The Assignment

The maiden voyage of the ‘unsinkable' Titanic left Southhampton, England for New York on April 10th, 1912. The ship, whose passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, collided with an iceberg and sank on April 15, causing the deaths of more than 1500 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in modern history.

When analyzed, the data provided in the file below raises a lot of questions. In this project, you will look at the survival data from this event, and then ask and answer some of these ques- tions. Write a paper that presents your findings, and explain what they mean in the context of the sinking of the Titanic. Any data you reference that does not come from the data that you are provided (such as the size of the ship, or number of lifeboats, or any other such thing) should be properly cited, using endnotes and bibliography according to the Chicago Manual of Style (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools citationguide.html).

You will submit a first draft and use feedback provided by the instructor to revise your draft for the final graded paper.

Survival data in the above file (available on Canvas) was obtained from the British inquiry into the sinking in 1912. It has been cross-checked with figures compiled from the White Star Line's final list of lost and saved, which provides a listing of all passengers classified by sex, point of embarkation, the class in which they travelled and whether or not they survived. The figures from the two sources are in general agreement but there are some minor inconsistencies. These are not sufficiently large to materially affect the conclusions drawn in this project.

Questions to address

You may address the following items in your report in any order. DO NOT write out the prompts and then the answers; instead, the answers need to be provided as part of your narrative. It may be the case that you're interested in more than is outlined below. You are certainly welcome to expand these descriptions for the purpose of answering questions that the data demands of you.

The paper needs to contain some mathematical exposition, so it should include some mathematical calculations (such as calculating percentages, or converting 1912 dollars to today's dollars). How- ever, this is still a paper as you'd write for any history or writing class. Use the Microsoft Equation

Editor to properly typeset your calculations.

This is a good resource for getting started with it:

Your paper should address each of these three topics. Present the data for each topic in an appro- priate format. The data should raise some questions that you can address as you see fit.

Gender: The survival data is given for two categories: "Men." and "Women and Children." Discuss the survival rates for passengers by gender.

Social Status: We see that the status of passengers is one of the categories for survival data; this is listed as first class (two types: either a parlor suite or a berth cabin), second class, and third class. Discuss the survival rates for First Class, Second Class and Third Class passengers, as well as the Crew. For context, what is the equivalent price of each of these tickets in today's dollars?

Nationality: The third class passengers were largely immigrants from Northern Europe heading to New York. Data is given for British, non-British and Irish passengers. What are the survival rates for the three types of third-class immigrant passengers? What might this mean?

Project Specifications

The project specifications are as follows: 1.All papers begin with an introduction.

2. Have a clear write-up that presents your points concisely. This must include an introduction, body and conclusion. The body of the paper should address the topics listed above.

3. Take the relevant data from the Excel spreadsheet and reformat it as needed. Include only the information that was used to make the point(s) in your report. Don't reproduce the entire set of given data - present only that which is useful, and present it where it is relevant to your argument. Label tables (Table 1, Table 1a, etc.) and refer to them directly in your writing to support your arguments. (Example: "The data in Table 2b shows that the cost of groceries has consistently risen while the assistance provided by the food stamp program has remained constant.") Each topic should have its own set of data; don't try to use the same data for more than one topic.

4. Provide at least three types of graphic representation, chosen appropriately. Label graphs and charts (Figure 3, etc.) and refer to them directly in your writing to support your argu- ments. (Example: "The line graph in Figure 17 shows that the number of people receiving food stamps has increased constantly since 2001.") Include tables, graphs and charts in the appropriate place in your document; don't tack them to the end of the file.

5. Remember that in order to compare prices across time we need to use the CPI. One CPI table that goes back to 1912 can be found here:

http://www.multpl.com/cpi/table.

6. Within your write-up, highlight quantitatively and graphically the data you use to support your arguments. This means that within your paper you make specific reference to these items.

7. Clearly and concisely summarize your arguments and support in your conclusion.