The final project for class is a group project. It should, in the most general sense, explore in-depth an issue or problem in negotiation that interests you. As a starting point, you should be able to say what your point of departure is.
Notice the key phrase is, "I'm interested in."
The second step is to restate this as a question that allows you to explore the topic. If you're interested in lying, you might ask, "Do people lie when asked directly about information they have?" In a previous year a group asked, "What was the interplay between domestic and international negotiations preceding the first Gulf War?" Another explored an interest in fairness by looking at the questions, "How do members of this living group negotiate the assignment of rooms?" A group that was interested in emotion asked, "Do people negotiate the same issues differently when they are angry?"
Notice that this question provides a bridge to the "data" you'll analyze. This could be a case, a set of negotiations you observe, a set of interviews, or something you participate in yourself. So you've got to identify or generate some data and then analyze with respect to your question about negotiation.
Finally, you should relate it back to the kinds of issues we've been talking about in class. How does your analysis inform the way you approach negotiation?
In the past, good papers have been in the neighborhood of 20 pages. This is a general guideline and the length will vary depending on what your topic is and how you present it. It's hard to imagine a ten-page paper going into enough depth and a thirty-page paper is likely to be too long.
Once you start to identify a group, schedule a meeting with me and we can talk through your topic to make sure you are on the right track. We should have a first meeting sometime soon after the break.