The research proposal provides a space for you to share the reasons why you want to study your chosen topic and helps you determine the parameters of your future writing project, including your research question(s), rationale, summary, predictions, list of reviewed sources, and a strategy for next steps. This assignment serves two purposes: it provides a blueprint–or a working plan–for your future essay, and it helps you to establish topical boundaries, as you begin to narrow your research focus.
Expectations
The research proposal aims to develop your ability to navigate a complex research and review process. This assignment will help you to:
Collect and organize source material
Practice MLA formatting
Organize your ideas coherently and concisely
Synthesize your own ideas with the ideas from sources
Practice presenting information to readers in manageable chunks
Engage in self-reflection and planning processes
Requirements
This assignment requires 7 fully developed and supported sections, as outlined in Organization. The minimum word count is 650 words total.
*If the above requirements are not met, your assignment may be returned with no grade and a resubmission will be required.
Length/Sources: You should include the 5 sources that you collected for your annotated bibliography and list them in section 6 of the research proposal. For this assignment only: you do not need to worry about including a hanging indent for your reference citations. However, please plan to use MLA formatting for the order and structure of the citations.
