Spring 2016
ICS Research Practicum
CSCI 7412/7422 | EDUC 6506/6516 | LING 7415/7425 | PHIL 7415/7425 | PSYC 7415/7425
Milestone 1

Assigned 1/13/2016
Due 2/3/2016

Our first milestone involves articulating your long term research goals.  Of course, these goals will change over time. But there is still great value in this exercise because (a) it provides you with a narrative when you talk to other researchers, (b) it provides the foundations of a research statement which you will need when applying for jobs, and most importantly, (c) it forces you to step back from the daily grind and look at the larger picture of how your research relates to other work in the field and what contribution it makes; it also provides you with some direction about where you should be headed and on what your time is well spent.

I would like you to write no more than three paragraphs which gives an overview of the area of research you work in and where you hope to make contributions.  There's a fine art to writing these paragraphs. On the one hand, it must be general enough that a broad audience (say, other cognitive scientists, or at least researchers in other subfields of your primary discipline) will understand why what you're doing is important and what it will contribute.  On the other hand, it must be specific enough that your research goals are distinguishable from others' goals within your subfield.

Via email, I'll provide you with some  examples of research statements from our colleagues in cog sci at CU. You can find more examples if you search on the web; many faculty either include these research statements in their CVs or post them on their web pages.  I want you to write what would correspond to the first few paragraphs of a research statement.  (The paragraphs that follow go into more detail about specific projects you've worked on, the results, and your accomplishments.  Those paragraphs are relatively easy to write. They are like abstracts of papers.)

I will send you a link to a google doc where you should upload your statement. After all statements have been uploaded, we'll comment on one another's statements.