Final Research Paper (Outline) | Environment Behavior Research I — Sustainable Interior Environments at FIT

Below is a detailed outline for your final research paper. Email with any questions/concerns/ideas. Don’t forget to include a proper Works Cited at the end. Your paper need be 5-8 pages in length, double-spaced in a readable font equivalent in size to Times New Roman 12-point font.

1. Introduce the topic / problem – what’s at stake (1/2 – 1 page)
2. This issue / problem leads me to this research question (1/2)

This is the anecdote that tells us why you chose the topic. After relaying why this is important, back track a little, maybe using a personal story, and talk about how you got to this topic.

3. History / situation / field / status (1/4 – 1/2)

What is the history of your question? How has straw bale construction been successful before? When did it start and why? What’s the history of sustainable textiles, in the US and elsewhere? How has sustainable marketing become important over the years and how does it work? Tell your readers how sustainable construction came to be a thing. Tell me about the marketing aspect especially. But more as a story that you maybe don’t get in these articles we read but from what you know elsewhere.

4. Literature review by topic, three long para is great (1 1/4 – 2)

Think here about three major trends in the literature and discuss themes in them. For Heidi, this could be indigeneity, sustainable textiles, and sustainable production and marketing. For Laura: sustainable construction, construction marketing, and sustainable marketing. For Beatrice: straw bale building materials, urban slums, and sustainable development plans. You no longer just sum up author by author but write about the topic and weave the authors ideas together, like Laurie’s research statement (see Dec 10th readings). In other words, create it as a flowing document about different topics or issues rather than a staccato summary of sources.

5. Methods – which type, how many, where, why these methods (1/2)

As for the longer methods write-up, write a few sentences about why you are choosing them and not other methods. I would consider using (for example) focus groups but I wouldn’t get enough folks in one place at once–or maybe the opposite! And: I wish I could use mental mapping but I do not think they will go for it. They may consider it useless or unclear. Or: I really would like to learn about surveys but I am not sure how to apply them here. Etc.

6. Site – where (1/2)

The purpose of the site is to think through where you would go collect data, from businesses to homes to Colorado mountains. Why these places? How are they specifically important? Even if you are not sure, offer your best guess as a way to think through what your best case scenario (or any scenario!) may be for moving forward.

7. Timeline – when interview, analyze, and write (1/2)

This is a timeline of how long you think it will take to do each part of the project. For instance: I would like to interview 10 folks at the sites described (say the mushroom company and a place yet tbd), 5 people per site. I will recruit participants during the summer after I choose the sites in July. Interviews will take place in the fall of 2013. Each interview will last an hour so that will involve about 30-40 hours (1:3-4 ratio) of transcription. I will finish transcription in the winter and look for trends through winter as well. I will finish my final paper in spring.

8. Contributions – who are you speaking to, what will it change (3/4)

First say who has or hasn’t done work on this. Did you find a lot of articles or research on this topic? If you did, you say there is extensive literature on this but you are doing it in a different way or a different group or material or time or place because this ___ is specific to them and needs to be looked at. You say who it will be helpful for — Designers? Environmentalists? Architects? Scholars–of which discipline? These companies? Environment? Which parts of the environment? It’s not just about how you are adding some new ideas to what’s been written but also you are adding some cool work to making the world better. Spell out how.