The proposal is an opportunity to express your plan for essay, specifically in terms of your topic choice, potential thesis and support, and initial research. Please follow the guidelines established in the assignment handout and review the student example for support:
5pts for Part I of Proposal – short paragraph on Topic (7-10 sentences), a ‘working’ thesis (1-2 sentences that present your main purpose as a researcher-> goal for what you hope is done about this issue), and a short paragraph exploring Supporting Points (7-10 sentences presenting specific ideas related to history/BG, ’causes’ and/or ‘proof’, effects, and ‘solutions’).
5pts for Part II of Proposal – 5 properly created annotated bibliography entries of potential resources for essay (this can be used on your final Annotated Bib assignment).
This assignment asks for you to maintain and submit an Annotated Bibliography of 15 sources you ‘consulted’ while doing research. While the final draft of the research essay only requires 6 sources be used, a good researcher will consult many more source than they will ultimately use. Maintaining an annotated bibliography during research will also help you stay organized and prepared to plan and execute your draft. It is smart to get this assignment going right away (you kind of have to with the proposal assignment). It becomes much more challenging if you fall behind on it. You may use the 5 sources from your proposal in here, and it is not expected that each source be used in your essay itself.
Each of the 15 entries should include the following items in this order and following the format presented in the handout above:
- Works Cited Entry
- Short Summary of Source Contents (7-10 sentence overview of the source)
- Brief Analysis of Usefulness (7-10 sentence explanation of ‘how you might use this source in your research’/what you see as potential valuable about the source).
