Introduction:

For this part of the research project, you just need to submit your rough Introduction section. By rough, I really do mean “unfinished and unpolished.” Per the original assignment:

This section should be a 250 word (minimum) description of your proposed research topic, including your hypothesis. Why is your research important? How does it expand/extend current research? What do you suspect the outcome of your research to be?

See the sample research proposal for a general idea as to how one might go about completing this stage of the assignment.

Methodology

For this part of the research project, you just need to submit your rough Methodology section per the original assignment prompt:

This section will be brief, likely one page only (250 words, perhaps even less), and will detail your approach to this topic. What types of sources will you seek? Why is your approach the most appropriate way to go about your research?

Like with the Introduction section, by rough, I really do mean “unfinished and unpolished.” Your rough Methodology section will include a fairly brief discussion of your specific research plans. This discussion should outline not what you will research but how you will conduct that research.

In my opinion, this is the most exciting part of the research proposal. You can really get creative here, and I hope that some of you will harness the full power of your imagination to craft an ambitious Methodology.

See the sample research proposal for a general idea as to how one might go about completing this stage of the assignment.

Complete Research Proposal Project 

Introduction:

Create a proposal for a piece of original and meaningful research based upon one of the following research prompts. Please note that we are not writing a research paper. We are writing a research proposal.

Prompt options (select only one):

Prompt option #1:

Conduct an in-depth, comprehensive critical analysis featuring—note that there is a difference between “featuring” and “about”—Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and the first episode of Hulu‘s The Handmaid’s Tale, “Offred.”

Prompt option #2:

Conduct an in-depth, comprehensive critical analysis featuring—note that there is a difference between “featuring” and “about”—Shaw’s Pygmalion and the film Pygmalion (1938).

Prompt option #3:

Choose three of our readings from this semester as well as one recent global event of significance (no, it doesn’t have to be COVID-19). Conduct a comprehensive critical analysis using your 3 selected readings as well as at least 7 other sources, ultimately demonstrating how your 3 selected texts clarify or illuminate the recent event about which you are writing.

Requirements (all options):

The proposal project should include the following 3 sections:

1. Introduction: This section should be a 250 word (minimum) description of your proposed research topic, including your hypothesis. Why is your research important? How does it expand/extend current research? What do you suspect the outcome of your research to be?

2. Methodology: This section will be brief, likely one page only (250 words, perhaps even less), and will detail your approach to this topic. What types of sources will you seek? Why is your approach the most appropriate way to go about your research?

3. Annotated works cited: This will be a list of potential sources for your proposed research.

A. Prompt options #1 and #2: The list should be at least 10 sources long, including your major reading and film adaptation (The Handmaid’s Tale novel/episode or Pygmalion play/film). For each entry, you should include a brief paragraph (3+ sentences) summarizing the source and another paragraph (3+ sentences) explaining how you expect the source to be useful to your research.

B. Prompt option #3: The list should be at least 11 sources long. Your 3 selected texts will be among these 11 sources. In other words, you only need to find 8 additional sources, which need not all be from our periodical databases. For each works cited entry, you should include a brief paragraph (3+ sentences) summarizing the source and another paragraph (3+ sentences) explaining how you expect the source to be useful to your research.