FIRST ASSIGNMENT

DUE:    Friday, September 14 at class time
LENGTH: About 900-1,200 words (roughly 4-5 pages)
POINTS: Up to 20

This first assignment is to get you thinking about your paper topic.
You can always change it, but you MUST start early, because the
most of the term will be devoted to issues of gathering data and
analyzing it. Write this as an essay, but use the topics as
subheads to orgnize your thinking. The more you write, the better
I can help shape it.
 
1. Come up with a rough paper topic, and explain why it's interesting.
That is, try to write an introduction. If you change the topic later,
you can use the logic and general format for the actual topic, but
think of one you'd like. 

2. Pretend this is the first page of your paper. Then, maybe using
subheads (this can be a bit rough): do this:

  **Will there be any ethical issues?
  **Do you have a data source that you can think about using?
  **Are there specific research questions you will examine?

PLEASE do not write your paper as a list of answers to these points.
Try to write it as if it were the start of your paper. Yes, it will
be rough, but it will be graded on how well you have understood the
core ideas we've discussed. You will be given tips in class.

You can also turn in an early draft if you want comments.

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