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Proposal to Write Position Paper*

Length: 2—3 pages, not including works cited page

Points: 100

Research

Requirements: At least four separate sources—scholarly and/or popular—all of which are cited in the proposal

and listed on a works cited page that immediately follows the last page of the proposal itself.

Purposes:

· Verbalize and develop working thesis

· Verbalize and develop preliminary questions and course of investigation

· Begin research in topic area

· Anticipate areas of success and of difficulty

· Provide some time and space to change direction

· Begin more defined and refined interactions with sources

· Refine thesis, supporting ideas, and research techniques

· Organize ideas and materials before actually beginning to write in any extended fashion

· Provide a touchstone—although not rigid—as research and writing progress

In business and academia, requests for proposals (RFPs) vary in what they require from those who wish to submit proposals. For our purposes, we will new 2016 MLA style and include the following in this order (required subheadings are indicated in bold):

1. Working title, on the first page, centered. After this title, begin the proposal, starting on that same first page and continuing from there.

2. Statement of purpose, as the proposal's opening paragraph (s) on the first page, explaining what issue the research hopes to address in what manner, and what the research hopes to show or validate. This section also explicitly shows how the paper centers on an argument—or, in the case of a persuasion paper that persuades but does not argue—why the paper’s readers need to be persuaded. Explicit in the statement of purpose is the thesis.

3. Optional: Explanation of Interest in your topic—deriving from, for example, classes or reading you've completed in this field or personal experience related to the topic.

4. Significance of Research—how your research is important in today's world, and to whom it is important. In this section, identify your potential reader group or groups—that is, your target audience, those with whom you wish to share your findings when the research is complete.

5. What Research Intends to Determine—a numbered list of at least five questions, numbered and related to your topic, you hope to answer as you research the topic.

6. Research Methods—enumeration of a) what kind of research you will conduct (for example, internet, surveys, field); b) what methods you will use (for example, face-to-face, real time, internet, texting, Survey Monkey, “Ask a Librarian”); and c) what kinds of problems you may encounter and how you will deal with them.

7. Works Cited—last section that lists at least four sources summarized, paraphrased, or directly quoted in your proposal to write Position Paper.

*Adapted from:

Sandra Jamieson, "Guidelines for Writing Non-Discipline Specific Research Proposals.” Drew University. 1999. 8 June 2010. Web.