Guidelines for the Research Topic Proposal
DUE: Wednesday, March 19 (at the beginning of class!)
Your individual research project for this course is a series of writing assignments that lead up to a 5-8 page research paper: a research topic proposal, an annotated bibliography, an outline, a draft of the paper, and the final paper.
For your research topic proposal (worth 5% of your total course grade):
- Choose a research topic that is both: 1) relevant to the course content, and 2) interesting to you. Your topic may be something we have already discussed in class, or it may be on a subject we will discuss in the coming weeks.
- In your paper I will ask you to use a variety of different sources on your topic, including:
◦ at least one news source
◦ at least one internet source
◦ at least one scholarly source
It’s best if you choose a topic that is discussed in both academic and popular sources—please ask me if you are unsure about your sources.
- Write a proposal presenting your paper topic. Your proposal must include your research question.
- Your proposal must be at least 100 words, though of course it may be longer.
- Please give considerable thought to whether your topic is focused enough to write about in 5-8 pages. We will also spend time in class discussing how to narrow your focus and decide upon a manageable research topic.
- Please either: a) type up your research proposal as a word processing document and email it to me or, b) print it out and bring it to class.
- Please submit the proposal as a word-processed document in 12-point font with 1” margins.
- I’ll take a look at your topics and give you feedback fairly quickly. It’s possible that your topic may need to be further refined, and I can meet with you or discuss over email.
- Your annotated bibliography is due on Monday, March 26 and your paper outline is due on Monday, April 2
As always, please ask me if you have any questions!
Grading chart for your proposal:
| Insufficient (0 points) | Developing (1-2 points) | Competent (3-4 points) | Excellent (5 points) |
| The research topic is not relevant to the content of the course. | – | – | The research topic is relevant to the content of the course. |
| The proposal lacks a main topic and a research question or problem.The proposal is unfocused and unclear. | An appropriate topic has been selected; however, the proposal does not include a research question or problem.The proposal is unfocused and unclear. | An appropriate topic has been selected and a research question or problem is included.The proposal is somewhat unfocused and unclear. | An appropriate topic has been selected, and a research question or problem is considered reflectively.The proposal is clearly presented and fully focused. |
| The proposal is less than 100 words in length. | – | – | The proposal is 100 words (or more) in length. |
| All sentences are grammatically incorrect. | Most sentences are grammatically incorrect. | Some sentences are grammatically incorrect. | All or almost all sentences are grammatically correct. |
| All sentences have errors in punctuation, spelling, or capitalization. | Most sentences have errors in punctuation, spelling, or capitalization. | Some sentences have errors in punctuation, spelling, or capitalization. | All or almost all sentences are free of punctuation, spelling, or capitalization errors. |
