Showing posts with label 08. Class Projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 08. Class Projects. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
PowerPoint Template for Elevator Speech
We will review this presentation in class today. It should help get you going on the last part of the project, the (virtual) elevator speech.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Second Drafts of Your Papers
1. Please proofread your document carefully before you submit it. Silly errors should be absent from this submission.
2. On many of the first drafts I suggested changing the order of the presentation. You need to assure that with your new arrangement there is still a nice flow from one paragraph to the next. If you see now way out of having a break in the discussion, put in a new section header to signify the change in topic.
3. Along with your second draft, you should submit a document with my comments and your discussion of how you responded to them. Each comment by me should be followed with a couple of sentences by you on how you disposed of it. This will greatly assist in my reading of your drafts.
4. If your paper is reasonable, I will simply send you an Okay email, which means you can proceed to the last stage of the project - your elevator speech qua PowerPoint presentation. If your paper is not quite up to snuff, I will insist you make some more changes to it before you proceed to the last stage.
5. If you would like to discuss you paper with me outside of class, I would be happy to meet you for that purpose.
2. On many of the first drafts I suggested changing the order of the presentation. You need to assure that with your new arrangement there is still a nice flow from one paragraph to the next. If you see now way out of having a break in the discussion, put in a new section header to signify the change in topic.
3. Along with your second draft, you should submit a document with my comments and your discussion of how you responded to them. Each comment by me should be followed with a couple of sentences by you on how you disposed of it. This will greatly assist in my reading of your drafts.
4. If your paper is reasonable, I will simply send you an Okay email, which means you can proceed to the last stage of the project - your elevator speech qua PowerPoint presentation. If your paper is not quite up to snuff, I will insist you make some more changes to it before you proceed to the last stage.
5. If you would like to discuss you paper with me outside of class, I would be happy to meet you for that purpose.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
About the marked up versions of your papers
I have just now finished marking up the 8th paper. I'm hopeful that by the end of the day I can do 3 more of these and then perhaps a couple more tomorrow morning. If you don't get your marked up paper by class tomorrow, give me a nudge and I will get it done in the afternoon.
I plan to spend a few minutes of class time tomorrow illustrating what you need to do from a Word Processing point of view to produce your second drafts and to show you have responded to my comments. On the substance of what you write and what I've commented on, you are welcome to discuss that with me either via email or by setting up a meeting with me.
Do note that I am commenting as I read, one time through only. I am not waiting to read through the whole paper and then return to make comments. That might be fairer to you, but it is just too time consuming for me. It also illustrates to you how I read. I make argument with what I'm reading then and there. What I hope your writing in response does is to grapple with that argument and to anticipate some further argument.
Finally, on a technical note, please know that I'm putting in a section break between your title page and the first page of your paper. I'm also using page numbering that utilizes the Different First Page feature, so that the first page with a page number is page 2 of the body of the paper (page 3 of the document).
I plan to spend a few minutes of class time tomorrow illustrating what you need to do from a Word Processing point of view to produce your second drafts and to show you have responded to my comments. On the substance of what you write and what I've commented on, you are welcome to discuss that with me either via email or by setting up a meeting with me.
Do note that I am commenting as I read, one time through only. I am not waiting to read through the whole paper and then return to make comments. That might be fairer to you, but it is just too time consuming for me. It also illustrates to you how I read. I make argument with what I'm reading then and there. What I hope your writing in response does is to grapple with that argument and to anticipate some further argument.
Finally, on a technical note, please know that I'm putting in a section break between your title page and the first page of your paper. I'm also using page numbering that utilizes the Different First Page feature, so that the first page with a page number is page 2 of the body of the paper (page 3 of the document).
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Suggestions for Course Paper
The paper is meant to be formal writing, yet with the intended audience students who will take the class in the future. I know much student to student communication is quite informal and full of abbreviations, driven by how texting has changed the way we communicate. So what I mean here is that student readers should find your paper not too difficult to understand, if they put in the effort to read it. This means that if you use jargon, you must define it in understandable terms. It also means that you shouldn't take long excerpts from the paper you are reviewing and instead put the arguments in the paper into your own words. Beyond that, here are several specific suggestions.
Chunk the paper and use section headings for each chunk.
Some specific sections that you should include are (You can have other sections as well and/or have multiple sections associated with any one of these.):
1. What is the main issue that the paper deals with? (You should come up with your one section heading for this and the remaining sections.)
2. What is the contribution of the paper? If others have also written on this issue how has this paper added to our understanding as compared to what came before?
3. How do the issue of the paper tie into what we've done in the class?
4. What are some lessons learned from the paper?
5. Do you have your own views on the matter or some examples you can bring in that are not discussed in the paper but that might illustrate ideas in the paper?
