1.

Project title

 Writing Essays is Useless: The Significance of Writing for Future Generations

2. Research question(s)

 Why is writing essays and research papers important for future generations?
 In what career fields is writing papers important for?

3. Statement of significance - 1-2 paragraph discussion of the significance of your proposed

research. Why is it important? Why should other researchers care? What is it going to contribute
and/or do that other research hasn't already?

 Many students take an English or writing class where they must write many essays. They
say to each other and sometimes to the teacher, “When are we going to have to write
long essays in our careers?” I was one of those people. As an engineering major, I
thought that my career would consist of mostly math, designing, and building. However,
I have realized that it is extremely important to write down thoughts, ideas, findings, etc.
This way, people I am working with can see my thought processes and information I have
found. In addition, people in the future could refer to information recorded to help
them. It is also extremely important that we write for the future so that we don’t make
the same mistakes. Mistakes are how we learn and the best way to see if we learned is if
we do not make the same mistake twice. I have not seen much writing done about this
specific topic.

4. Research design/description of study - How will you conduct primary research? What will you
actually do? Who will you talk to? How will you analyze, quantify, and/or otherwise make sense
of the data you collect? How many people will you talk to? How many examples will you look
at?

 To do primary research I will mostly send out surveys. In those, I will ask questions like,
“How frequently do you engage in writing activities in your daily life (not counting texts
or small emails)?” and “To what extent do you think writing skills are crucial for success
in the future job market?” These surveys will be sent to as many people as I can reach
online on campus. I will interview 5-10 people who write for a living, such as lawyers and
teachers, to see their view for writing for the future. From the data I collect, I would see
if people ever thought about writing for the future and if they think that it is crucial.