Research Proposal Memo & Discussion
In Paper 3, you learned how to analyze and make conclusions about published sources (the film reviews), synthesize the authors' ideas and evidence into your own writing, and document the support material with Works Cited listings and one form of MLA parenthesis notes. The Research Proposal Memo will give you more practice with these skills and give you an opportunity to make yourself an expert (almost) on the topic for your Formal Report (Paper 5).
This assignment for Paper 4 has two parts:
Part A - Research Proposal
Memo. This memo will propose a topic for your formal report
(Paper 5) and provide details about your intended audience, scope, approach and
research methods. It will also include a documented discussion
of the major issues that affect your topic.
Part B - Written responses to at
least two other students' proposals.
Prepare a memo, addressed to me, that proposes a topic for your formal report (Paper 5), outlines your planning and provides a discussion of current issues. Use these subheads to organize your proposal:
Topic and justification -- Propose your Formal Report topic and justify its relevance. Identify your major field of study or your career goal and explain why you've chosen this topic for your final report.
Audience -- Define and
describe a specific group of readers to whom you will direct your final
report. Be sure you answer these questions about your readers:
1 - Exactly who asked you to do this research? Describe
your audience in as much detail as possible.
2 - Why did they ask for it? Why do they want or need
the information? What is their current level of knowledge on the topic?
3 - How will they use your recommendations? What is the
practical value of the information for these readers? What decision will
they be making on the issue?
4 - How and where will you deliver the report to
them?
Formal report research question -- Provide one sentence that poses the specific question to be answered by Paper 5. It should show the limits of your topic and your persuasive approach.
Thesis -- Based on knowledge you've gained from your background research, write one declarative sentence that you expect will be the "correct" answer to your research question.
Paper 5 preliminary outline -- list the main subtopics you will use to develop and prove your thesis when you write Paper 5. These should be organized around the reasons your thesis is valid.
Discussion -- This section is a short, objective report (500+ words) that provides general background on your topic. It should define the current controversy, show its significance, identify the related issues and summarize the major arguments. This discussion will use and document (with MLA notes) at least three authoritative sources published on the Web. Do not include material from the personal interview here.
Works Cited -- A listing of the sources you used (cited with MLA notes) in the Discussion section. Use the MLA formats in the textbook to prepare each listing. Provide the full URL for all Web sources.
Additional sources
-- You should also list any additional sources (besides those already
listed above) that you will use to develop Paper 5. You should have a
total of at least five Web sources for the final paper;
this can include the sources used in the discussion section. Present the
sources in proper MLA format. Be sure that all your sources are up-to-date
(published in the last one to two years) and that at least four are non-popular, authoritative
sources.
If you plan to use a personal interview
as one of your sources for Paper 5, provide details here (who, when, why,
the person's credentials, etc.).
Once you begin work on the final report (Paper 5), you can make adjustments in your approach, thesis and sources. You cannot, however, change the topic you proposed in the Paper 4 memo. It's important to locate and review your sources now to assure that you can research and develop your topic into a report that will meet all the requirements for Paper 5.
For an example of a well-written proposal memo and discussion, see the sample student memo .
Identify a somewhat original, timely and legitimately controversial issue that affects people in your career field.
"Somewhat original" means a topic that has not been overused by countless students before you. These include capital punishment, gun control, abortion, euthanasia, legalizing drugs, lowering the drinking age and others of similar ilk. If you are uncertain as to whether your issue is overused, ask about it.
"Timely" means an issue that is currently being debated, discussed and/or researched by experts in your field.
"Legitimately controversial" means an issue about which reasonable people might disagree and be able to back up their opinions with facts, examples and logic. It doesn't have to be a highly charged topic that people get red in the face arguing about. In fact, since your purpose in Paper 5 will be to persuade your reader of the merits of your conclusions, these types of emotional issues are precisely the topics you should avoid. No research paper -- no matter how well written, no matter how compelling the factual evidence -- will convince an NRA activist that we should ban handguns, or prompt a Right to Life advocate to embrace abortion rights.
To find a good topic, start by browsing web sites and publications that are directed to people in your career field. Scan the headlines and read current articles to identify issues that are being debated by authorities. It could be the advantages of a new treatment for Alzheimer's Disease, a debate among school psychologists on how to deal with a certain type of learning disability, a proposal to incorporate stress-reduction techniques into training programs for air traffic controllers.
As you investigate possible topics, keep in mind that the purpose of your formal report is to analyze evidence, make a clear conclusion and offer specific recommendations to your defined readers. For any topic you are considering, think carefully about your potential readers and your purpose in writing -- Who wants or needs information on this issue? Why? How will they use the results? What types of conclusions might you come to once you have evaluated all the evidence?
Your reader can be hypothetical, but should be a clearly defined person or group who can derive a practical benefit from the extended research you will be doing for Paper 5. Assume that your readers have asked you to do this research, that you will actually deliver your report to them, and that they will use your findings to make a decision or plan a course of action. Examples of readers who would be appropriate for your formal report include:
Students in your career field
Educators in your career field
Your supervisor at work
An executive or other decision maker in a local business, institution or association
A government official or body (county assessor, state or U.S. Senator, city council, school board, etc.)
