Final Version Project Proposal

Project Proposal

(This is for the group project, but each person will submit their own proposal paper.) 

• Length: 1250 to 1600 words, including Annotated Bibliography

Assignment Overview

The purpose of the assignment is to give me a researched, in-depth description of your topic and provide a blueprint of where you anticipate your work will take you in the coming weeks. It will be written in the form of a Memo, detailing your current research and findings, discussing your primary, secondary and tertiary audiences, considering your strategies for assessing the topic and the challenges you expect to face, and previewing the research you expect to conduct.

Requirements

You’ll want to begin by reviewing the proposal information in our readings

Your document will be composed of the following parts:

• Description of the problem/opportunity in detail (250-500 words). Begin with an introductory paragraph that captures your reader’s attention, and answers this question:

What is important about this topic? Your research should be documented with cited evidence; I’m not looking for anecdotes but for proof this is a problem that goes beyond your personal involvement.

• Description of Audiences: Names, job titles, responsibilities, relationship to the problem,what makes them appropriate primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences for your Final Project (250+ words). You’ll want to consider how they’ll benefit from your solutions.

This section should be particularly detailed, as understanding your audience is a key aspect to understanding your project.

• Description of Project/Research (500+ words): a description of the research you will be undertaking and the questions you will be answering. If your goal is to write a manual or produce another product (such as a website), you need to be specific about why such a product is needed and what additional research you plan to do to prove your contention.

• Sources: A properly formatted list of at least ten that will serve as your Working Bibliography (1 page). Please submit an annotated bibliography. 

Audience

As your audience, I am looking for evidence that you have put significant effort into considering and researching your topic and can clearly explain the problem as well as predict your coming work in a successful and effective manner.

Citations

You are required to provide ten credible sources, listed on a separate Working Bibliography.

You may use online sources; however, Wikipedia and other dictionaries or encyclopedias are not appropriate for this assignment and may not be used. Newspaper articles, journal pieces,magazine columns, books, projects, proposals, formal recommendations, surveys, and personal interviews are all considered acceptable sources. However, you should look for primary sources: while a newspaper report about a study may serve as an introduction for you, you will need to consult the actual study for your final project. As this is a working bibliography, I expect that many of your sources may change between now and the end of the semester, but it will indicate where your research is headed.

Key points to keep in mind:

• In-text citations and the Working Bibliography page must follow the format used in the field in which you are working; you will need to provide me a style sheet for this format if it is other than MLA or APA.

• You’ll be graded not only Content (here, the thinking, planning, and research completed on your topic), but on Style issues (organization, grammar, clarity, readability, and cohesiveness). Pay attention to errors identified on previous assignments and don’t make these same mistakes.

 Please submit a printed version of your assignment on Thursday, October 13. Failure to do so will result in 5 points being deducted from your proposal grade. As always, there is a ten point per day reduction in your grade for any late submissions.