Term Assignment

Introduction

For your term assignment, you will independently apply the skills and principles of data analysis we’ve learned over the course of the semester to produce a policy-relevant analysis and report. Building upon your memorandums, produce a publication ready policy report for your place as well as complimentary reproducible documentation.

At a minimum, your report to address the following:

  • Context and Background: Drawing upon secondary sources, craft a narrative context and background for your analysis. This may include in-depth profiling of the neighborhood(s) of interest or may involve broader contextualizing drawing from the history and background of your place. Your narrative does not have to be long, but it should help to contextualize the questions you are engaging with and the methods you use to engage those questions.

  • Methods and Approach: Describe your approach to analysis - what is the specific question or problem you are taking on? What precedents or work that others have done is helping to inform your approach? Why is the selected geographic scale of your analysis appropriate?

  • Data Sources: Describe the data source(s) that you are using for your analysis. Where are these data coming from? What are each contributing? What are the specific indicators you are using from these data?

  • Data Description, Analysis and Interpretation: Please describe the analysis which you’ve done with the data, as well as your written interpretation based upon your analysis.

  • Implications for Policy and Impact: Share your thoughts on how your findings can or should influence policy or otherwise have an impact within your place. You may also wish to provide some thoughts on how you or others may expand upon this work in the future or describe a set of future questions or analyses that build upon what you’ve done.

The actual structure of your report is up to you, and will likely vary depending upon your place and the questions you seek to engage.

Design Considerations

  • You have all of the raw material you need from your prior memorandums, however, you probably received comments from your peers and your instructor about how you might refine your analysis. Now is the time to implement that advice.

  • You are not required to include all of the tables and graphics you produced for your drafts and exercises. Narrow the focus to the most significant trends.

  • You are encouraged to bring in other material (e.g., existing reports or studies) that will help you provide context for your discussion or help you interpret trends. Cite accordingly.

  • You should strive to write this report in fewer than 4,000 words, not including references, tables, figures, or appendices. The aim is to produce a narrative that is concise and focused. Highlight what matters in the context of your narrative. Follow the strategies for effective professional writing—including use of active headings and concise reporting of trends—to convey the information succinctly. Title your report appropriately.

Outputs

  1. Report: Prepare a professional report of around 4,000 words. In April, you will share a draft report. Your final report will be due after the conclusion of classes. Your report may be formatted as a stand alone document or may be shared as a website.

  2. Presentation: Prepare and deliver a 7-minute professional presentation that summarizes your policy issue, analysis, and policy recommendations. We will complete written feedback and reactions that will be shared after the conclusion of your presentation.

Submission Instructions

Draft Report

Follow this link to accept the lab Github Classroom assignment repository. Save your report as a Quarto markdown document and upload along with your post-assignment reflection to GitHub.

Presentation

Upload your presentation in PPT, PDF, or Keynote format to the following Box folder. Please follow the following naming convention - Session_LastName_FirstName where session is the day you are scheduled to present (01 is Monday 4/22, 02 is Monday 4/29, 03 is Wednesday 5/1).

Final Report

Push an update to your report repository containing your draft report to share your finalized report.

Assignment Reflection

In the repository you downloaded for your assignment, you will find a separate reflection document. Please respond to the following prompts in that document and submit along with your assignment repository.

  1. Highlight one or two things you are especially proud of regarding your submission. This could be a particular element within the assignment or could be part of your process (e.g. time management, applying new techniques, etc.).

  2. If you were to start this assignment over again, what are one or two things that you might do differently?

  3. Are there any aspects or areas in your submission where you would like us to focus our feedback?

  4. On a scale of 1 to 10, please rate how ready you feel this work is for sharing with a public audience (where 1 is not at all ready to be shared and 10 is polished and ready for public dissemination).