Death and Burial Process Analysis

1. Go to your local funeral home or the funeral home location where you will choose to be buried or cremated. Please set up an appointment. Please do not go when there is a funeral going on. You can go to a funeral home in your home-town and explain your project and get the information needed emailed or mailed to you as well. You can expect to receive a financial sheet itemizing common expenses and burial services. This can be submitted with your project as supplemental information. Put it in the back of your folder so I can see your research.
2. Plan your funeral. Deciding on arrangements such as cremation vs. burial; funeral service vs. memorial service, etc. Plan who will speak at your service and maybe give a eulogy, or will it be open for anyone to tell stories. Where will you be buried or cremated, what will go on your headstone (if you choose to have one), and who will be your pallbearers. Select a theme, music, pictures for display, flowers, sign-in book, casket or urn, headstone, program and anything else special you might want. While gathering information, keep track of the cost of each item. Picture collages work great here. A picture storyboard of your life is also great. Be creative here. The sky is the limit!
3. Itemize your total funeral expenses based on your funeral plan. Make sure to also provide the total cost of your funeral. You can NOT use the financial page from the funeral home here, although you can include the funeral home’s financial guide as supplemental in the back of your project folder. You will need your own itemized financial sheet. There can be a lot more expenses than what is listed on theirs! Your financial expense page should be written similar to a table of contents page. Include all information from your sources in the back of your folder to show me. This is not a group assignment so everyone’s project will be different! After providing a total cost, write a statement about how you will pay for your funeral. You must account financially for everything involved in your arrangements.
4. Write your own obituary. This must be more than four or five sentences long. It needs to have detail. Time, location, or funeral, the family left behind, etc. This is NOT your eulogy, but it is what your family would place in the local newspaper obituary section. If you are unsure what form it should take, your local newspaper prints them every week or you can look at them online. You may go into more detail than the local paper does. (ex. Cause of death, age at death). The sky is the limit with this!
5. Summary and reflection paper This is NOT the obituary! At least an entire 1-page paper double spaced, (starting at the very top of the page), 12 font, with when and/or how you died, (you do not have to put a date at all if you don’t want to or even how it happened), the reason you chose to be buried or cremated, why you chose everything you chose for your funeral/memorial arrangements, and ideas that you used, what you thought about and/or learned from doing the project, and anything else you want to add in the paper portion of the project (maybe you are going to be an organ donor or donate your body to science after the service). Give me details here! Some students write out elaborate stories about their untimely demise. The sky is the limit and you can be as creative as you want. This part can be fiction!! Be creative!
6. Please have a table of contents and headings at the top of each page:
   I. Cover Page – Name, the title of project, class and section, date, and class time
   II. Obituary – Please look at some in the newspaper or online. (about ½ page at least)
   III. Financial Page – Itemized expenses and how the services will be paid
   IV. Summary/Reflection Page – 1-2 page paper including what you learned (must be at least 1complete page)
   V. Pictures of casket, urn, headstone, flowers, clothing, food, location, friends and family, etc.
   VI. A program or anything extra you might want at the funeral or burial site. Music, candles, pictures, or take home keepsakes given, or anything you might want to be displayed on the memory table, etc.
   VII. Any funeral home information you used (should be put in the back of the project)
   VIII. Copy of the Grading Rubric -2 pts if not included
7. Your paper must be put in a folder or very, very small binder with a cover page and a copy of the rubric in it. I am more than willing to look at your progress as you work on it. You may turn the project in as early as you would like, but I will not accept any late papers.

If you have any serious concerns about this project, please talk with me at least 3 weeks before the project is due.

I will hand your project back after they are graded. If you choose to not take it back, your name will be blackened out and your project will be used as an example for other students to view and use as references.