Overview of the Prospectus

500-600 words.

Conducting your initial research starts to reveal prominent issues on a topic and even begins to raise questions about the topic in your mind. As you read, you need to ask yourself what people frequently argue about the topic. You should also begin to look at which of these arguments you find yourself most interested in pursuing this semester. This argument will be the focus of your prospectus.

The prospectus requires you to think in-depth about your research. It requires you to ask tough questions of yourself before you get too far into the research and writing of your paper. The prospectus has four specific parts:

Part 1: Overview of your decision

The opening of your prospectus should state, specifically, why you chose this topic. You should articulate your passion for this area of research. You can discuss personal interest, forethought on academic areas, or just curiosity with your topic. You may want to look back at your interest inventory summaries as a starting point for this area.

Part 2: Examination of Preliminary Research

Next, provide an overview of the research you have read thus far. You will need to synthesize the information. You want to give an overview of the material.  In this instance, you want to make certain you synthesize by stating the topic and connecting each of the sources who discuss the topic. Make certain that you provide a complete overview of all the research you have conducted. For example, you should have sentences like the one below in your examination:

          Boyd, Ellison and Williams all support the idea that a majority of global warming research is based on myth and not fact.

Part 3: Statement of the Research Question and Hypothesis

As you’ve been reading, you have noticed several arguments in the topic. You will want to choose one of these issues as the focus of this research project. Once you have chosen an issue, you need to phrase this as a question. When you do this, you problematize your topic. This is a good habit to develop early in your college career as most of the research papers you write will require you do the same with your topic. After you have problematized your topic, I want you to state your hypothesis about your upcoming research. This is not your thesis statement. This hypothesis is only a statement of what you expect to discover.

Part 4: Works Consulted

The Works Consulted page is a list of the sources you have read thus far, with a minimum of 4 listed. It should be in proper MLA formatting.