Write a proposal for your final research paper. Your proposal should be in essay form (maybe 1-3 paragraphs), and it should be no longer than two A4 pages, typed, double-spaced. Explain to me (and to yourself) how you plan to approach the research project. In your proposal, you should discuss, at least, your research objective, why you think your research might be interesting and useful, and the research method(s) you expect to use. You might consider the questions and suggestions below before you start to write your proposal (but you should not try to answer them all in your short proposal, of course!). Your proposal will be graded based on completeness and clarity of presentation (not choice of topic), but I may ask you to write a new proposal if the topic seems inappropriate. This assignment is due on Wednesday, October 11.

Objective/Research Question(s) (see pp. 178-179 in your text)

• What will be the general topic of your research?
• What do you hope to learn by doing research about this topic?
• What will be your specific research question (or questions)? (This may be in the form of an actual question, or it may be a statement of purpose.)

• What do you already know about the topic?
• Why are you interested in doing research about the topic?
• What do you think other people (your readers) would want to know about the topic?
• Why do you think this topic will lead to a good research paper?

• What kinds of print sources (books, magazines, newspapers, etc.) will you look for to learn more about your topic? Why?
• Do you know of any specific books, journals, magazines, etc. that you might consult in your research? (This is not required right now, but you might mention them in your proposal if you already have some specific materials in mind.)
• Will you search for useful material on the World Wide Web? What kinds sites or online articles will you look for? How will you evaluate whether or not that material is reliable and useful for your research?
• Do you plan to include any data from your own field research in your paper (e.g., surveys, interviews, observations, experiments)? (If you do, explain what you plan to do briefly in this proposal. Then, you will need to develop a more detailed plan before you actually begin the research.)

• Of course, this should be a new and original research question for you. Handing in a research paper that is the same or very similar to something you have written for another class would be considered plagiarism and result in a failing grade if I found out about it. That does not mean that it must be a totally new general topic for you, however. You could use prior research as a starting point to write about a different aspect of a topic (i.e., a different research question). If you plan to do that, I expect you to let me know about it in this proposal and show me a copy of your other paper on the topic if possible.
• If you have already found one or more possible sources related to your topic, you may hand those in along with your proposal. You could do that in one of two ways: (a) include a list of bibliographic references on a separate page at the end of your proposal; or (b) attach photocopies or printouts of the actual articles (on A4 paper; please do not hand in the original articles).