Idea Papers

Over the course of the semester, you are to hand in 10 idea papers. Everyone is required to produce an idea paper for the second class meeting. You may choose the class meetings for which you produce the remaining nine papers. An idea paper is a one-to-two page document in which you describe in very general terms a study you might do (or believe someone ought to do) given what you read for that week's class meeting. Your idea must draw on at least two of the readings for the week. Idea papers begin with a reference to the articles that inspired the idea and the particular aspects of the readings from which the proposed study derives. The heart of the paper is a general description of a study or set of studies one might do based on the readings. The idea paper concludes with a statement about how the results of the proposed study would make a significant contribution to the literature represented by the readings. Idea papers are due no later than the beginning of the class meeting for which they are relevant. Each idea paper will receive a score from 0-10, yielding a total of 100 points for the set.