Writing the Project

Proposal
Pre-requisite: Reading and Textual Analysis
Scope and Purpose: State clearly the purposes, main arguments, and conclusions
of the paper. Explain why you have chosen a particular theoretical framework, as
well as your choice of an author or authors, and how you reached a decision about
which primary texts to include.

Thesis: How does your work present new concepts or interpretations that make a
contribution to the field in which you are working? Present your thesis statement
explicitly.

Scholarship: Provide a narrative survey of the relevant publications (books and

journal essays) in your broad field. This includes publications about your particular
author or authors, the genre in which you are working (tragedy, short story,
autobiography, etc.), and the area (feminism, postmodernism, Native American
Literature, etc.). Indicate the dominant ideas and trends in this scholarship and
indicate how your work will join in this scholarly conversation.

Bibliography: Include a full listing (formatted according to the departmental Style

Sheet) of all the sources, both primary and secondary, that you have consulted.
Length: the attestation paper should be between 10 and 12 pages in length.
Scope and Purpose:

State clearly the purposes, main arguments, and

conclusions of the paper.
= Research Question

Explain why you have chosen a particular theoretical

framework = Method
as well as your choice of an author or authors, and how
you reached a decision about which primary texts to
include = Textual Corpus

Dynamic relationship with Textual Analysis and

Scholarship
Thesis:

Your response to your research question: How will

that question be answered?
- a definite and limited assertion that needs to be
explained and supported by further evidence

How does your work present new concepts or

interpretations that make a contribution to the field
in which you are working?
Present your thesis statement explicitly.
Scholarship: What responses to your research question
have already been offered?

A narrative survey of the relevant publications in your broad

field. This includes publications about your particular author
or authors, the genre in which you are working, and the
area.

Indicate the dominant ideas and trends in this scholarship

and indicate how your work will join in this scholarly
conversation.

Dynamic relationship with Textual Analysis and

Research Question => bibliography
Bibliography: documentation of your evidence

Include a full listing (formatted according to the

departmental Style Sheet) of all the sources, both primary
and secondary, that you have consulted.

Texts relevant to the Research Question and

Problematic in the widest sense:
- author - genre
- literary domain - theoretical approach
Sequence:

Primary Reading and Textual Analysis

Provisional problematic & research question
Bibliographical search
Secondary Reading (scholarship)
Evaluation of sources in relation to textual analysis
Refinement of problematic and research question
Return to primary text(s)
Formulation of thesis statement and method
Outline of the essay's logical structure
WRITING and REVISION: both of which will demand that
you return to some of the above steps (especially the
outline)
Proof-reading!!
Logical Structure: ESSAY

Introduction: problematic, thesis (A), method

Topic 1: section thesis statement
Topic 1a: topic sentence
Topic 1ai: evidence
Topic 1b: topic sentence
Topic 1bi: evidence

Topic 2: section thesis statement

Topic 2a: topic sentence
Topic 2ai: evidence
Topic 2b: topic sentence
Topic 2bi: evidence
Etc. ...
Conclusion: return to primary problematic/question, in the context of
the evidence (analysis and argumentation) that has been presented
Logical Structure: MEMOIRE

Chp 1: Mémoire Introduction: problematic, thesis, method

Chp 2: Topic 1: Chapter Introduction: thesis statement

Topic 1A: section topic sentence
Topic 1Ai: paragraph topic sentence
Topic 1Aii: evidence
Topic 1Aiii: evidence
Topic 1B: section topic sentence
Topic 1Bi: paragraph topic sentence
Topic 1Bii: evidence
Topic 1Biii: evidence
Topic 1C: section topic sentence … etc.
Topic 1: chapter conclusion
Chapter 3: as for chapter 2 above
Chp 5: Mémoire Conclusion: return to primary problematic