Stage Three The Paper

To get started, review your Stage One and Stage Two documents.  Using these documents as a starting point, it is time to create you final project paper.  Most, if not all, of the work should be incorporated into your final paper. 

Due Date:  August 20th

Final Paper Guidelines

Purpose: The basic task is to write a profile for the Chicago Tribune (or another publication) on a particular topic (school enrollment, men vs. women in college, rape, traffic fatalities, etc.)

Organization:

• 3-5 pages not including the graphs.

• Graphs should be incorporated into the body of the text (not grouped together at the end).

• Each graph should have a subtitle or label on it, indicating the official table number from the Statistical Abstract that it was based on.

The paper should include:

• a well-written introduction and conclusion

• at least one trendline graph (preferably the trendline graph you created for your stage two document)

• at least five graphs (You will have a total of 6 graphs including your trendline graph.)

• a clear discussion of the data, making particular reference to the graphs (more below)

• incorporation of a small amount of outside research (don't forget to cite your source(s))

• an attempt to write in a style appropriate for your audience

How to talk about the graphs:

• For ideas, visit the Chicago Tribune article (Chicago's Tolerance for Murder).

• Think about the various activities you have done in class that have had you practice describing graphs (geographic trends, your faith in a trendline prediction, pie and bar/column graphs). This is your chance to put this knowledge to good and original use.

• Use percentages, rates,  and "times more/less than" statements as a way to draw comparisons between different figures (between highest and lowest points, between years, between men and women or different racial groups). Again, look at the Tribune to get some ideas.

• Focus on what is interesting about the graphs, but don't exhaustively describe them. The graphs will do some of that work for you. You are the expert that will draw the reader's attention to what is interesting or important about a particular graph.

Your paper grade (25% of your final grade) will be based on four categories:

1.  Mechanics (30 points)

• At least 3 pages in length, excluding charts, graphs and maps

• grammar and spelling

• bibliographic references; in particular, refer to the tables you use on each graph/map.  Include at least one additional source

• introduction - what is my paper about?

• conclusion - tie it all together

• overall paper presentation

• attached Stage 1 and Stage 2 with written comments

2.  Trendline graph with prediction and written justification (20 points)

• Is it central to my topic?

• "effective" graph - use the guidelines we learned in class

• added a localized trend if applicable

• prediction is calculated correctly

• written explanation provides at least two convincing justifications for the prediction (more if necessary)

3.  Graphs including written explanation (30 points)

• 5 graphs/maps created from a minimum of 3 statistical abstract files

• "effective" graphs - use the guidelines we learned in class

• meaningful descriptions including the incorporation of percentage, rates, etc... when applicable

4. Overall Use of Quantitative Information (20 points)

• shows an understanding of what we learned in class

• appropriate applications of QR (i.e., converted to constant dollars)

• appropriate representation of the data from Excel files

What to Submit:    

1) A paper copy of your paper with a statement signed by all group members that all fully participated in the work.

2)  Stage One and Stage Two

3) An electronic version of the paper.  This can be submitted via email to tconnor@depaul.edu.  Papers are archived as a precautionary measure.

Extra Credit

This is the final step to receive Extra Credit (provided that you have completed the extra credit portion in each stage correctly).  Incorporate the information you have on the "Local Connection" into your paper.  You must include the following:

a.  List the two questions that you researched.

b.  Provide a graph/map (created by you) that answers at least one of the questions.

b.  Provide written/verbal answers to your questions.

c.  Cite your source(s).  Include a link to the data you used or attach the data to your paper.

Miscellaneous

Getting together

When doing this project, most groups meet outside of class to some extent, because only a limited amount of class time will be devoted to it.  Since the groups are chosen randomly, some groups will have more difficulty than others in finding common meeting times.  If your group finds it hard to get together, you must be creative in finding ways to collaborate.  Some ways to collaborate without physically meeting are using the  telephone, using email, and exchanging drafts when you come to class.

Commonly Encountered Problem When Making Graphs From The Files

Frequently, when making graphs from the Excel files which we have purchased for your use, you will find that the years on the x-axis will appear incorrectly on XY (Scatter) graphs.  The data points will appear as numbers, 1, 2, 3, etc.   We believe this problem occurs because the data files were prepared in Lotus 1-2-3 and then converted to Excel; in the conversion process, there is a formatting incompatibility.  To work around this problem, delete the years and retype them.  This process doesn't take very long, and your graph will be as you intended it. In Excel 2002, often there will be a little warning next to the cell with a year value in in it.  If you select all the the years and then click on the warning you will get a menu that looks like

Choose "Convert to Number" to fix the format of the cells.

Proper Bibliographic References and Labeling Charts with Table Numbers:

At the end of your paper, you probably should have something like

References

U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2004 (124th Edition) Washington, DC, 2001.  Tables 431, 443, and 449.

If you reference other books, you should include them too, including the page numbers.  If you reference data from the web, you should include a reference of the form

Snell, T. and L. Maruschak, "Capital Punishment 2001,"  U.S. Department of Justice http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cp01.pdf  (accessed 8/29/2003).

Sometimes you won't be able to determine the author; in that case, leave it out.

I highly recommend the practice of using the drawing toolbar to write the table number you are using directly on the graph such as

To get the drawing toolbar, click on View->Toolbars and make sure Drawing is clicked.  At the bottom of your screen will appear the drawing toolbar that looks like:

Click on the icon, draw a rectangle with your mouse on your graph and type in the annotation.