Help On Research Proposals

 This assignment was to help understand what a good, strong research proposal looks like.  We were asked to read and analyze the genre asking ourselves questions.  Some questions were, what was the structure and format of the writing, how was it organized, and what was their word choice and sentence structure?  I found this exercise to be very helpful because the first draft of my proposal was missing a lot of the strong characteristics like the one I analyzed.  I did not have a clear outline of the steps I was going to take in order to help answer my research question.  I made sure to add those in and organize my information in a much smoother way.  If you are ever having trouble starting or organizing a research proposal look up examples for help! 

            I am analyzing the genre titled, The Connection and Interplay Between Literature, Culture, and Physics Around the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Concentrating on American Culture.  This author has some credibility, producing ethos, by listing all of the sources he will be using.  This creates the reader to believe that he has done some prior research on the topic.  The appeal logos is also in this proposal because the topic is a logical question.   Pathos is not very relevant.  There could have been a pathos created if the author explained a love he had for the topic and how they were passionate about the study. 

            The structure is very basic with an introduction on the topic and question being researched, how answering the question will be accomplished, a list of sources, and a discussion on the time length of the study.  It is an organized proposal and does a good job briefly explaining what is going to be done with their study.  The format is also very basic with no subject headings.  Their word choice makes the proposal understandable to easy to read, as well as their sentence style.

            All of the author’s features chosen were very appropriate for the assignment.  Since it is a proposal it needs to be down to the point and understandable.  It was also very important that the author listed their sources to show ethos.  This genre works for the course because we had to make our own research proposal on our study.  It was helpful to read someone else’s as an example.