This assignment requires you to select a research topic for your upcoming essay, to offer both a guiding question for your research and a provisional thesis for your writing, and to suggest ways that you may use such research in the development of your essay. Given the scope of the
Research Essay (7-10 pages), your proposal must balance the demands of your topic against the constraints of the assignment; you must narrow your topic and your question accordingly. In a sense, this assignment asks you to be reflective about both the processes of writing and research, and to suggest a strategy for completing the assignment. Besides identifying research sources, each assignment must consider how such sources will either be used or be useful to your essay.
Each assignment should contain the following information:
1. A discussion that presents and describes your interest in the topic, explains what you've learned already and what you still hope to learn, and suggests a provisional thesis or a provisional argument that you're beginning to formulate.
2. A list of your research sources (both primary sources and secondary sources), and how you anticipate you will use such research.