Research Proposal

Due Friday, October 26th

In the Research Question assignment, you began a dialogue with yourself and others about your topic of interest. This enabled you to begin finding relevant information and helped you to craft a research question that can be meaningfully answered with the resources at your disposal. Now you have a revised research question that can organize and direct the rest of your writing, and you’ve developed an initial understanding of the literature being written about your topic. You are now ready to write a formal research proposal. A research proposal is a plan for research that articulates a concise research question, indicates why that question is important and to whom it is important, briefly describes the literature you plan to use for your research, and even suggests possible answers (hypotheses) to your question. Keep in mind that a research proposal is forward-looking and should provide direction for your research.

The proposal should have the following parts:

1. An introduction describing to whom your research is important, ending with the articulation of your question;

2. A middle section suggestion a trajectory of your paper and a plan for proceeding with your research, listing possible sources you will use; and

3. A conclusion in which you articulate possible answers (hypotheses) to your question.

As with the Research Question assignment, The Craft of Research can be helpful here. Remember how the central “formula” there worked:

I am trying to learn about/working on/studying ________________

Because I want to find out who/what/when/where/whether/why/how ______________

In order to help my reader understand how/why/whether _________________.

Guideline: The proposal should be about 1-2 double-spaced pages in length. Please follow the formatting guidelines outlined in the section of your syllabus titled “Guidelines for Typewritten Work.” Please also be sure to cite any sources you use in your essay; consult Easy Access for MLA citation guidelines. Additionally, you will need to include a writer’s memo with this assignment.