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\centerline{MONT 101N -- Analyzing Environmental Data}
\centerline{The Midterm Project Paper}
\centerline{March 9, 2018}
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The oral presentations you are doing for the Natural World
Cluster on March 12 are the first step in the midterm projects.
As stated in the course syllabus, the second step will be a research
paper consisting of about 10 pages of main text (see below for an idea how to handle
diagrams, data, graphs, etc. if you decide to include lots of them) plus
a bibliography of sources, prepared and submitted as a group assignment 
by your project group.  These papers are due {\it no later than 5:00pm on 
Friday, March 23.}  

It's fine to think about splitting up the
writing section by section within the group, but everyone should participate 
in the planning of the overall paper and the decisions of what to include.  

This writing assignment will be different from the other
writing assignments we have done this year because its goals
are for you to collect information about your topic from the
various sources you find, and then present your analysis of that
information.  The evaluation of your project
papers will be based on how well you have addressed the following
guidelines and expectations:
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\item{$\bullet$}  All of these projects will require you to 
do some mathematics beyond what we discussed in class and on the
regular problem sets.  
\item{$\bullet$}  Distill your investigations into a central
argument.  A good research paper of this kind should be
more than just a compilation of information from all the different sources you
consulted.  It should clearly show that you have thought independently
about the information you found, that you have weighed the evidence
for the various claims that were made in your sources, and that you have a
central theme or argument about your topic that you want to present.  It
is certainly permissible to say you disagree with points of view presented
in some sources, if you can explain why you think that and back up your
opinions with appropriate evidence.
\item{$\bullet$}  The paper should be {\it well organized} and the writing
should give the reader a clear indication where you are heading with your
central argument at all times.
\item{$\bullet$}  Pay special attention to the first few paragraphs that
will serve as an introduction.  Catch the reader's
attention, explain the significance of the topic or theme you will
discuss.  Say what you will do in general terms, without going into all the
details from the start.
\item{$\bullet$}  Also pay special attention to the final few
paragraphs, which will serve as a conclusion for your
paper.  Don't overstate the
importance of your findings, and be honest if there are limitations.
You might discuss how your investigations
could be continued in further research.
\item{$\bullet$}  Give proper credit to sources you consulted that contributed
to your ideas about the questions you studied.  (In a longer thesis,
it would be expected that another section reviewing
the most relevant contributions of previous work on related subjects
would be included -- that kind of full literature review is {\it not expected
for this assignment}.)  Use footnotes or endnotes to identify
direct quotations from your sources, and also to indicate the sources
that contribute to specific points you are making.
\item{$\bullet$} In a {\it References} section at the end, include all books, articles,
websites you used in the preparation of the work.  For books, give the author(s), title, publisher,
place and year of publication.  
For articles, give the author(s), title, journal name, volume, year, and pages.  For any websites,
give the full URL, the author (if that can be determined), and the date you consulted.
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\item{$\bullet$}  Be clear, concise, and correct in your writing.
Aim for {\it no typos, misspellings, or grammatical problems}.  But even
more importantly, each paragraph should have a clearly evident purpose
in relation to your main argument.
\item{$\bullet$}  Use figures, graphs, etc. sparingly in the main
text.  (If you want to include more of these, that can be done in an additional
Appendix section at the end.)
\item{$\bullet$}  Proofread your work carefully and have an ``impartial''
reader or readers look at it and give you comments.  This can be one of the
other teams or me.  Be prepared and willing to {\it revise} your work
based on the comments you get.  Of course, this means that the writing
must not be put off until the afternoon of March 23(!)  Be sure you
get started early enough so that the input can be put to productive use.
\bye
