Week Three | 5/11–5/15
Final Project: Step #2 | Initial Research
Final Project: Step #3 | Statements of Purpose
For these two steps, you must collect evidence of research and then write a statement of purpose. You will be given a form on May 11 and asked to fill it out by Friday, May 15. See the final calendar for context.
These steps are combined because they happen concurrently. You must use the same methodology outlined for the research-driven essay to explore the topic you chose during Week Two, and that research should generate a statement of purpose, which is explained in this post:
On May 11, you will also be given this post as a formative assignment.
This post is from February, and you should have handouts and notes from that time. Read this post and any notes you have carefully. Your statement of purpose must reflect an understanding of these instructions.
Note again that the Senior Talk is now a Final Project. You can still create a traditional presentation, if you want, but you can also design a wholly different kind of project.
It may help to call the statement of purpose a thesis, which has Greek roots meaning “a setting down, a placing, an arranging; position, situation.” A thesis is the central staging or placement of a work.
A better term to use is crux, which literally means cross, but which is more generally understood as follows:
Crux
1. a puzzling or difficult problem : an unsolved question
2. an essential point requiring resolution or resolving an outcome
3. a main or central feature (as of an argument)
Your statement of purpose is really the crux of the project. That is what you are writing and rewriting during these steps. Your research helps you figure out the problem you’re addressing, the question you’re answering, the resolution you’ve reached, etc.
Your use of feedback is essential. We should collaborate to answer questions like these:
- Why does your topic matter?
- What is the bigger message intended for your audience?
- What can others gain from this project?
- What can you gain from this project?
Your statement of purpose will look like this when finished1:
Continue to use the models you’ve been given in other places to guide you, too. Each of the video essays posted for Week Two, for instance, has a thesis or crux to it. You should be able to identify (and then emulate) the crux of any meaningful project in the Humanities.
Ask questions below. You can also use the comment section to workshop statements of purpose or to analyze possible models for your own work.
The filler text has an interesting history, and you can read about the origins of lorem ipsum here. In this case, the filler text shows you about how long your statement of purpose should be. ↩