Project Step 1: Interest statement

Preparation

• Reflect on your interests in language and linguistics
• Review the concepts and goals of data science and text analysis
• Do preliminary literature searches to help orient your interests and ground your ideas in the literature

Objectives

• Identify a topic and/or area of interest in language and linguistics
• Explore the literature on a topic and/or area of interest in language and linguistics
• Hone the ability to skim an article from the primary literature to identify the aim(s) of a study and the main finding(s)

Instructions

Getting started

1. Clone the project_step_1 repository on GitHub. Add it inside the Workspace/ directory.
2. Create a new Quarto document called step_1_interest.qmd, name it "Project Step 1: Interest statement".
3. Remove the contents of the Quarto document so you have a blank document to work with. Save and render the document to PDF to ensure everything is working properly.

Brainstorming

1. Start the brainstorming process for identifying a topic and/or area for your research project. You will likely want to consider past courses you have taken and or topics that personally, academically, and/ or professionally motivate you. This is very preliminary so don't consider this a commitment to a topic or area. This step is just to get you thinking about potential ideas!
2. Search scholarly articles on a topic and/ or area of potential interest to you. You can use Google Scholar or WFU ZSR Library's Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) interface as your search engine. Be sure to include terms like 'text analysis, 'corpus analysis' or 'corpus study' as part of your search criteria to help identify research which will be more directly relevant to the methods in this course.
3. Identify at least two articles which you find particularly interesting. (Note: you are not committing yourself to these articles or this topic/ area.) Focus on the aims of the studies and the main findings. Consider what is potentially something you would like to know more about or find surprising.

Draft an interest statement

1. Write an interest statement that outlines some of your interests in language and linguistics that you may be interested in exploring in your course project based on your brainstorming. Your statement should be a paragraph or two in length and should address the following questions:

   • What are your interests in language and linguistics?
   • What are some topics and/or areas of language and linguistics that you would like to explore in your course project?
   • What are some examples from the literature in the area(s) you are interested in that you find particularly interesting? (Note: summarize the aims and main findings of the studies you identified in the previous step.)
   • Do these examples suggest any questions you would like to explore further?

Assessing your progress

1. Reflect on the process of identifying an area of interest.

Some questions to consider:

• What did you learn?
• What did you find most/ least challenging?
• What resources did you consult?
• What questions or concerns do you have at this point?
• What do you need to address in order to move forward?

Submission

1. Prepare a Quarto document that includes your interest statement and your self-assessment. Use the necessary Quarto features to format your document (e.g., headings, lists, links, citations, etc.).
2. Render your document to PDF and submit it to Canvas.