Oftentimes, in the business and industrial world, it is helpful when working on a project to keep detailed records of the actions taken and the amount of time required in completing the project. This information can provide supervisors a measure of employee effort as well as serve as a means of evaluating the process itself. Periodically reviewing a project analysis gives a supervisor a chance to look into how an employee works on a project. Sometimes this can be as useful as viewing the finished project since there are a number of different ways the same project can be completed.
Our most difficult project this semester is the research paper. As a part of your work on research, I would like each of you to create a project analysis report in which you detail the steps you took in working on your research paper, the kinds of tasks you worked on, and the amount of time you took in each step.
There are several advantages in doing this project. First, knowing that you are going to have to report in detail on what efforts you put into your research paper should help motivate you to work on it and not procrastinate. Second, reviewing the process you followed in working on your research paper will help me, as instructor, understand more fully the kinds of difficulties students encounter when working on research as well as the different strategies that various students take in overcoming those problems. Third, the report can also highlight areas, for me, where students need more instruction. Finally, the report can help me in evaluating my timetable for assigning the research project.
Your report should be in the following format.
Heading
The heading should be centered at the top of the page. The date should be the due date of your research paper.
Research Project Analysis
Your Name
Date
Appearance
This paper should be typed with one inch margins and should contain three columns of information headed Date, Task, and Time.
For example,| Date | Task | Time Spent |
|---|---|---|
| 02/12/1997 | Library Orientation: Presentation by Reference librarian Steve Pec about reference books and using two databases, InfoTrac and Wilson Social Science, to find articles. Spent ten minutes searching InfoTrac for articles on Rosa Parks. Found references to twelve articles and printed out references for five which looked especially useful. |
1 hour |
Total up the hours spent and include that at the bottom of the report. Include every activity which you do in order to complete your paper, including trips to the library, taking notes, thinking about main idea, discussing the paper with friends or in class, working on outlines, drafts, tutoring in the Writing Center, and so on. Notice that sentences in a project analysis report are usually fragments which leave out the subject--since the subject is usually "I." When recording time, round off to the nearest 15 minute interval (for example, 10 minutes would be listed as 15 minutes, 49 minutes as 45 minutes, 55 minutes as an hour)..
