English 101 Research Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
Instructions:
A good academic research question has these qualities: (1) it interests you, (2) it may interest your audience, (3) it has no easy answer, and (4) it is related to your reading. To formulate a question to guide your research, respond to the following prompts. Your grade for this assignment depends on how clearly and thoroughly you respond to each prompt.
1. For this assignment you may either find an interesting claim made in an article or short story that you read for this class, or I encourage you to find something from outside of class that you are interested in learning more about. This part should be 2-4 sentences. Remember from the syllabus the topics to avoid. (5 points)
2. Explain your interest and acknowledge your readers. This should be 3-6 sentences long. (5 points)
Example: I am interested in this statement because I have always been told that I am supposed to go to college in order to get a good job. I wonder why I should take courses that are unrelated to what I want to do. I think my readers will be interested in this topic because they may also be thinking about the purpose of their education.
3. Formulate a research question (or two or three related questions). (5 points)
Example: What is the purpose of a college education? (Why should people go to college?)
4. Think of at least three possible answers for each research question. You will likely think of more answers once you start doing research for your paper. (10 points)
Example:
1. Most people may think that they go to college in order to be trained for future employment.
2. Others may think that the purpose of a college education is to prepare people to be good citizens.
3. Another reason may be for a person to learn to become independent.
4. Some people may want to explore areas of study so that they can find out what their strengths are and decide what career they would like to pursue.
5. What sources will you consult? Prepare an Annotated List of Works Cited. (The list for your final paper will contain only entries for those you cite.) You need 5 total sources and annotations. For each annotation, provide a very brief summary of the source and how you will use it in your paper. As you prepare this list, be sure that each work is relevant to your research question. Each annotation needs to be 100-150 words in length, grammatically correct, and written in a coherent, unified manner. You may not use quotes in the annotation. THE ENTIRE ANNOTATION MUST BE IN YOUR OWN WORDS. (25 points)