6. Conclusion
A big deal issue with formal writing is the sequencing of your presentation. Even after you know what you are going to say, you need to order your presentation that will make it logical for the reader. One thought that guides formal writing is that the authors do the work so the readers don't have to.
Each team member needs to own the whole paper.
This means, in particular, that if one team member writes a section of the paper, the other edits that section and makes changes to it in an effort to improve things. It also means that each team member is concerned with whether one section flows into the next in a smooth way. Abrupt transitions are to be avoided, because they confuse the reader.
Format of the paper
Please submit a Word document, preferably a docx file. I may use Track Changes in giving my response. I will try to give a demo in class of how to use Track Changes, as my prior experience is that some students are unfamiliar with it.
You need a title page. It has the name of the paper, the team name, the date, and an abstract, which is a brief summary of what the paper is about.
Starting with the next page, the body of the paper should be between 6 and 10 pages, single space within paragraphs, line space between paragraphs. Font size should be 11 or 12 point. Margins should be 1 inch. Since the paper this would be printed out on is 8.5 x 11 inches, this means the writing area is 6.5 x 9 inches.
Please use page numbers as it makes it easier to refer to parts of your paper in an email. Do not number the title page. I prefer page numbers to be on the bottom of the page. If you start a New Section after the title page and you format page numbers so the new section begins with page 1, that will give you the desired result.
After the body of the paper you need a page for references, rather than put footnotes to references in the body of the paper. My preferred way of doing this is that the first time you refer to the reference in your paper you list authors only, not the title of the piece. If you make subsequent use of the references you can then repeat the authors names. Then in the reference area, you can make a full reference. I like to have those hyperlinked to the source if possible. And if you are real slick, you can put in internal links in the paper from where you refer to the piece to the reference item. That makes things quite convenient for the reader.
Chunk the paper and use section headings for each chunk.
Some specific sections that you should include are (You can have other sections as well and/or have multiple sections associated with any one of these.):
1. What is the main issue that the paper deals with? (You should come up with your one section heading for this and the remaining sections.)
2. What is the contribution of the paper? If others have also written on this issue how has this paper added to our understanding as compared to what came before?
3. How do the issue of the paper tie into what we've done in the class?
4. What are some lessons learned from the paper?
5. Do you have your own views on the matter or some examples you can bring in that are not discussed in the paper but that might illustrate ideas in the paper?
6. Conclusion
A big deal issue with formal writing is the sequencing of your presentation. Even after you know what you are going to say, you need to order your presentation that will make it logical for the reader. One thought that guides formal writing is that the authors do the work so the readers don't have to.
Each team member needs to own the whole paper.
This means, in particular, that if one team member writes a section of the paper, the other edits that section and makes changes to it in an effort to improve things. It also means that each team member is concerned with whether one section flows into the next in a smooth way. Abrupt transitions are to be avoided, because they confuse the reader.
Format of the paper
Please submit a Word document, preferably a docx file. I may use Track Changes in giving my response. I will try to give a demo in class of how to use Track Changes, as my prior experience is that some students are unfamiliar with it.
You need a title page. It has the name of the paper, the team name, the date, and an abstract, which is a brief summary of what the paper is about.
Starting with the next page, the body of the paper should be between 6 and 10 pages, single space within paragraphs, line space between paragraphs. Font size should be 11 or 12 point. Margins should be 1 inch. Since the paper this would be printed out on is 8.5 x 11 inches, this means the writing area is 6.5 x 9 inches.
Please use page numbers as it makes it easier to refer to parts of your paper in an email. Do not number the title page. I prefer page numbers to be on the bottom of the page. If you start a New Section after the title page and you format page numbers so the new section begins with page 1, that will give you the desired result.
After the body of the paper you need a page for references, rather than put footnotes to references in the body of the paper. My preferred way of doing this is that the first time you refer to the reference in your paper you list authors only, not the title of the piece. If you make subsequent use of the references you can then repeat the authors names. Then in the reference area, you can make a full reference. I like to have those hyperlinked to the source if possible. And if you are real slick, you can put in internal links in the paper from where you refer to the piece to the reference item. That makes things quite convenient for the reader.
Friday, October 9, 2015
Overview of Background Resources
This is a quick version of what I did in class a week ago Wednesday after assigning the students who were present to Project teams. This video is mainly for those students who weren't present, but might also be useful to those who were there.
At this point, all students in the class have been assigned to project teams. It would be good now for each team to identify the project they want to work on. After tentatively deciding that, please contact me by email so I can agree with your plans or make some modifications that I think will improve your project.
