P3–Rough Draft Comments

I’ve graded all the rough drafts and left comments for each one.  Here are some comments that apply to many, but not all of the topics.

General Advice

• Structure your paper.
• An introduction stating your overall “thesis” is very helpful
• Think through the balance of introduction to the actual argument of the paper.  Several of you had introductions longer than the argument.
• Use headings and subheadings to make the flow clear.
• Be careful to use quotations and citations.  I’m checking papes in TurnItIn (no problems found so far)

For Those Doing BIM or Software Projects

• Don’t just do the project and include screen shots.
• Analyze what happened
• Draw conclusions
• Make recommendations for those who wish to do something similar.
• A “Protocol” that recommends specific steps in a sequence may be particularly helpful

For Those Writing General Papers

• Use your engineering training.  Several of you wrote papers that sounded like a popular magazine or a high school senior paper. 
• Don’t just rely on what others tell you.  Use what you’ve learned in the courses and think what is actually happening
• Think what are the limits of any tool – they all have them.
• Use your engineering economic analysis to test assertions such as “exorbitantly expensive”