What is my objective?
At this mid-way point in the term, I want to check and make sure everyone is up to speed on the major skills learned so far:
• Importing and tidying data
• Transforming, visualizing, and exploring data
• Communicating results
• Basic programming principles
• Debugging and defensive programming
I also want to demonstrate the value of these skills for research that interests you. Therefore in this assignment, I want you to write a short report on a research question of your own interest. Frame it as you would if you were submitting it for a substantive seminar in your research field, though much shorter and comprehensive then a term paper. It should be approximately 750-1000 words in length and showcase the major skills identified above. It does not need to be an advanced statistical analysis involving complex statistical modeling and skills we have not yet learned. The actual analysis can be relative simple – again, think exploratory. Analyzing the distribution of variables and how they are related to one another at a bivariate level is more than adequate.