The final task is to investigate a topic of your choosing and write a short report. The topic should connect at least somewhat to our class material. For instance, maybe you want to take something we only had time to mention briefly in class, and "dig a little deeper."

Once you've tentatively decided on a topic, email me a couple of sentences on what it is, and how it connects to the course. I will either approve the choice or make some suggestions for tweaking it.

Here follows some specific guidance concerning your report.

• Write your report with your fellow 536 students in mind as the audience. Consequently, you don't need a lot of review of material covered in the lectures. You can primarily focus on explaining the added content.
• Include some sort of empirical demonstration involving real and/or simulated data.
• Keep it short. I should think you can convey your message in no more than four to five pages (and this includes figures/tables, references, etc.). This is not intended to be a really big undertaking.
• This is *not* a research exercise. The goal is *not* to look into the latest research on a topic. The goal *is* to demonstrate understanding of the topic and communicate this clearly to the audience. Think of writing as you would for a biostatistics textbook, not as you would for a journal article.
• Even more so than with the regular assignment questions, presentation counts! (Please re-read the guidance given for the regular assignment questions, and even `ramp that up' a level!)
• The usual standards of scholarship apply. You need to cite your sources and express ideas in your own voice. Also, the empirical demonstration needs to be devised by you, not taken from a source.

Monday April 27th. (I don't have wiggle room on this, as once the exam period ends, I start to get pestered to submit the final course grades.)