Members of a professional association (Champaign County Realtors, Illinois Bar Association, a local trade union)
Patrons or employees of a local business (Ameren IP managers, Health Alliance HMO subscribers, patients of a local dentist)
Members of an activist or special-interest group (Citizens' Utility Board, C-U Tenant Union, ALANON, Illini Cat Club)
Your specific purpose will depend on the readers you choose. Possible purposes and approaches might be:
To identify a problem and propose a solution
To analyze a current issue and make recommendations about how your readers should act
To determine what causes a problem or situation
To propose a change or a new course of action
To evaluate alternatives and recommend a choice
To justify a current practice, proposal or theory
To examine the feasibility of a proposed solution or improvement
Once you've chosen a topic and audience, do background reading to learn all you can about the issues that affect your readers. Try to develop a broad base of knowledge about:
Background and history -- how the issue has developed, why it came to be significant today
The current environment -- recent trends, the types of questions being debated
Who is affected and why
The claims being made by those on different sides of the issue
The consequences if the problem or issue is not addressed
From your reading, narrow down your focus to one issue and phrase your topic as a research question. The question will limit your topic and show your purpose and approach. The answer to that question will be your thesis for Paper 5. Some examples of research questions that deal with topics limited enough for Paper 5 include:
Which therapy has the best outcome for people with spinal-cord injuries?
What tax-planning strategies should young married couples use to take advantage of [ a new tax law ].
Should First Amendment rights apply to the Parkland College Prospectus newspaper?
Why is there such a high employee turnover rate in [department of a local business or institution ] ?
How would political campaign spending limits affect Illinois state elections?
Is the Linux operating system a superior alternative to Windows for [ a local business ]?
What should be included in Illinois' "Patient Bill of Rights" law?
What factors have caused the increase in the number of school-age children who have asthma?
Should [a specific business] institute a system for monitoring employees' emails and web usage?
"Authoritative" sources include recent articles (published in the last year or two) from newspapers and professional magazines and journals. You may also use in-depth articles from popular magazines and Internet sites, subject to your evaluation of their reliability, timeliness and accuracy.
The best starting point for your research is the Parkland Library Research Databases page. This page offers descriptions and links to online archives of articles that were originally published in print magazines, journals and newspapers. These searchable databases are available only by subscription (paid by Parkland) and contain thousands of articles that cannot be found through standard Web searches. Of particular benefit will be Infotrac Web, First Search, Ebscohost, CQ Researcher, Newsbank, Opposing Viewpoints and Jake.
Your purpose in the discussion section of your memo is to provide an overview and analysis of the major issues that affect your readers. This should be an objective, informative discussion that examines all sides of the issue. Do not offer specific evaluations or conclusions about the "pros" and "cons" of your issue here. The persuasive answer to your research question will be the focus of Paper 5.
The Discussion section of this memo must use and fully document (with MLA notes and a Works Cited listing) at least three authoritative and up-to-date (published in the last two years) sources from the Web. The content will depend on the approach and research question you've chosen for Paper 5. A sample outline:
I. Introduction (1 paragraph) -- introduce the main issue, stress the need for investigation, show its relevance to your readers.
II. Current situation (1 paragraph) -- a general overview of the current controversy, recent events that have brought the issue up for debate, why it is significant.
III. Background (1 paragraph) -- a brief history of past events that led to the current controversy.
III. The specific issues being debated (2-4 paragraphs) -- summary of the alternatives or the claims being made by those on different sides of the issue; statistics, facts, examples, research results and experts' opinions that support each side. (This section should be the major portion of your discussion.)
IV. Conclusion (1 paragraph) -- a separate paragraph that re-emphasizes the major issue and its impact on the audience, presents specific questions that need answers, identifies the need for or benefits of further research.
The discussion section of your memo will use in-text citations, which make brief reference to the immediate source, and a Works Cited listing, which is an alphabetized list that identifies the sources you used. You will be using a wider variety of sources and MLA note formats than you used in Paper 3, so it is important that you carefully read the textbook assignment for this project. You'll also find tips in the MLA Citations file under Writing Tools on the course web site.
These materials will help you make decisions about how to present and document each piece of evidence you use from your sources. Note that your decision will usually depend on whether you are presenting a fact or an expert's opinion.
Facts, statistics, research data, references to current events and other informative material should usually be presented in direct language, without naming the source in the text of your sentence. Instead, you'll document the source in an MLA parenthesis note that provides the author's name and page number of the cited material (Brown 32). For a source with no author, the MLA note will refer to first word of the article title ("Government" 2A).
Experts' opinions -- and any other material that you believe is best presented by identifying the source in the text of your sentence -- will be documented in the same way as the film-review citations in Paper 3. Name the source (author and credentials) in the sentence, then provide just a page-number parenthesis note (44).
When you post your proposal memo to the Paper 4 conference folder, read the two papers that were posted just before yours on the message list. These papers will be at the top of the list before you post your paper. Be sure your conference folder is sorted by date and reverse order. If you are the first or second person to post, wait until the next day and read the last papers on the list. You are also encouraged to read other papers in the folder and send additional responses.
Write a well-developed response (1-2 paragraphs) to the author of each of these papers. Offer suggestions for improving the organization and development, clarifying language, correcting the documentation, etc. in Paper 4. If you have any helpful suggestions about the student's proposed topic -- ideas for additions to the outline, Internet sites you've found that deal with the issue, etc. -- provide those in your message, too.
Prepare and send your responses on the same day you post your paper (or the next day). Send each note as a reply to the Paper 4 folder, with a cc: to the author of the report.
After you receive the comments on your report, you may revise or rewrite your paper and memo. If you choose this option, post your revised version to the Paper 4 folder by midnight of the date listed on the Assignments page. Indicate that this is the new, revised version by typing REV or Revised after your last name and assignment number on Subject: line of your message.