

20 Nov, 11am

Assignment 6: Draft Submissions + Peer Review Day (Submission folder)

26 Nov, 5pm

IRB Protocols due in to RASCAL for approval by AV and IRB

04 Dec, 9am

Assignment 7: Lightning Presentation (Google Slides)

11 Dec, 5pm

Assignment 8: Final Proposal Submission (Courseworks + Group Folder)

18 Dec, 5pm

Reader Forms Due

Assignment Details:

About Workshop Presentations

Often, when you present in class, it’s about presenting your knowledge so that others may learn from you or, when done professionally, to convince someone. Here, the intent is to share it in a way first to update us on your work and, second and most importantly, to get feedback. If you’ve done an RA-ship, this is a “lab presentation”.

  • Use the group slide deck to avoid having to switch computers. Remember, the slides “lock” once we go into full-screen mode, so make sure to have them in before the start of class.
  • Make sure you address the brief/assignment. As we progress through the semester, specific things are being asked of you.
  • The slide is an opportunity for feedback and discussion on your work. Format and structure it so that we can understand your ideas and intentions.
  • Five to ten minutes is not a lot of time to explain lots of things.
  • We don’t care how much you have done (everyone knows you have done a lot). We are looking to give you feedback for your next iteration and deliverable.

Assignment 1. Arriving at a Question

Sailing Metaphor: Are you heading east or west?

Your first deliverable is intended for you to hone in on a clear direction and scope for your thesis or capstone. I invite you to quickly understand the topic and relevance of your study, or if you’re deciding between several, to be introspective and decide on one direction for this project. 

Hint: I strongly encourage you to think hard about arriving at a single question/phenomenon/project that is narrow enough for you to accomplish in several months, but broad enough to have a sustainable impact on planning scholarship. This is the main focus of this week’s work!

Assignment 1a:

Workshop presentation. Discuss your topic and prospectus for your thesis or capstone. Please give as much detail as you’ve thought about, in no more than 5 minutes.

Assignment 1b:

Now that you have some feedback, and we’ve discussed strategies to narrow your focus, you are asked to revise your prospectus as the abstract and introduction to your revised proposal! In one to two pages, refine your original prospectus to discuss:

Thesis

  1. Narrowed research question(s) 
  2. Prospectus
    1. Purpose for your thesis proposal (or policy context). What is its relevance, and what are the gaps in our understanding?
    2. Initial thoughts on empirical research design (methods and data). Can you actually “measure” it?
    3. Format of outcomes, if other than a monograph.

Capstone 

  1. A clear definition of the project and its deliverables. 
  2. Prospectus
    1. Description of your client and the relevance of your project to the organization’s needs, operations, and mission. 
    2. Background on the issues, and how you address them. 
    3. The broader planning context of your work.

At the semester’s end, this may become the abstract or introduction of your proposal!

Assignment 2: The Shoulders of Giants: Literature and Prior Work

Sailing Metaphor: How are we setting our course? Where are the winds? How have others done this route?

Here, we’re considering the extant work that’s been done, and how you situate your work. To whom are you discussing: designers, practitioners, academics, politicians…? Their work should also give you greater clues to how you’ll test your hypotheses moving forward.

While the questions may seem simplistic, think critically about the potential “secondary” audiences, or the specific nuances of how you address your work. For instance, you may think of it as the intersections and interests of various faculty: what would Anthony Vanky and Hiba Bou Akar expect from your work, and how might they each approach your work? What would they expect of your precedents? How does that narratively structure your work?

Assignment 2a:

Workshop presentation. In your presentation, you should discuss the following aspects of your thesis/capstone.

  • What are the “audience” to whom you are speaking with your work: who are the relevant authors and practitioners whose shoulders you are standing?
    1. What is the “tone” of their work (formal/informal; scientific/popular; enculturated/objective);
    2. Disciplines they are “writing to” (anthropological/policy/engineering/etc.);
    3. How does this frame how you approach theory and precedent? What strategies are you taking?
  • What themes or theoretical arguments do you think you should cover in your review of prior work?
    • What about epistemological, philosophical, or theoretical themes? Or what about comparative political themes?
    • What about how people approached this methodologically? Or structurally?
  • Based on this rough structural outline, look for cases, projects, prior work, writings, and literature that either bolster your thinking or need refutation from you! I often think of it as “cases that strengthen your argument and refute the most likely counter-argument”.
  • In other words, what are you looking for? Are there methodological examples? Are there similarities in your problem space? Are they examples of excellence; or ways people operationalized a similar interest in a topic? (Hint: these may form the sections of the annotated bibliography!..)

