Research paper proposal

Description

Topic: The American government – Its Principles, history, and the people who designed it.

For the topic I will let you choose a topic based on the principles discussed in class. Such a type of paper should discuss the major principles of the American government, such as the rule of law, democracy, representative government, limited government, federalism and the consent of the governed. Please choose a topic in the realm of what I have described above to use in composing your research paper.

As part of the Research Paper assignment for this course, students will be required to compose and submit a Research Paper Proposal. This Proposal, in addition to a title page containing the student’s name, course and section number, and date – and of course, a title for the project, will consist of the following information:

A brief description of the chosen paper topic – a thesis statement, in a brief paragraph.

A short (1 to 2 paragraph) description of how the student intends to structure the paper.

A listing (in outline form) of the supporting arguments and sub-arguments that are intended to support the thesis.

A bibliography listing at least some of the sources the student intends to use for researching the paper – the final paper must include at least five accepted sources.

Note that this information does not need to be complete, or a “final version” for the proposal – a major reason for doing a project like this is to learn more about it as you work on it. But you do need to present me with sufficient material to show me you understand the topic and the sources available for it. The paper is a work in progress, so it is expected to evolve to some degree while being worked on.

This proposal will be worth 100 points. Note that it is possible to change topics after submitting the proposal, but if the topic change is a major one, you will need to submit another proposal for the new topic. This proposal should be considered a working document, and the final paper need not conform exactly to what was set forth in the proposal. If a student obtains additional information that requires modifying part of the thesis or supporting arguments, that process is part of the nature of academic writing. But don’t push this concept too far – a paper that starts as a study of the Declaration of Independence should not “evolve” into a biography of Ben Franklin. That would be considered a change of topic, and require a new proposal.
I may, when grading your proposal, ask you to rework it in some way – the most likely reason for such a request is to narrow the focus of an overly broad topic, although it is sometimes also necessary if a student selects a topic that doesn’t fit within the subject area / time frame of the course. If it is necessary for me to ask you to revise the proposal, I will say so in the Instructor Comments section of the grade book, and give the proposal a temporary grade of 0 until the revised proposal has been received. When the revised proposal is submitted, within the deadline I set, I will grade the new proposal with no penalty for the late submission – as long as the revised proposal is submitted promptly. This process may be repeated a number of times if necessary. I want students to pick a relatively small, manageable topic – 1000 words does not lend itself to large subject matters. If you have any questions about topics or the proposal, ask.

In order to demonstrate what the instructor is looking for, a generic sample of a Research Paper Proposal is provided below. Your outline need not be as detailed as this, but the more detail you are able to put into the outline, the easier it will be to write the paper from it.

Important note: A paper submitted without a previously approved and graded proposal will be given a grade of zero! This is a very important thing to keep in mind. The proposal itself is a fairly easy assignment, and is intended to get you thinking about the topic and beginning the research for it. It is also a device for me to make sure you haven’t picked a topic that is far too broad, or way off the course subject matter.

So if you might feel tempted to skip the proposal, because it is a fairly small assignment, and you know what you are doing already – don’t! Likewise, if I ask you to revise the proposal, don’t wait until the week before the paper is due to submit the proposal – you may be in for a shock if the revised proposal is still not acceptable. Without an approved and graded proposal, you won’t get any grade for your paper either, and the loss of those two assignments, combined, means a D is the absolute best you can do for a course grade.

If you have any questions about either the proposal or the paper itself, please ask – that is what I’m here for. Below you will find an example of a proposal.