1. Steps toward writing up your project
Toward a Paper
Steps toward writing up your project

2. First Step: A Topic Something interesting
Something that looks like community
Something related to community
Something that will sustain your interest for fifteen weeks
Something that other people (experts, notably, community scholars) might find interesting

3. Step Two: A Question What do want to know?
What is the purpose of your research?
How will know when you are finished?
You need to move from topic to question before you can take advantage of theory or data
Because theory and data are only useful in explanation or interpretation

4. Step Three: A Literature
What do the experts have to say
About my topic?
About my question?
Do the required reading help?
Can I find any scholarly analysis?
Are there organizational records or persons I can interview?
Maps and photos?

5. Step Five: Organizing Knowing when to stop looking for new material
Knowing how to focus
This is where questions help
This is where it helps to limit attention to
Time and Place
Actors and Actions
Specific problems or lessons to be learned

6. Step Six: Looking for Models
Readings are good model for community studies: use multiple methods
Demographic/archival (DuBois, Lynds, and Walton)
Participant Observation: (DuBois, Lynds, and Whyte)
Survey/interview (Lynds and Morris)
Critical reading of competing narratives (DuBois, Morris, Walton)