The Research Proposal

AKA: Prospectus

Purpose

Help you:

• Pull together planning you have already done.

• Identify areas where you need additional planning.

• Convince your advisor that you have the time, resources, ability to do the job.

Audience

• Instructor

• Supervisor

• Funding agency

• Research committee

• A committee of your peers

Parts

1. Title Page

2. Introduction

3. Preliminary Review of Sources

4. Plan to Collect Information

5. Project Timeline

6. Working Bibliography

1. Title Page

To include:

• Working title

• Your name

• Contact information

• Date submitted

Title Page

2. Introduction

• Identify the issue you have chosen.

• State your research question.

• State your tentative thesis (if you have one).

• State your purpose.

• Identify your readers.

3. Preliminary Review of Sources

• A brief overview of key information, ideas, and arguments in the sources you’ve collected so far.

• Identify useful sources and

• Explain why you found them useful.

4. Plan to Collect Information

• A brief description of the types of sources.

• Outline the steps you’ll take to collect them.

• Reference librarians? Library catalogues? Databases? Web sites?

• Field research? Surveys, interviews?

5. A Project Timeline

• Write about your plan, your deadlines, when you expect to have the various stages of your project finished.

• Include a discussion of the potential problems you might have, e.g.,

– Locating/collecting specific types of sources.– Suggest solutions.

Assignment #1.a

Write a Proposal and Working Bibliography (See #1.b)

Draft Due: January 19 and 20, 2015 (Sect. B)

Final Due: January 21 and 22, 2015 (Sect. A)

Include:

1. Title Page (05)

2. Introduction (10)

3. Preliminary Review of Sources (10)

4. Plan to collect Information (10)

5. Project Timeline (05)

6. Working Bibliography (See #1.b) (30)

Total (70)

6. A Working Bibliography

• List the sources you’ve collected to date.

• Use MLA Style sheet.

• A Working Bibliography would be more useful. (See slide after the next.)

• Organize by author’s last name, or category, or outline of your projected paper. Make organization principle clear!

Bibliographyp. 184 Checkmate.

Working Annotated Bibliography

• Provide a brief note about each of the sources listed.

• Gives complete citation information.

• Brief - no more than 2 or 3 sentences.

• Should be useful for this and future research.

For the InstructorPlease not that, while this example is in APA, your

bibliography should be in MLA.

Assignment #1.b

Create a Working Annotated Bibliography

1. Preface your bibliography with a paragraph which identifies the general criteria which you have used to organize it. Be sure to support your choice by explaining the logic of that choice. (10)

2. Include after each entry a one or two sentence annotation which states what you expect to find in that source and how you expect to use that source in your argument. (5 entries @ 2 marks) (10)

3. It is expected that your writing will be free of grammatical and mechanical errors. One mark will be deducted for each error, up to a maximum of 10 marks. (10) 30

For a marks breakdown, go here: http://eduventure.ca/ProposalWorkingBibGradeSht.docx.

References

Buckley, J. Checkmate: A Writing Reference for Canadians. Toronto:

Thompson/Nelson, 2008.

Palmquist, M. The Bedford Researcher. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,

2009.