TO: Students in CJ 605
FROM: R. B. Taylor
DATE: 4/18/04
RE: From here to the end of the semester

Here's what's going on.

TURNING IN RESULTS AND DISCUSSION SECTION. You can turn this in anytime from tomorrow through Thursday 5:00 pm. Please turn it in by
a) placing a hard copy in my mailbox, including all figures and
b) emailing me the complete document
You need to have figured out by that time how to integrate all your tables and figures and text into one complete document. This should be all correctly formatted according to ASC or APA guidelines. In short, I should be looking at the final form in terms of formatting.

I am processing these on a FIFO system (first in, first out), based on the date and time of the email you send. Therefore, it is pretty obvious, there are advantages to you getting it to me sooner. If lots of folks get me stuff late in the week, then I do not have that much time between then and next class (4/26) to get you comments. So sooner is better.

MAY 3rd is our poster presentation session. I will bring a poster board to class tomorrow and you can see how much layout you have. I will prepare an "overview" poster describing the PHMC data set, so you need NOT in your poster go into much methods detail except to tell the audience exactly which items you used.

I suggest you prepare the following pages for your poster session. These are suggestions only.
a) Title page with title and author.
b) Abstract page being sure it includes key questions. You can type this either as an abstract or as a set of bullets. Be sure it is clear what your key questions are and what your key conclusions are.
c) Some type of "literature" page highlighting some key findings to date in the field and key questions as well.
d) Information about your dependent variable -- the actual item and response categories, perhaps n and percent each category, distribution (frequency distribution, box and whisker, stem and leaf?)
e) Information about your predictors
f) Results page: text
g) Table of results - at least one. You may want to have a "simplified" table for the poster itself, and a more detailed table as a handout (Handouts are STRONGLY encouraged - it gives people something to walk away with and file for future reference. I usually like a layout with title, name, contact information, and abstract on one side, and one or two detailed tables of results on the other side.)
h) Page with conclusions and questions

This will be much harder to prepare than you think. I STRONGLY URGE YOU to attempt this ONLY AFTER you have written a DRAFT of your paper. It will be much easier. Trust me.

So write the paper first, then do the poster presentation second.

You are preparing poster pages that are readable from a ways away. That means you probably want to use powerpoint. Suggest leaving white, blank background, so it is just text and figures on the pages, and does not get too cluttered.

During the session I will be coming around at some point and asking each of you about your poster, and asking

• describe what you did
• why
• what did you find
• what it means, in specific and more general terms, and
• how does it it fit into the literature.

In fact, these are JUST the questions I am going to ask you. I will grade you on your answer to each question

I will also grade your poster itself on:

• organization
• clarity
• ability to convey main points

All of this is the "presentation" part of the final grade.