Proposal

Proposal for final paper

By week 5 (Friday, March 14), students should have an idea as to the focus and format of their final papers.  

Requirements :

1)   Proposal. A proposal should include a problem you want to address, your rationale, as well as method you will use to address this problem. Some examples: Are you collecting short forms? Comparing short forms, or short form with a longer work? Close reading? Analyzing a topic in literature? Comparing material or media? More practically, however, a proposal’s purpose is to convince a teacher, advisor, or publisher that the topic is unique and interesting, methods are clear and rigorous, and knowledge adequate enough to proceed with the project.  

2)   Format:  A proposal is like an abstract, yet the final paper has not yet been written. It should be one paragraph that introduces the problem and works as well as your specific method of analysis. Conclude your paragraph with your thoughts on possible conclusions (these are educated guesses, hypotheses that you will test during your research).  

3) The beginning of a bibliography: You should submit 5-6 secondary works that you plan to use for your literature review.  These works should be related to your particular form and offer substantive analyses of your form. These can be peer reviewed articles or books.  

Format of Proposal:

All documents should be TNR, Double Spaced, MLA format

Page 1

Potential Title

 A proposal offers an introduction to your form, method, and reason for completing such a project. This introduction often comes in the form of a question that categorizes the literary artefacts in a unique way or brings together artefacts from otherwise unrelated fields. Your question is your unique approach to the primary texts or artefacts. After you introduce your artefacts, method, and question, you should explain the implications: why is your question more interesting than others? What does your question reveal that other questions do not? What does your question conceal that other questions reveal? Is your question answerable?  

Your proposal should be no more than one (1) or two (2) paragraphs. You should give enough detail to interest the reader but not too much to overwhelm. Since your final paper will offer a brief review of secondary literature, you will only need a bibliography for this proposal. If you are unclear on how to write this proposal, look at the introductions of any anthology or field guide in the library. 

Page 2

Bibliography 

Grading

AA      Excellent, clear and insightful proposal with clear bibliography

BA      Good, Clear Proposal with good bibliography

BB       Clear proposal with inadequate or unfocused bibliography

CB       Start to a proposal with inadequate or unfocused bibliography

CC       “          “                                  “          “

DC      “          “                                  “          “

DD      Something, but less than above