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Project Proposal

Your project proposal serves several purposes. Writing the proposal will help you organize your thoughts and decide exactly what you would like to accomplish. While you are working on your project, your proposal will serve as a "road map" that will help keep you focused on your goals. Your proposal also serves as a kind of contract between you and your teacher. Having an agreement in advance on the nature of your project will minimize the chance of misunderstandings later.

You may find as you work on your project that you will not be able to do exactly what you said you would do in your proposal. This is a common occurrence and should not worry you.

Before you begin to write your proposal, you need to follow these steps:

 

  1. Determine your topic: A statement of the question you will try to answer
     
  2. Write a brief discussion of why this is a compelling question
    bulletWhat connection do you have to your topic?
    bulletIs it related to a topic you’ve studied before?
    bulletWhat debatable issues are connected to your topic?
     
  3. Formulate a brief explanation of what information your project might include.
    bulletDo you need to do first hand research (interviews, observations, questionnaires)?
    bulletWhat kinds of secondary sources will you need? What kinds might help give your paper depth?
    bulletIs part of your task to evaluate material, propose a solution, or define a trend?
    bulletWhat will you explore, and/or explain, and/or reflect upon?
    bulletHow might you organize your project?  
     
  4. Formulate research questions and assumptions. Before you start any research project, you need to determine what you already know and what you want to learn. Begin by performing some general reading about your topic to familiarize yourself with what issues are currently being debated. (General interest sources such as newspapers and magazines are good places to start.) Once you've gotten the investigative juices flowing, ask yourself the following: What questions do I hope to answer with my research? What assumptions do I hope to prove or disprove?
     
  5. Establish a working hypothesis. A working hypothesis is a sort of trial thesis; it's your chance to try out an idea and see whether it is supported by your research. Note the word "working"—you may find that your research disproves the hypothesis you've established. That is a common and perfectly acceptable occurrence; at this stage, you're not expected to have all the answers