LIBS 4900 Research Project Topic Proposal
The topic proposal is your written commitment to me to a specific focus of research this term.
Choosing an appropriate subject is a critical step in the success of your research project. It can be also one of the more difficult steps, so plan to allot a few days to consider ideas, investigate availability of relevant materials, and get feedback from the professor and librarians as you begin any research assignment.
You can make contact now with a research librarian at the JWU library. See Jean Moats or Valerie Freeman.
As explained in class, your topic must engage with one or more of the course questions (What is truth? What is virtue? What is freedom? What is justice?), several of the course readings, and approach the subject in an across curricular manner (engage history, economics, sociology, psychology, literature, film, etc.).
After you have completed some preliminary exploring and thinking by browsing explored some databases, the web, and some books and journals, it is time to commit to the topic that you plan to work with for your research project.
Keep in mind that you may not use sources from the World Wide Web in your paper.
Your proposal for the Academic Research Paper should be FIVE WELL-DEVELOPED paragraphs (450-600 words long) and respond to the following items (roughly a paragraph or so for each item):
Paragraph 1: Introduce your topic (provide background), and then present it in question form (this is your tentative research question). First, explain how you developed this question from our course readings, our class discussions, as well as content of other courses you have taken at JWU and your own personal interests. Then in ONE SENTENCE, present the question that you'd like to explore in your research.
NOTE: You are not expected to know the answer. The purpose of the project is to explore all of the possible answers and arrive at some conclusions. This question will be initially formed based on the knowledge you possess before you formally begin the project. It will, however, change and evolve as you read through your research material.
Paragraph 2: Explain why the topic is interesting/compelling to you and why you wish to explore possible answers to your research question. What excites you about the possible answers?
Paragraph 3: Describe what you already know about the topic.
Paragraph 4: Describe what more you think you need to learn and why.
Paragraph 5: Explain where you plan to find your information. Name specific databases where you plan to look. REMINDER: You cannot use any source found on the World Wide Web, only academic and scholarly sources found in a physical library or a library database.
Be sure that your proposal is typed, double-spaced, & Times New Roman Font, 12 point.
The completed proposal must be submitted to Blackboard by the due date listed on the course schedule.