At this point, all students in the class have been assigned to project teams. It would be good now for each team to identify the project they want to work on. After tentatively deciding that, please contact me by email so I can agree with your plans or make some modifications that I think will improve your project.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
About the Class Project - Reasons
There are two possible types of class project. One is a review of a scholarly paper written by professional economists on a topic that is relevant to the class. The other is a case study, again on a topic that is relevant to the class. These alternatives do offer teams a choice as to the type of project they will do.
Each type of project has a goal associated with it and these goals are quite distinct. If we did this course over both the fall and the spring then perhaps each team would do both types of project. Given our current circumstance, one project is all we can squeeze in.
* * * * *
The review of a scholarly paper is meant to give students some experience with how academic economists communicate their research ideas with other economists. I suspect most if not every student in the class has never read such a scholarly paper, although most of the students in the class are economics majors. In graduate school for PhD students, the bulk of what students read are such papers, at least after they have finished the first year set of core courses. The thought here is that undergraduates should have a little bit of this sort of experience as well.
There are two barriers of skill that I hope we can avoid via selection of the papers that are candidates for review. The first is math modeling. The second is econometric analysis of the data and the results of the various hypothesis testing done in the paper. I suggest that students don't read those sort of papers. They likely will find them impenetrable. Not that long ago I tried to read a paper I had written in the late 1980s. Some of the argument was over my head now - and I was the author of the piece!
This leaves papers that are without equations and multiple regression results but where the writing is for economists, not generalists. This may still be difficult to penetrate, but based on the extra credit projects students did for the class last year, I believe it is possible with some effort. One reason for doing this with another student this time around is that the two of you can hash out what the paper is saying.
Understanding the issues in the paper is indicated by being able to translate the arguments to a generalist. The purpose of your review is to provide such a translation.
* * * * *
Our course is taught in a fairly theoretical manner. While I do try to include examples from when I was an administrator, there is the issue of whether those carry over outside of higher education into the business world that many of you will enter.
Students want to learn practical stuff. I've known that for some time and have written a bit on it about ten years ago. The case study project is meant to appeal to this student motivation. The idea is to find a rather rich real world example, explore its features, and then generalize the lessons learned from the example. Sometimes cases suggest hypotheses that others have not yet articulated. Other times cases offer evidence in support of a hypothesis that is widely regarded as possible. (Note - it is very hard to confirm an economic hypothesis with the same sort of precision as confirming an astronomy hypothesis, such as the one about the earth revolves around the sun. The evidence we have for an economic hypothesis may be insufficient to "prove" the hypothesis is true. The absence of controlled experiments in economics means many hypotheses can't really be tested.)
For the case study an additional aspect of the project is to tie the case to subject matter of our class. In that sense the case study is like the blog posts. The difference is that for the blog posts you are using your own prior experience. With the case study you are using experience from the business world that you've read about.
As I said in class yesterday, I've not taught with case studies in an econ class before. The reason, apart from never being trained in the case method, is that I've been unsure whether students can make the connections between the case and the course subject matter. I said yesterday that these projects are an experiment. One aspect of the experiment is to see whether students can make the right sort of connections between the case and course content.
* * * * *
There is one other reason for the projects that is worth mentioning here. While I try to teach the class where a foundation is built early and then we build on that later, there is no doubt that the course has elements of going from one topic to the next, with none covered in much depth. For example, we could make the entire course focus on transfer pricing and really understand transfer pricing as a consequence. As it is we have one Excel homework that is partially on it and likewise one blog post. So the topic is covered, but not so deeply. The project is meant to give you some experience in learning an economics idea with greater depth. How you go about doing the project will determine whether that purpose is met.
Each type of project has a goal associated with it and these goals are quite distinct. If we did this course over both the fall and the spring then perhaps each team would do both types of project. Given our current circumstance, one project is all we can squeeze in.
* * * * *
The review of a scholarly paper is meant to give students some experience with how academic economists communicate their research ideas with other economists. I suspect most if not every student in the class has never read such a scholarly paper, although most of the students in the class are economics majors. In graduate school for PhD students, the bulk of what students read are such papers, at least after they have finished the first year set of core courses. The thought here is that undergraduates should have a little bit of this sort of experience as well.
There are two barriers of skill that I hope we can avoid via selection of the papers that are candidates for review. The first is math modeling. The second is econometric analysis of the data and the results of the various hypothesis testing done in the paper. I suggest that students don't read those sort of papers. They likely will find them impenetrable. Not that long ago I tried to read a paper I had written in the late 1980s. Some of the argument was over my head now - and I was the author of the piece!
This leaves papers that are without equations and multiple regression results but where the writing is for economists, not generalists. This may still be difficult to penetrate, but based on the extra credit projects students did for the class last year, I believe it is possible with some effort. One reason for doing this with another student this time around is that the two of you can hash out what the paper is saying.
