Details

The purpose of the final report in this course is to examine the current research literature (2010-2013) in an attempt to determine where a particular item, process, product or service will be in the year 2060. You may have a predetermined notion of the direction of a particular product, process, etc., and you might even think to guess at an answer by simply providing that opinion. PLEASE DON’T. Your prediction will have to be based only on the information that you have identified in the literature and from reference material that you have gathered. In other words, the research that is now ongoing should provide some of the (properly-referenced) detail for your prediction, and the collection of articles gathered during your search (maybe only 4 or 5 articles in total) should provide or convince you with such credibility that you feel confident that you have correctly predicted the future. You are writing to the instructor, so you do not have to go into a lengthy historical detail. Please attempt to limit description about the “past” associated with your topic to about 3 quarters of a page. Focus on the present (current research) and the future (where you think the item, process, etc. will be based on what you have identified is happening in the literature now and the articles you referenced). Note that this does not mean that you cannot express your opinion related to your subject, but that the opinion should be influenced by the literature that you have found, and properly referenced. In other words, you are referencing the current research literature to support the opinion that you are writing about (i.e., something to back up or confirm your ideas). Papers are often 3 to 5 pages (double-spaced) depending on your writing style and how concisely you can convince the reader of the outcome.

There is no need to footnote or endnote directly from the source of your information; simply paraphrase the material and reference according to the APA format used by one of the scientific journal articles that you have found on your topic. The format will be marked as part of the grade for the paper.

The last sentence of your paper should be “In summary, in the year 2060 based on the information that I have collected, I believe that ………………..will be ………………..”

References

All final reports must have a separate “references” section which clearly identifies all sources of materials cited directly or indirectly in your paper. The references must be presented in a list of correct form, in alphabetical order, not numbered, on the last page of your submission. The 3-5 page total pages in your report does not have to count the references list (i.e., this could be page 6 if you wish). The specific sentences (or paragraphs, if applicable) in your paper where you have paraphrased material must be referenced properly. The journal articles that you have selected may be able to be used as examples for how to reference materials in your final report (if they are APA format). Within the text of your report, you should cite each source that you allude to or quote from directly. After each citation, insert the authors’ names in parentheses (don’t use numbers). Again, the journal articles you have selected should provide examples of how they reference the work of others. We’ll be using APA format for this paper.