Research Proposal

In the final project for this course you will create a 6-8 page
Research Proposal for a longer paper you will write in a different
class. Your research project must have a clearly defined original
thesis that answers a significant research question with potential
to advance knowledge in the humanities. In other words, you will
need to go beyond what others have written. Build on what other
scholars have written, and use their research to support your own
viewpoint.
Your research proposal should include an explanation of your
topic, an overview of what other scholars have already written
about the topic, a preliminary statement of your own original
thesis about the topic, and a brief outline of the reasons and
evidence you plan to give in support of your thesis. You should
follow the following outline.
• Revised paper topic from the Week 2 Assignment (1-2
pages).
Follow the same format from Week 2: “I am studying
_____ because I want to find out _____ so that my
reader can better understand _____”. Don’t forget to
also explain what problem you are trying to solve and
what the consequence of not answering your research
question would be, along with any potential practical
applications of answering the question.
Be sure to revise your topic based on the feedback you
received from your Instructor and your classmates.
Remember that your topic must be in a humanities
field. You may use social science to supplement your
research, but you must primarily approach your topic
from the perspective of one or more humanities
disciplines. (See the Week 2 Introduction for more
information on the humanities.)
• Review of Current Scholarship (3-4 pages).
Give your evaluation of the current scholarship about
your topic, and justify how your research will attempt to
advance human knowledge about the topic beyond
what others have previously written about it.
Drawing on your Annotated Bibliography assignment
from Week 3, evaluate what other scholars have said
about your topic. You may need to summarize some of
your sources, but don’t simply summarize your sources
one-by-one like you did in your Annotated Bibliography.
Rather take a step back and look at the big picture. You
should think about the following sorts of questions and
address any that seem relevant to your topic. (You
don’t need to answer all of these questions. Only
address those that seem relevant to your specific
case.) Are there certain themes you see recurring
throughout your sources? Do these themes seem to be
trending in a certain direction over time as you compare
older and newer sources? Is there an emerging
consensus toward which most scholars seem to be
pointing, or are there two or more schools of thought
that seem to reflect divisions in the scholarly
community’s ideas about the topic? Are there aspects
of the topic that have not been adequately addressed
by previous scholars, either because these aspects
have been misunderstood or ignored entirely? Are
there problematic assumptions that most scholars make
when addressing this topic? Are there older ideas that
seem to have been forgotten by newer scholars, which
you think might be helpful in solving current problems?
How will your research help us understand the topic in
new ways? What will you do differently than previous
scholars have done? Etc.
Note that this section is similar to what’s called a
“literature review”. For more guidance on how a
literature review differs from an annotated bibliography,
consult the Writing Center handout (Links to an
external site.)
here https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/annotatedbibliography. The overall purpose of this section is to
show how your research fits into the larger conversation
that scholars have had about your topic. See this
Writing Center handout (Links to an external site.)
: https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/entering-conversation
• Thesis and outline (2-3 pages).
Building off your workshop discussion from Week 4,
state your overall thesis (i.e., the main claim that
answers your research question) and summarize the
argument you will use to support this claim. Outline all
aspects of your argument, including each claim and
sub-claim, along with each claim’s reasons, warrant,
evidence, and response to alternative viewpoints (p.
117-118).
You only need about one sentence for each claim or
reason. Remember that you are not writing your whole
paper yet. You are just giving an outline. You will
explain all the details and provide documentation of the
evidence in the final paper, which you will write in LIB
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