Due by class time Tuesday, April 28
Please submit your paper in the form of a Microsoft Word document.
Choose a topic related to our course material that you find particularly interesting or intriguing, research it thoroughly, and write a short expository paper about it, including a bibliography of sources and proper citations within the text.
Some examples of good topic ideas are listed below, but you are not required to choose from this list. I am open to other ideas, as long as the topic is relevant to our course, and offers a reasonable chance of leading to productive research. If you prefer to choose a different topic not on the list below, please ask me about it directly via email.
The goal of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to dive more deeply into a particular subject area related to complex systems, which we may or may not have covered in class. While Google and Wikipedia are fine to use as starting points for your research (Wikipedia in particular can often be a good source of references to more in-depth information), your research must include at least three published sources of information in the form of books, journal articles, or newspaper or magazine articles. As a general rule, I discourage the use of blogs, superficial tech news or science "digest" type websites, or other random web pages, at least as your primary sources of information. I would strongly recommend making ample use of the database search tools and other online resources available through the SLC Library. Other excellent sources of information are the Notes, Bibliography, and Further Reading sections of our two textbooks. And you might even find some good additional information by browsing the Models Library included with the NetLogo program.
The body of your paper should be between 5 and 7 pages in length (not counting any pictures or diagrams — which are fine to include if you like), double-spaced, using standard 1-inch margins and 12-point Times Roman font. The goal of your paper should be to explain your topic in a clear way to an intelligent reader who does not have much (if any) detailed knowledge of your topic, so that they come away from your paper with a feeling of having learned something significant and interesting.
I am looking for quality, not quantity. A short paper does not mean that it should take you a short time to write; it means that it should take me a short time to read! A good approach is to start by writing a slightly longer draft, then trim it down by rewriting portions that can be expressed more succinctly. I expect you to carefully proofread your paper for typos, grammar, and spelling, which means more than just running it through an automated spellchecker. The edit-rewrite process is an effective way to take a longer paper and make it into a better, shorter paper.
It also goes without saying that I expect your paper to consist exclusively of your own writing, with specific information from your sources properly quoted and cited, or properly paraphrased in your own words.
Some possible topic ideas:
Please let me know if you have questions about anything!