proposal
For this week's Proposal (the first step in our unified, multi-step Research Paper process, consisting also of Short Paper 2: The Annotated Bibliography and the Research Paper itself), you are tasked with the following:
Choose a broad sociopolitical topic, like those listed in Themes for Exploration in Critical Writing and the Research Paper (week 1) then, find a more specific, and singular but complex, question at issue within that broader topic that you are interested in researching and writing about for the next several weeks (a "question at issue") and come up with whatever your argumentative stance is, at the moment, on that question (your "tentative thesis"); then, set up your document in the following format, filling in your choices after each listed element (Topic, Question at Issue, Thesis):
Underneath the title (and other MLA formatting of the page):
Topic:
Question at Issue:
Tentative Thesis:
Following this, compose a long paragraph which: introduces the topic that will be discussed and gives some general information about the question at issue such as "Who does it involve/affect?", "How long has this been an issue?" and "Why is it an issue?"; reiterates your tentative thesis and provides the general reasoning behind your argument, such as "Why do you think that, or why might you believe that is true?"; and answers "What do you hope to gain from researching this topic?"
In the event that you use some "initial" research in your Proposal in order to get a better understanding of something, or find some quick fact, be sure to include in-text citations wherever you are citing a source in the text of the paper as well as works cited citations on a separate page for any sources you use.
See Week 7 Lecture and Introduction to the Research Paper Process lecture notes for further details and tips on how to get started.
Proposals must be a minimum of 300 words and, in addition to possibly containing proper MLA citations, must use proper MLA page formatting where it concerns page numbers, student name, instructor name, class number, date and title. Also, make sure the document is double-spaced between lines.
Submissions must be made in either .doc, .docx, or .pdf format. A rubric has been made available to facilitate your understanding of how the paper will be graded; it is available below.
NOTICE: This assignment will be submitted from Canvas to Vericite, a web-based plagiarism checker that will test your paper against multiple paper repositories as well as the broader internet, so, again, do not cheat! (see the course policy about Academic Honesty and/or the Lake Tahoe Community College standards for student conduct for further information about plagiarism and academic dishonesty).
103 Proposal Rubric Wexelblatt
103 Proposal Rubric Wexelblatt
Criteria
Ratings
Pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
Mechanics
15.0 pts
Excellent
Submission is free of technical and grammatical errors; submission correctly uses MLA in-text citations, and those citations are properly formatted.
10.0 pts
Good
Submission has very few technical and grammatical errors; submission correctly uses MLA in-text citation and those citations are properly formatted.
6.0 pts
Fair
Submission has several technical and grammatical errors; submission either fails to include all necessary citations, or citations are present but incorrectly formatted/missing information.
0.0 pts
Poor
Submission has many technical and grammatical errors; submission fails to include MLA in-text citations.
15.0 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
Components
17.0 pts
Excellent
All required components of the Proposal (paper uses the proper format for topic/question at issue/thesis, contains a long paragraph which introduces and gives background information on the topic and question at issue, reiterates the thesis and presents the author's reasoning behind the thesis and answers what the author hopes to gain from researching this topic ) are present and well constructed.
13.0 pts
Good
All required components of a Proposal are present but are not well constructed.
8.0 pts
Fair
Submission is missing required components of a Proposal, though the components that are present are well constructed.
0.0 pts
Poor
Submission is missing required components and the components that are present are not well constructed.
17.0 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
Insight
18.0 pts
Full Marks
Submission reflects a college level of critical thinking about the chosen subject;
14.0 pts
Good
Submission reflects a college level of critical thinking about the chosen subject;
9.0 pts
Fair
Submission does reflect some critical thinking about the chosen subject but not at a college level;
0.0 pts
Poor
Submission does not reflect critical thinking on the chosen subject.
18.0 pts
Total Points: 50.0
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