WRIT 566

Prospectus for Long Assignment; due Monday March 30

As you know, the major writing assignment for this class is to write a piece of original scientific or technical discourse in your area of specialization. That piece should be between 1850 and 2500 words at minimum (though it can and may need to be longer). It should be suitable for an expert audience in your field, and should represent the kind of work that is publishable in an expert communication venue (journals, conferences, funding agencies) you have identified (or, for science communication/ professional writing majors, in an appropriate science communication venue). It must be properly documented according to the standards of that journal and field. You may use research results you have already generated, but you may not resubmit a lab report or other piece of writing you have already submitted for a grade in another academic class. (See the Student Code of Conduct, section V, p. 37, for why this is prohibited.) If you can gain the written permission of the original instructor, you may submit an extension of work already submitted (such as a significant revision, a further elaboration, a version containing new experiments and results, etc.; please talk to me about that ASAP if that’s your plan.) The final article or whatever will need to be submitted through www.turnitin.com as well as in hard copy; the prospectus only needs to be turned in as a hard copy.

Among the kinds of discourse that may be appropriate for this assignment are

1.  Research proposal (including grant proposal)

2.  Laboratory report

3.  Review of scientific literature on a subject

4.  Reports on inventions, discoveries, or processes

5.  Abstract for a conference or proceedings volume

6.  Analytical report

7.  Research poster

8.  Instructions or SOPs

9.  Software documentation

10.Web page of a scientific or technological nature

11. Parts of theses (senior, honors, master’s)

In order to plan this piece of writing and to schedule a peer review session for it, you need to give me a prospectus that previews your long piece of writing. It can be formatted as a memo or letter, but it must include the following:

• The topic of your long piece of writing
• The intended genre (that is, thesis proposal or set of installation instructions or article for Science or a poster presentation, etc.)
• The audience and venue for which it is intended (that is, the readership and the kind or name of publication for which it is intended—the specific journal, conference, granting agency, thesis committee, etc!)
• The anticipated length of the final text (can be estimated in words or pages)
• Your first two choices for a rough draft date (see the calendar for the class; your choices run between April 3 and April 17).

I recommend that you make an appointment to meet with me March 23-25 (before advising starts) to discuss your prospectus; the prospectus itself is due on March 30.