The final project is a take (send) home exam; like an extended problem set or a replication exercise which we will assign. The research paper assignment is different and described in detail on the syllabus and on Gary's website: http://gking.harvard.edu/papers/ As it says on the syllabus, students taking the class through the extension school are assigned to the final project instead of the research paper assignment. So you are not expected to do the research paper assignment. If you want to do the research paper instead you have to get approval, by sending us an email that states what you have in mind for a paper and who your coauthor is. We will decide approvals after we have obtained the first two problem sets. Please notice that a coauthor is required for the paper. (@Keith: this should also answer your previous question) In general we strongly encourage the extension students to do the assignment since we've found that long distance co-authorships are not so easy the first time you do it. Jens From: gov2001-l-bounces at lists.fas.harvard.edu [mailto:gov2001-l-bounces at lists.fas.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Dmitriy Shnypko Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 12:52 AM To: gov2001-l at lists.fas.harvard.edu Subject: [gov2001-l] To professor or TA'a: Final project v. class (research) paper Professor King, Could you clarify what the difference is between the final project and research paper assignments. I am an extension school student who takes the class strictly online. What does the final project consist of? If I choose to stay with the project, does that mean I do not have to do a research paper? Dmitriy Shnypko