Project Proposal Guidelines

AmSt 300

The project proposal is due in class on March 22. It should be a typed, formal document. I expect you to include the following in your proposal:

1. A brief description of your topic.
2. Your main research questions (phrased as questions), at least one of which should explicitly refer to a theme of the course (e.g. relating your topic to American identities, cultures, spaces, etc.)

[Note: when developing your questions, think about how and whether your sources can answer them. In other words, there needs to be a relationship between the questions you seek to explore and the sources you are researching.]

3. A detailed list of your sources, in bibliographic form. The more definite and specific you can be about this, the better. It should be apparent to me that you have already done a fair amount of legwork, and have put a lot of thought into how to approach & explore your topic.

Notice that I am not, at this point, asking you to state a thesis. (A topic is not a thesis.) Technically, you should not craft your argument until after you have completed your research and carefully considered all your sources.

Reminder: rough draft due April 5.