ENGL 6120: Introduction to Rhetorical Theory Seminar Project Proposal

As an initial step toward your seminar paper, youll need to put together a brief proposal for your research project. In its most general terms, a research proposal asks researchers to carefully articulate the issue(s) or question(s) they propose to investigate, the relevance of such research, the method they plan to employ, and any difficulties they anticipate. From my own experience, crafting a research proposal is a valuable undertaking because it forces researchers think carefully about their topic, the scope of their inquiry, and the suitability of the data they plan to collect. I strongly encourage you to narrow the topic and scope of your project as much as possible before writing this proposal. Your seminar proposal needs to contain the following material: 1. Rationale: In this section, youll need to discuss the relevance of your project. Think toward answering questions such as why we need the research you are proposing and what motivates your interest in this particular area. 2. Brief discussion of pertinent literature: Here, youll need to provide a brief overview of what three current and pertinent articles, books, or book chapters that address your topic are telling us at this point. Let me help you here, if needed. 3. Research question(s): In this section, youll need to articulate the specific research question you are planning on answering. 4. Data: Here, you need to outline the kinds of data you plan on collecting in order to address your research questions. For example, do you plan on collecting and analyzing texts? Visual images? Conduct interviews? Observation a community in action? A combination of all of the above? 5. Anticipated difficulties: This portion of the proposal asks you to discuss the challenges you foresee in conducting and completing this research and how you plan to address these challenges. Seminar Project proposal due: October 6. Electronic copy to appropriate D2L dropbox.