Understanding the issues in the paper is indicated by being able to translate the arguments to a generalist. The purpose of your review is to provide such a translation.
* * * * *
Our course is taught in a fairly theoretical manner. While I do try to include examples from when I was an administrator, there is the issue of whether those carry over outside of higher education into the business world that many of you will enter.
Students want to learn practical stuff. I've known that for some time and have written a bit on it about ten years ago. The case study project is meant to appeal to this student motivation. The idea is to find a rather rich real world example, explore its features, and then generalize the lessons learned from the example. Sometimes cases suggest hypotheses that others have not yet articulated. Other times cases offer evidence in support of a hypothesis that is widely regarded as possible. (Note - it is very hard to confirm an economic hypothesis with the same sort of precision as confirming an astronomy hypothesis, such as the one about the earth revolves around the sun. The evidence we have for an economic hypothesis may be insufficient to "prove" the hypothesis is true. The absence of controlled experiments in economics means many hypotheses can't really be tested.)
For the case study an additional aspect of the project is to tie the case to subject matter of our class. In that sense the case study is like the blog posts. The difference is that for the blog posts you are using your own prior experience. With the case study you are using experience from the business world that you've read about.
As I said in class yesterday, I've not taught with case studies in an econ class before. The reason, apart from never being trained in the case method, is that I've been unsure whether students can make the connections between the case and the course subject matter. I said yesterday that these projects are an experiment. One aspect of the experiment is to see whether students can make the right sort of connections between the case and course content.
* * * * *
There is one other reason for the projects that is worth mentioning here. While I try to teach the class where a foundation is built early and then we build on that later, there is no doubt that the course has elements of going from one topic to the next, with none covered in much depth. For example, we could make the entire course focus on transfer pricing and really understand transfer pricing as a consequence. As it is we have one Excel homework that is partially on it and likewise one blog post. So the topic is covered, but not so deeply. The project is meant to give you some experience in learning an economics idea with greater depth. How you go about doing the project will determine whether that purpose is met.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Deadlines for Project Milestones
It is important to note in considering this that:
(a) you need to complete the prior step in order to do the next step and
(b) you need to get feedback from me on your work in the prior step before you can proceed on the next step.
For (b), in other words, you may want to get going but you are waiting on me to give you feedback and give you the go ahead. I will try not to be the bottleneck on this, but if you are worried that I might be (and there is some reason that is a realistic concern because getting a pile of papers all at once is discouraging and my energy level isn't what it used to be) then the solution is to get your work in well before the deadlines. Indeed, that way you are likely to get more feedback and get a better grade on the project overall.
That said, this is now what is posted on the class calendar:
First Draft of Paper Due - Friday, November 13 at Noon.
Second Draft of Paper Due - Friday, December 4 at Noon.
Final Presentation Due - Reading Day, Thursday December 10 at Noon.
(a) you need to complete the prior step in order to do the next step and
(b) you need to get feedback from me on your work in the prior step before you can proceed on the next step.
For (b), in other words, you may want to get going but you are waiting on me to give you feedback and give you the go ahead. I will try not to be the bottleneck on this, but if you are worried that I might be (and there is some reason that is a realistic concern because getting a pile of papers all at once is discouraging and my energy level isn't what it used to be) then the solution is to get your work in well before the deadlines. Indeed, that way you are likely to get more feedback and get a better grade on the project overall.
That said, this is now what is posted on the class calendar:
First Draft of Paper Due - Friday, November 13 at Noon.
Second Draft of Paper Due - Friday, December 4 at Noon.
Final Presentation Due - Reading Day, Thursday December 10 at Noon.
Please email me your project team name, member names, and copy your teammate on the message
So far, I've heard from 5 of 9 teams that were created in class today. Below is a listing of what I have at present. Note that team members are listed by the economist from whom their alias was derived.
If I have heard from you and your team is listed here, you should have gotten a confirmation email from me. For the time being you are all set. When you have more information on your project, send it to me.
If I have not yet heard from you but your were there today and assigned to a team, please email me with your team name and team members. I need this in large part to determine who wasn't there today. I will do that by the process of elimination from the class roster.
Later today I will make another post (it might be tomorrow morning) with instructions for you on the class project including the deadline for the first draft of the paper.
Thanks for your attent.
If I have heard from you and your team is listed here, you should have gotten a confirmation email from me. For the time being you are all set. When you have more information on your project, send it to me.
If I have not yet heard from you but your were there today and assigned to a team, please email me with your team name and team members. I need this in large part to determine who wasn't there today. I will do that by the process of elimination from the class roster.
Later today I will make another post (it might be tomorrow morning) with instructions for you on the class project including the deadline for the first draft of the paper.
Thanks for your attent.
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