Team Project Charter – DH 101

DUE: 11:59pm Tuesday, November 6, 2018.

Purpose:

The project proposal allows you to craft your own roadmap through the rest of the semester by asking you to clarify your goals, research questions, methodological approach, tools, and skills you need to learn. Having a clear objective early on will help you choose which tools and techniques to spend the most time on and decide which documents will be most appropriate for this type of computational analysis. With this charter, you will also be able to address questions of roles and responsibilities within your team early on, avoiding potential conflict down the road.

In addition, your proposal will help me, as an instructor, to plan workshops and discussion questions throughout the remainder of the course that will be the most beneficial. This is a flexible document and may be revised as you learn more and discover new questions you didn’t even know you could ask.

Task:

The project plan consists of at least 2 paragraph descriptions in response to each of the following six prompts:

Project Description: What is your research topic? What questions are you asking? What do you hope to find?
Significance: Why is this project important? Does it make an intervention in the field? Will it reveal new information or new ways of looking at “old” data? Is it a new tool or application of an existing tool to a new question or area of inquiry?
Sources: What documents do you plan to use? Why? Are they already digital or do you need to digitize and OCR them first? What else might you need to do to prepare your texts for analysis?
Audience: Who do you imagine interacting with your project? What needs of theirs does your project address? What questions might they have that your project could answer?
Technical Specifications: What software, tool, or platform are you using? Who built it? Or are you creating your own program or tool? What makes it an appropriate tool for this project?
Brief description of work plan: Who will/might be involved in creating this project? What skills do they need to possess? What will each person do to contribute to the project? In what timeframe? What is the scope of work to be done? If this is a large project, what are the stages of development?
Sustainability: How are you going to maintain this project after production? Who is responsible for it? For how long?

Please format the paper using 12-point font and follow the Chicago/Turabian citation style guide. Submit this paper through CCLE on the date it is due.

Criteria for Success: See the writing rubric below:

WRITING RUBRIC	Exemplary (4.0)	Proficient (3.0)	Emerging (2.0)	Unsatisfactory (1.0)
Thesis or Research Question	The writer formulates an elegant, ambitious argument or question which governs the evidence and analysis throughout.	The thesis / question is clear and arguable, even interesting, and governs the evidence throughout.	The thesis/question is not entirely clear or is not arguable or does not govern the evidence throughout.	The thesis/question is difficult or impossible to identify, and the purpose of the essay is unclear.
Information and Evidence	The writer selects persuasive, interesting, and insightful information to contextualize and inform the argument. Sources are cited appropriately. When necessary, evidence counter to the argument is effectively addressed.	Sufficient and appropriate persuasive information informs and contextualizes the argument. Sources are appropriately cited. Ineffective counter argument.	Information informing and contextualizing the argument is sometimes insufficient or unpersuasive for the argument. Sources are sometimes inappropriately cited. No counter argument.	Information informing and contextualizing the argument is rarely sufficient or persuasive for the argument. Sources are generally inappropriately cited or not cited.
Use of Key Terms	The writer establishes, and defines where necessary, the key terms of the argument. Key terms are used with confidence and sophistication.	Key terms are established and defined. Use of key terms lacks either confidence or sophistication.	Key terms are established but not consistently used or not clearly defined.	Key terms are not established, or they are unclear or inappropriate.
Organization	Excels in organization & representation of ideas. Writing flows smoothly throughout from intro to conclusion. Transitions effectively aid reader in following writer’s logic.	Ideas are logically arranged to present sound scholarly argument.	Ideas & concepts are generally satisfactorily presented, although lapses in logic & organization are apparent.	Content may be poorly focused or the scholarly argument is weak. Overall, the content & organization needs significant revision to represent a critical analysis of the topic.
Grammar	Word choice is appropriate. Sentence structure is correct and clarifies meaning. Essentially error-free in terms of mechanics.	While there may be minor errors, the paper follows normal conventions of spelling and grammar throughout. Errors do not significantly interfere with topic comprehensibility.	Inconsistency and/or errors in syntax and/or grammar result in weak formulation of argument or lead to difficulties in reader understanding.	Frequent errors in spelling, grammar (such as subject/verb agreement & correct tense), sentence structure, and/or other writing conventions make comprehension difficult.