Final Paper: Proposals

SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT WITH INSTRUCTOR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS.

Academic Proposal

An academic proposal outlines a project’s goal and methods to achieve these goals. Unlike an abstract, which summarizes a work that has already been written, a proposal is the first step in producing a research paper, thesis, or major project. More practically, however, a proposal’s purpose is to convince a teacher or advisor that one’s topic is interesting, methods are rigorous, and knowledge adequate enough to proceed with the actual research.

An academic proposal should clearly state your focus (primary texts) and emphasize your theoretical and methodological approach in relation to past and present works in the field. Your proposal will have four primary elements written in prose:

Page 1:

Working Title:

1) A unique question that frames the literary artefact(s). Your question is the beginning of your intervention to the field of literary criticism. Unless you receive specific permission, the artefact should come from the syllabus.

2) Explanation of the implications of that question: why is your question more interesting than others? Is it possible to complete? Is it an answerable question?

3) Question to Problem: how do you plan to answer this question? At this point, you are introducing a method and your question has become a problem to be solved.

4) Method: Your method provides steps for solving the problem. This will be your intervention into the field of literary criticism.

Page 2:

4) Bibliography: A list of works related to your topic. You should have at least 5 but no more than 10 secondary sources to start. You may have to go through several different resources until you find something useful. Your paper will include a review of these works to situate your approach within the established field. Follow the latest Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) guidelines for formatting (citations/bibliography): https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

Format

• Your proposal should be no more than one (1) page.
• You second page will include your bibliography (CMS).
• MS Word document (Double Space, 12 pt., TNR Font, Normal Margins).
• You should give enough detail to interest the reader but not too much to so as to ignore the larger implications. Since your final paper will offer a brief review of secondary literature, you will only need a bibliography for this proposal.