Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
To do this assignment adequately/well, you should have a good background
knowledge of your topic and the literature related to it. That is, you must have done
your research! This is an academic assignment and should be written
accordingly. For example, do not use first person language, but keep the writing more
formal and analytical.
Length: about 1200 words (5 pages, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font,
1″ margins on all four sides). The title page and annotated bibliography are not
included in this page count, although these pages must also be numbered. Use
headings for each section.
1. Proposal
A proposal sets out the goals, scope and organization of your research paper so that
you can get feedback and assistance. Proposals are helpful in that they allow you to
think through the process of your final research paper with little effort. In the
proposal, you communicate to the reader, in as much detail as possible, the research
question you are interested in and the line of investigation you intend to pursue. The
clearer you make this to the reader, the better the help they can give to you, and the
better your final paper will be.
You must use the following headings to organize your proposal and guide the
reader.
Background
Briefly describe the general topic of the proposed paper and explain why it is a
significant area to research. Describe your topic in detail, so that the reader has a
good idea of what you intend to research and provide some information about why
you chose this topic. Explain what you think you already know about the topic and
try to identify any preconceived notions or biases you may have. The background
section should lead naturally to the research question that will guide your inquiry.
Research Question
The central research question deals with the issue of the topic you have chosen and
the questions you would like to pursue in your paper. It should not be a statement that
describes a phenomenon, but be written to focus on a contradiction, puzzle or
dilemma. The question should be framed as a “why” or “how” question and end
with a question mark! Provide a rationale for the research question based on inquiry
formula assignment you submitted to the skills portfolio.
Discussion
The research question must be posed so that there are several realistic alternative
answers or outcomes to it. These should be outlined. A major purpose of the research
paper is to gather evidence for and against each possible answer. In other words, the
proposal reflects that you have considered evidence that is counter to and challenges
possible answers to your research question. This allows you to weigh and assess the
evidence for and against possible outcomes to finally arrive at an overall assessment
of your research question. Remember to correctly cite all sources using APA
formatting guidelines.
Provide definitions of key concepts arising out of your reading that may be used to
develop your paper. For example, look for theories that explain the phenomenon
under discussion and the perspectives that are used to examine the issues you have
identified.
References
An alphabetical list of all sources you have cited in the body of the paper, formatted
using APA guidelines. The references should be started on a clean page (eg. p. 7);
this is the only information on that page.
2. Annotated bibliography
An annotated bibliography is an alphabetical list of selected academic sources on a
given topic. It indicates to the reader the quality and depth of the reading you have
done in preparation for writing up the results of your inquiry. Creating an annotated
bibliography ensures that you have found adequate scholarly resources, that you have
read your sources carefully and have a good sense of how they relate to your topic.
For this assignment you must use five (5) sources. Each source should be relevant to
the research question. It may not have a direct bearing on your research question, but
there may be key ideas or perspectives that can be applied to your inquiry.
Each entry begins with a citation that provides full bibliographic information,
formatted to conform to APA style guidelines, as set out in the online resources
provided in the content section of the course site. The reference is followed by the
annotation, your summary of the main points of the article. In three (3) sentences,
identify the main argument of each source, the evidence that supports the argument
and the major conclusions arrived at. The relevance of the source to your research
question should be clear from the annotation.
