Q Topic 3: Scope of Your Project To help you prepare your formal Senior Capstone Project proposal, you are to do two things for this topic: • Describe the scope of your proposed Senior Capstone Project and • Summarize some background information from an article that you have found for this project. Cite the article in APA style. (For help with the APA style rules, see Writing Resources under Content > Course Resources in our classroom.) 1. Describe the scope of your project in a short paragraph (or in a list of questions, if you prefer). Keep in mind that a project's statement of scope is intended to define the research questionsYOU need to investigate and answer to achieve your objectives, NOT questions you think your audience will ask about your research. For example, if you're writing a scholarly research paper, you need to outline the limits of your research by defining (1) the specific data or variables you will use in your investigation (such as sample size or demographic variables that you will include), and (2) the theories that you will use to interpret your findings. What you're doing is setting boundaries on what you'll research. This will help you stay focused on specific research goals, and it will give readers of your proposal an idea whether the research is feasible and what they can expect to receive when you're done. If you're writing a business proposal, on the other hand, you need to define the scope of work (SOW) in terms of your deliverables -- the need that you want to address, the situational analysis or steps you will take to figure out what has changed or become the root problem in this situation, the characteristics of the products, services, and/or results that your project will produce, and the conditions or constraints under which those objectives will be met. You need your audience analysis to complete this task. Here is a sample description of a project's scope from a student who completed a business report. His scope statement was the following: “My project investigates whether or not the Good Soul Baptist Church should invest in a new sound system, and if so, which system. The current system is inadequate. My report will describe the current uses of the sound system at the church and the reasons why it is inadequate. I will also research similar churches to see what sorts of systems they have. My report will also investigate the possibility of the church purchasing a new sound system, either an inexpensive, simple sound system or a more expensive, complicated system with extended capabilities. I will analyze cost and benefits, and make a recommendation. I will also analyze the physical space and acoustics to determine what size system is required. And I will investigate what other uses the church could have for a new sound system that works really well. For instance, the church could rent out the space one night a week to a gospel choir and in that way recoup some of the cost of the better sound system. I will be drawing on work in physics as well as secondary sources in church management.” 2. Summarize some background information such as a definition of a central concept from at least one cited research document. This summary should be from 1-3 paragraphs long. You might talk about how this idea fits in with your senior project. Here is a sample description of a project's scope from a student who completed a research report on the ways in which facework strategies may be learned by children through writing that is designed for them. The summary below helped her to define the concept and some of the strategies associated with it: "Based on the work of Erving Goffman, 'face' is a concept that is used widely in writing in sociology and linguistics. 'Face' generally refers to our public self-image. It is a vulnerable resource that is grounded in individual identity. Much of our work in social interaction depends on some notion of face (e.g. saving face). "In their work on politeness theory, Brown & Levinson (1987) define politeness as the ways in which we protect or honor the ‘face’ of other individuals. This includes the ways in which we display respect for an individual’s need to act autonomously and unimpeded. While face-threatening acts (FTAs) are always present in social interaction, they should not be problematic, according to Brown and Levinson. The strategies that individuals use to deal with FTAs can be characterized as one of three basic types: Positive politeness strategies, negative politeness strategies, and off-record politeness strategies. "Positive Politeness Strategies are used to express solidarity with speaker or hearer. They are directed toward seeing the wants/actions of a subject as desirable. An example of a positive politeness strategy is to claim common ground. Negative Politeness Strategies express restraint; they acknowledge an individual’s need to act freely and unhindered. These are actually the most common politeness strategies, and they include strategies such as hedging or apologizing ('I’m sorry to interrupt, but…'). The final kind of politeness strategies are called off-record politeness strategies. These strategies help individuals deal with face indirectly. Using irony or asking rhetorical questions are examples of these strategies." Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Please post your initial response to this discussion prompt by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, changing the title of your post to include your name and your project's proposed topic. Then, respond to the initial posts of at least two other students by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday. Continue your conversations through the end of the course week.