Capstone Research ProjectPart 2: Working Topic Proposal

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Topic Proposal: Overview

A Paper Proposal is the first step to writing a Research Paper. The purpose of the proposal is to get clearance from the instructor that the topic you have chosen will meet the requirements for the course, and that the topic is a good historical topic.

Topic Proposal: Overview

A research proposal is intended to convince others that you have a worthwhile research project and that you have the competence and the work-plan to complete it. Generally, a research proposal should contain all the key elements involved in the research process and include sufficient information for the readers to evaluate the proposed study.

Topic Proposal: Overview

Regardless of your research area and the methodology you choose, all research proposals must address the following questions: What you plan to accomplish, why you want to do it and how you are going to do it. The proposal should have sufficient information to convince your readers that you have an important research idea, that you have a good grasp of the relevant literature and the major issues, and that your methodology is sound.

Topic Proposal Basic Requirements:

Working Title

List of Primary Texts

Background/Working Thesis

Working Outline

Condensed List of Resources

Requirement 1: Working Title

A working title simply means a title for your term paper that best describes what the term paper is all about. It must be descriptive and crisp. You want to grab your reader’s attention. So, it has to be descriptive and inviting. The reason why it’s called a “working title” is that you may change it, if needed, as you progress through writing your paper and get a better sense of the material.

Requirement 2: List of Primary Sources

You have picked an author, and you should have at least started to read their works. Some of you will have more works than others to choose from, and some of you may choose to focus on a single work, while others may find a common thread within several. How many you list here will be up to you. What you will need for each book is the following:

The author’s full name

The book title (in italics or underlined)

The year of its original publication (check Wikipedia)

Requirement 3: Background/Working

Thesis This section of your proposal will essentially take the statement of intention from your Possible Resources assignment and flesh it out in more detail.

In this two-paragraph section, you need to include the following:

Paragraph 1: introduction to the author’s life (focused on the part that is important specifically to your connection to the book)

Paragraph 2: a short summary of what you intend to discuss in your paper (your ‘argument’). Begin paragraph with “I propose…”

Remember!

The topic you are attempting to address with you paper is finding a connection between the author’s life and his/her work. This can occur several ways:1. A physical event that happens to the author in

his/her life that is included in a similar form in their writing (e.g. author molested as a child – character in book molested)

2. A traumatic event or attitude that presents itself as a bias in an author’s work (e.g. author’s father abandons her as child – book shows negative view towards men)

3. A historic event or intellectual movement occurring at the time of author’s existence/writing (e.g. author grows up in Enlightenment – philosophy used in writing)

Requirement 4: Working Outline

This preliminary outline will be brief, and of course will be subject to change the more information you learn and find out about your author and his/her works. You will have 3 basic parts:

1. Introduction: includes basic context, working thesis

2. Body: should include at least 3 subheadings (1. author’s life, 2. basics about the book, 3. connection between 1 and 2)

3. Conclusion (can be left blank at this point, as conclusion can only gain real substance after the research has been more closely read)

Requirement 5: Resources

We will be spending a couple days at the end of December (the last two weeks of this assignment before the due date) in the library so that you will have time to continue reading your sources, and typing up this part of your project; of course this may be late to do all of the reading of your resources. This means you will want to begin skimming and reading your sources ahead of time – meaning, soon.

Once you have a good handle on what your sources will do, you’ll want to limit down to the 5-7 that actually benefit your research. Include them at the bottom of your topic proposal.

Formatting:

(See samples for help)• Needs to be in MLA format (headings, margins)• Double-spaced• 12 point, standard font• Title centered; Working Title (italicized): Your

title (not italicized)• Do not skip lines anywhere.• Subheadings (“Primary Texts,”

“Background/Working Thesis,” “Working Outline,” and “Resources” need to be italicized and left-justified)

• Indent primary source info, beginnings of paragraphs, outline, and hanging indent for resources

• Resources in alphabetical order