# Writing the Future Work

The Future Work sections has continuing work that a project immediately
following yours would undertake.

Generally, include a few (2-3) topics along three different tiers:

-   *Short term* - immediate parts of the work that would be started,
    such as continuing with development or analysis that was not quite
    completed.

-   *Medium term* - work over a few months that continues the project
    work you started.

-   *Long term* - more extensive work that fits in with the overall
    goals of the project space, but is probably beyond the scope of even
    another whole project.

You do not necessarily need to break them up by tiers, but you can
certainly think of them that way.

For most reports, the Future Work chapter would include a half-dozen
such items total.

For each future idea above, write a short paragraph providing a few
details on what the work entails. A general "formula" for this paragraph
that works well is:

1.  Open with the future work item itself. e.g., "Future work includes
    doing *XYZ*..."

2.  Say *why* that item is interesting. e.g., "Doing *XYZ* would allow
    someone to do or know *ABC* ..."

3.  Briefly sketch out how you would go about tackling this future work
    item yourself, should you have to do so. This is typically brief,
    just a quick sentence or two.

Overall, the future work should *not* make it look like the best and
most interesting parts of the work are yet to come - the project itself
should be viewed as cool and significant (e.g., in the Conclusion
chapter).