Proposal

You're working on a paper using a variety of sources. You'll need to make sure that you take your material from good, reliable sources.

I'd like you to write a brief (5-10 sentence or so) proposal for the project. Email it to me (nelsonj@pluto.dsu.edu) by Wednesday. The proposal should address four things:  What is your question?  What's the significance of the topic?  What materials are available on the topic?  And why should you be the one to do it?  More detail follows.

1. What is the question you hope to answer by doing research?   You should define the question that your research seeks to answer. What is that question? Make sure it's a question that needs analysis or explanation. It's not one of fact: "How many people drop out of high school every year?" Nor one of a simple yes/no type: "Is the dropout rate rising?" It should be something you need to explain and examine: "What causes students to drop out of high school?" 

2.  Why does this question matter?  Why is it significant enough to spend a month working on it?  For some of you, addressing the significance of the question will be fairly simple--you've chosen topics that obviously matter. For others, you'll need to think a bit about what makes your topic significant. Just say what the question is and why the topic matters (and not just to you).

3. Is there material available to answer the question? You'll need to have done your homework to answer this portion of the proposal.  You are learning to use some of the library's resources to find good information.  Tell me about some of the materials that you've found. Be specific. Mention particular articles, where they're from, and what appears to be in them. For now, don't mention any web resources, only those that you find through the library's search tools (Infotrak, for example).  There should be some variety there (articles, newspapers, and books). Mention the range of material that's available, even if you haven't got it all yet. Just answer that basic question in order to make it clear to me that there is material available.

4. Finally, tell why you should do the paper. Why is it a good topic for you? Why are you interested in it? If you've got some personal interest that is driving you to looking into this question, tell me.
It doesn't have to be long, but it does have to be convincing.  Let me know you what you want to do and convince me (by doing some research) that you can find the material you need.  If you have any questions, you can email me at nelsonj@pluto.dsu,edu.