Project Proposal [pro]
Purpose
As you commit to a specific path of inquiry for your Final Document, you will want to articulate both to yourself and your instructor what you plan to do for your research. For this document, you will roughly sketch and justify what your plan for completing the Portfolio.
The Proposal not only gives you an guideline to follow as you conduct research throughout the semester; it also gives you the opportunity to get feedback and guidance on the work that you plan to do.
Instructions–Writing
In no more than two single-spaced pages, you will sketch and justify a proposal for the work you will accomplish this semester. A lot of your justification for this document will be an explanation about how your choices will help you answer your research questions. Your proposal should entail:
Your research question(s) What problem are you studying? What questions or questions about specific literacy contexts/practices do you propose to learn about? What do you want to learn about these contexts/practices? Also explain why this inquiry is personally relevant to you. For each question that you pose, you will also want to explain how you intend to answer the question.
Your textual research What sources do you plan to read and annotate for the Progressive Annotated Bibliography? If you have all of the sources already picked out; list them and explain why you chose each one. If you have not chosen your sources, explain how you will search for the sources you will read and annotate. In other words, what indexes or search methods will you use to find these sources? what key words do you plan to use. Again justify these decisions.
Your field research Where will you study specific literacy practices? What methods will you use to collect this data? You will want to justify these decisions. You will develop a more in-depth Research Plan in a later assignment.
Speculation of Audience and Genre Who will you write the final document for? What will this final document be? Justify these decisions. You are not committed to your response here. What you learn from your data collection may prompt you to change your mind. But it is good to start thinking about this aspect of the Final Document now.
Target Dates Start by listing all of the due dates for the major assignments from the calendar. Then list the days that you plan to do certain tasks that fulfill these assignments (e.g., go to the library, hand out questionnaires). While you may not be able to stick to all of the deadlines that you set for yourself, it is good to establish a preliminary plan.
When you compose this document, use block paragraphs, create hierarchies (use headings, subheadings, and so on), bulleted lists and images when appropriate.
Instructions– Portfolio
You do not need to revise this document for the portfolio. Instead, you will reflect upon what you actually did; in your Rhetorical Statement, you will explain both what you did differently in practice and why you made these variations.
Criteria
The first draft of the Project Proposal is due February 17, 2005.
An evaluated copy of the Project Proposal is due with the Portfolio on April 26, 2005.
The first draft will be evaluated as part of your participation grade and will receive two grades for content and convention. The final submission will be part of the portfolio grade.
In addition to the general evaluation criteria, the instructor will be looking for evidence of...
- a sense of audience–will your audience get a good sense of what you plan to do and why you plan to do it?
- a proposed plan that is cohesive? In other words, do you propose appropriate means to address your research questions?
- a project that is viable (capable of being accomplished during the course of the semester), yet engaging (does not seek to prove the obvious).
- your understanding of the project that you are proposing, of the context/practice that you will be studying, and of literacy studies?
- an ability to articulate your knowledge of the course content
- appropriate use of conventions, including MLA or APA citation formatting
last.updated 01.11.05