LIN 1256: Advanced Language Variation & Change
Language Contact, Corpora & Our Changing Society
Abstract & Bibliography Assignment
Although this is a short assignment, please start on it
early so you have time to think about it. Sometimes the short ones are the
toughest.
Part I
This assignment gives you a chance to further define the
goals of (y)our project. Please prepare an abstract appropriate for a
conference submission.
It should not be more than 1 page long. Include:
- primary research questions
- description of the project's goals
- succinct description of data and methods, including the methods of analysis
- findings - This part is where you get to use your imagination. Pretend that you have followed the methods you described. What did you find out? Were your hypotheses supported?
Use this opportunity to practice the kind of strong writing
that is necessary in a successful abstract. Make it sound like the work is done
and that you have something important to share with the field. Don't be
tentative or wishy-washy. Proofread.
Check guidelines (available online) for abstract submissions to a sociolinguistics conference such as NWAV or Sociolinguistics Symposium.
Part II
Prepare a bibliography with complete citations of any publications that you expect to be relevant for this project.
Include a sentence or two describing the relevance/use of each publication to the project. (Does it provide a hypothesis you are testing? a method you are using? a framework for analysis?)
(If you are involved in a group research project, focus on developing the bibliography for the part(s) of the project that you are contributing to.)
