Scoping and Writing a Thesis-Scale Project · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.

Scoping a project you can actually finish

Computing · Software Engineering · ages 23-24
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. What is the fallback result?

    • The most ambitious dream
    • The smallest real result
    • The longest chapter

  2. What should you turn a broad interest into?

    • One question with a falsifiable answer and a stated scope
    • A longer list of interests
    • A promise of a breakthrough

  3. Most year-long projects fail on difficulty rather than scope.

    Circle one:   True   False

  4. The ambitious part fails. What saves the year?

    • The smallest result stands alone
    • A new ambitious part invented in panic
    • A longer introduction

  5. Apply the lesson: which is a well-narrowed question?

    • Whether recommenders will ever be perfect
    • Everything about ranking, everywhere, forever
    • Whether one ranking change lifts one measure on one dataset in a year

  6. A reader cannot find your claim. What went wrong?

    • The claim was too true to state
    • Not structured for a stranger
    • Readers should have been there

  7. A plan lists the ambitious goal with no fallback. What is missing?

    • The smallest result worth writing and what it depends on
    • More ambition and more adjectives
    • A promise that nothing will fail

  8. Two candidate questions: one answerable either way in a year, one huge and open-ended. Which do you pick, and why?

    • The huge one: bigger is always better
    • Neither: questions do not matter
    • The first: both answers count
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Scoping a project you can actually finish W1-mt_Y46uRENRVf-s1

  1. The smallest real result · The fallback is the minimum real outcome.
  2. One question with a falsifiable answer and a stated scope · Narrow the interest into one answerable question.
  3. False · Scope sinks more projects than difficulty does.
  4. The smallest result stands alone · The fallback never depended on the gamble.
  5. Whether one ranking change lifts one measure on one dataset in a year · One change, one measure, one dataset, one year.
  6. Not structured for a stranger · Claim, method, and evidence must each be easy to find.
  7. The smallest result worth writing and what it depends on · Every plan needs its floor stated.
  8. The first: both answers count · Pick the question the year can settle either way.
Worksheet · LightMySky