Project

ECON 321 Research Project, Step 4

Question

Marks

1

Research

78

Interest

78

Clarity

78

Economics

78

Q1 (Average)

78

2

a.

5

b.

5

Q2 (Total)

10

Subtotal

Q1 + Q2

88

Communication

6 (can double)

Total

100

Table of Contents
ECON 321 Research Project, Step 4 1
Question 1 2
1.a. 2
Essay/Narrative/Story 4
Bibliography 4
Question 2 (Challenge Question) 5
2.a 5
2.b 6

Question 1

1.a.

You did it! You’ve worked hard on your research project, and now there’s only one thing left to do: write a full, final draft of your economic narrative. Some students (those who are happy with their work so far) may just be able to copy-paste and lightly edit one of the versions they’d submitted earlier (beginning/middle/end, Harmon story wheel, etc.). Other students may take this as an opportunity to completely rewrite their narrative. It’s up to you.

Your narrative/essay/story should be no longer than two and a half single-spaced pages (about 1250-1500 words, using standard fonts), not counting citations and footnotes. There is no minimum length.

Your essay/narrative will be marked using the R.I.C.E. standard: Research, Interest, Clarity and Economics.

i. Research – Your narrative is informed by research. For full marks:

· The sources chosen are relevant to your topic.
· You have at least three sources.
· At least one of the sources is a peer-reviewed journal article.
· At least one of the sources is a primary source, as defined in earlier research steps (basically, something written about your topic at the time your topic was taking place – so if you’re writing about the Cariboo gold rush, a newspaper article from 1861 talking about the Cariboo would count, while a history of the Cariboo written in 2012 would not).
· Your sources are cited in APA format in a bibliography located immediately below your essay/narrative.
· You actually use these sources in your narrative/essay. You don’t need to quote directly from them, necessarily, but it should be obvious to the reader that you have used information from the sources you’ve cited to inform your writing.

ii. Interest – You’ve made an effort to make your narrative interesting to general readers. Maybe you turned your topic into a human interest story, or used the Harmon story circle to frame it as a compelling story. Maybe you included all sorts of interesting details, or connected what was happening in the past to things that are happening and relevant in today’s world. In any case, instead of just presenting a list of facts, you’ve made an effort to turn your essay/story into something that the general public will want to read.

To make sure the person marking this research step doesn’t miss the ways in which you worked to make your story/narrative interesting, please write down a brief summary of your efforts in this respect below:

To make my essay/story/narrative interesting to the general reader, I:

iii. Clarity – Your essay/narrative/story is clear enough that a reader previously unfamiliar with the situation will understand the story – and the basic economics behind it – without the need for additional research. You have included all the information needed to understand your story, and you have written everything in such a way that non-specialists can understand it. This is separate from the communication mark, which works as usual (see marking scheme on first page).

The Clarity mark is more about making sure that all the necessary information to understand the story is present within your essay. The goal is that if someone were to be asked to write a 3-2-1 report on your essay, they should find it very challenging to come up with ‘Two things that you didn’t understand or were missing’, because everything was understandable and no obviously important information was missing.

iv. Economics – This is a course in the Economic History of Canada. Your essay/narrative/story should therefore be directly connected to the Economic History of Canada. Moreover, the economics in your story should be clear and correct. Even non-economists should be able to tell that you’re telling a story about the allocation of scarce resources – about sacrifices, choices and tradeoffs. Someone with economic training (such as the person marking your essay) should be able to tell that your economic reasoning is logical and appropriate to the situation you are studying.

Essay/Narrative/Story

[Insert your essay here – Max 2.5 pages (about 1,250 to 1,500 words), no minimum length.]

Bibliography

[Insert your bibliography, with sources cited in APA format, here.]

Question 2 (Challenge Question)

You’ve worked on this essay, in steps, all term. At the same time, you’ve been studying Canada’s economic history through lectures and assignments. In this challenge question, you will be asked to reflect on how the essay affected your understanding of the lectures/assignments, and vice-versa.

2.a

(5 marks) Give at least one example of how what you learned while working on and researching your essay changed your understanding of certain material covered in the lectures/assignments. For full marks, be specific about how your perspective on the material was altered. Please try to keep your answer to half a page or less, not including citations. If you need to, cite any sources used in APA format.

(For example, if you wrote your essay on the grain elevator monopoly, the knowledge you gained would have given you more insight into what kind of market power flour companies like the Ogilvie company had, something which we covered in an assignment. For full marks, you would also have to say HOW your understanding of the Ogilvie company’s power was changed by what you’d researched. Maybe you found an example where a farmer was ‘black-listed’ from selling to Ogilvie elevators, and had to give up farming, which made it clear that even when other flour companies were theoretically available to sell to, they weren’t always an option.)

2.b

(5 marks) Now, let’s go the other way around. Give at least one example of how what you learned from the assignments and lectures changed your understanding of the topic you were researching. For full marks, be specific about how your perspective on the material was altered. Please try to keep your answer to half a page or less, not including citations. If you need to, cite any sources used in APA format.

(For example, if you wrote your essay on the nature of housework in Montreal from 1900-1910, maybe the Becker model of labour allocation covered in one of the lectures gave you a new perspective on your topic. For full marks, you’d have to explain what this new perspective was, and why it mattered to your research.)

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