Assignment 2b:

Here, you’re going to use the prior exercise to create your final proposal. You’re also asked to create that annotated bibliography we discussed in 2a. Here, we’re building a list of work with descriptive and evaluative comments about the sources cited. For each of your themes, find literature that could help you structure your arguments and writing…

  • Annotated bibliography of relevant literature, policies, and precedents.
    1. Tip 1: It is recommended that your annotated bibliography be organized into arguments, themes, or a rough outline. For instance, one section could be on the problem space/topic, and another on methods and “variables.”
    2. Tip 2: Take a look at how predecessors did the studies/projects, as it may inform your methods! ☺ 

Assignment 3: Measurements and Ethics

Sailing Metaphor: Are you swimming or taking a boat? If a boat, how big of a boat?

Here, we focus on the mechanics of your work. For projects, how will you be making/engaging/producing? For thesis projects, what are your research protocols? Broadly, we will also discuss the ethical considerations of your work.

Thesis: What is your hypothesis and by what methods do you assess it? What are your empirical methods and the instrument/data sources? With what data are you going to answer your question, and how do you analyze it? How do you sort the “signal” from the “noise” or the “null”?

Capstone: Techniques/methods/tools to address the problems you’ve addressed. Tip: This may also cite from the precedents from your annotated bibliography!

In both cases, consider:

  • If you are using a prepared numerical dataset, do you have it on hand? What are the basic descriptive statistics on that data?
  • If you are using computational tools, how accessible are they?
  • Do you have access to your subjects? Have you already made any relevant contact?

Your deliverable is a workshop presentation, but you may wish to already draft your thoughts in textual format.

Assignment 4: CITI Training

All students in this section are required to complete the  Human Subjects Protection training – TC0087 – (aka “CITI Training”) via RASCAL. Upload your completion certificate to the shared folder.

Assignment 5: Refinements, and Starting Our Measurements

Sailing Metaphor: Hone your target: Are you headed to Fire Island or Provincetown?

With a bit of luck, you’re leaving the session with a clear(er) sense of your thesis question or project scope. Here, you’re asked to revise, amend, and expand upon your previous document, with thoughts on how you’ll perform your study. 

The main intent of this week is to give you a bit more time to revise your thesis question or project scope and revise the work you’ve done by focusing it around the gaps/opportunities you’ve by now identified, the set of arguments you have to make acknowledging what has been done (and you may be contesting), and the avenues for you going forward. Here, you’re asked to now assemble the mechanical parts (literature review, methods) into a argumentative structure.

Assignment 5a:

Workshop presentation. Structure your work: What is your refined hypothesis? What prior work/arguments/theories do you have to acknowledge, and why? What core arguments do you have to make? What are the gaps and opportunities? Your slides should give us a sense of how you rhetorically frame prior work and your work moving forward, also discussing the methods and tools you will use.

Assignment 5b:

As a written deliverable, present a detailed outline for your final proposal. You may wish to look at the structural outline in the “unsolicited advice” section of this page, but also think critically about the audiences, arguments, and practices you wish to highlight.

Assignment 6/8: Proposals (Drafts and Final)

Now you’ll collate your parts together into your final proposal for submission. This shouldn’t be wholly new, as you’ve been working towards this all semester! You can simply copy-paste relevant parts, and provide revisions. There are two deadlines: one for a draft, which will go through a peer reviewing in class, and the final submission. Clearly, the draft is a work in progress, but you should use this time to begin preparations or make any substantive revisions if you’ve made some pivots.

Thesis:

The following should be observed in writing a proposal:

  1. A succinct statement of the problem(s) or issue(s) being addressed;
  2. A statement of the significance or relevance of the problem(s);
  3. A set of logically ordered questions that follow from the problem statement and need to be answered;
  4. Presentation of the background to the problem;
  5. A review of the pertinent literature;
  6. Techniques, data sources, methods, and a research design that will be used to answer the questions;
  7. A listing of the most important bibliographic references;
  8. An outline of tentative chapter headings; and
  9. A timetable for conducting the key research and writing tasks.

In general, a proposal should not exceed 20 double-spaced pages.

Capstone: 

The following should be observed in writing a proposal:

  1. A succinct statement of the problem(s) or issue(s) being addressed.
  2. A short description of the client organization for whom the capstone project is being completed. This should include the mission or purpose of this organization, or at least the aspect of the mission that relates to the capstone. 
  3. A brief description of the purpose of the project, that is: How will the project help the client to achieve its organizational mission? What is it trying to achieve (e.g., revitalize a business corridor, improve access to healthy foods for low-income neighborhoods, etc.)? 
  4. Presentation of the background to the problem(s) or issue(s), including how your proposed project relates to other related activities carried out by your client. 
  5. A review of the pertinent literature on the relevant topics and methods, and/or of previously performed planning and case studies.
  6. Techniques, sources of information, methods, and other tools that will be used to address the problem(s) or issue(s).
  7. A listing of the most important bibliographic references;
  8. An outline of tentative components of the capstone project.
  9. A timetable for conducting the key research and project tasks.

In general, a proposal should not exceed 20 double-spaced pages.

Assignment 7: Lightning Talks

We will conclude the semester together with a series of lightning talks that presents your work to others. These presentations should not be more than 7 minutes, to also facilitate conversation.