Homework: Draft Paper Introduction and Discussion

Background

The final summative assessment of this course will be based on a paper. You wrote an outline last week. This exercise is here to help you develop its beginning and end further.

Learning Objectives

After this activity, you can write a short design-based paper introduction and discussion/conclusion.

Instructions

  1. Refresh your memory of the final assignment—Individual Final Assignment: Paper.
  2. Also, remind yourself of the CNTRL criteria (cf. Stappers, 2020).
  3. Open the draft manuscript file you created for the outline. Save it as a new version.
  4. Review the feedback you received during the peer feedback session and decide if you need to address it. If so, make a note in the outline of where this should be done and how you plan to do it.
  5. Write the introduction (1000–1500 words).
    • Typically, an introduction begins by setting the scene and introducing the real-world phenomenon we are looking at in the paper.
    • Next, you zoom in and describe a specific problem that is at play in this setting.
    • Then, you state the paper’s aim and how it relates to this problem.
    • In a typical empirical paper, what comes next is a description of your method. Here, that is less of a concern, but you could write how you created a concept design for the problem and that you will use theory to reflect on what the design teaches us about the responsible design of public AI.
    • Next comes a summary of the main findings.
    • Then, you foreshadow the implications of these findings (why are they important?)
    • Finally, you give the reader an overview of the paper’s remainder, which is discussed in each main section.
  6. Write the discussion (750 words) and conclusion (150 words).
    • Typically, a discussion begins by recapping the overall results.
    • Next, you review the findings in light of the theory you are using. How do they add to, fit with, extend, or challenge what we already know?
    • Finally, still in the discussion, you usually reflect on your research’s strengths and weaknesses (so not your design project, but how you have used the project to contribute to what we know about the responsible design of public AI).
    • Finally, the conclusion briefly summarizes the main results in one or two sentences.
    • It also offers a clear take-away message for the reader about the implications of the findings (the “so what” of the research).
    • (Do not introduce any new material in the conclusion!)
  7. Review and revise your draft abstract where needed.
  8. Review and revise your title where needed.

“But my design isn’t finished! And I don’t know my findings yet!”

This is true, of course, so you will have to speculate at this point about the outcomes of your analysis. That’s fine. At least you will have an idea of where you will likely end up, and you can start thinking about what you need to pin down in terms of design and theory to get to the endpoint you have in mind. You can always revise this section later (in fact, you definitely will).

Product

A draft introduction and discussion/conclusion of your paper. (Check your word count!)

Follow-up

Bring a hard copy of your draft manuscript, printed single-sided on A4 sheets of paper, to next week’s class. We will discuss these drafts during next week’s session.