Writing your Research Proposal
Calamitous 14th Century
Spring 2015
Please note that it is expected that your project will evolve from this preliminary proposal. Your work here is not set in stone, merely a starting point.
Title of Project:
Give your project a working title, which may or may not become the title of your paper.
Statement of purpose [Research Question]:
State your question or series of questions before you begin your research. Explain what you hope your research will find or show in pursuing those questions. After you have conducted significant research you should be able to answer your question(s) in one or two sentences, which may become the thesis of the final paper. Remember that your thesis should lead to a more informed reading of the class text(s). The primary aim of this paper is a literary analysis of one or both of the texts, informed by extra research. That research can be of literary criticism on the works or on historical and cultural contexts.
Background:
Explain your interest in and experience with this topic. Describe any previous research you have conducted on this or related topics, any classes you have taken on this or related topics, or any reading you have already done in the field.
Significance:
Explain why this topic is worth considering, or why this question or series of questions is worth answering. Answer the following questions: why should your instructor let you select this topic? what do you hope to learn from it? what use might your final research paper have for others in this field?
Description:
Describe the kind of research you will conduct to complete this project (library research, Internet research, which databases or books etc.)
Methodology:
Explain how you will conduct your research in as much detail as possible. Discuss the kinds of sources you hope to consult and the methods you will use to extract and process the information you gather in as much detail as is possible at this stage.
Problems:
Describe the problems you expect to encounter and how you hope to solve them. For example, texts might be unavailable, necessitating travel to other libraries or use of inter-library loan facilities; Internet sites might be down or no longer available, etc. (Try to imagine every possible problem so that you have contingency plans and the project doesn't become derailed.)
Annotated Bibliography (April 10):
Make a list of texts you plan to consult. You will need to use at least two books or six essays or chapters in books, or a combination of the two. If you use alternative media (e. g. blogs), please clear them with me first (there are some excellent blogs by professional medievalists). You may use articles and books that we have read in class for some, but not all, of your texts.. Please work closely with me in selecting your materials.
Your bibliography will evolve as you work on the paper. Many sources initially seem relevant, but turn out not to be, so it is always better to list all sources that might be of interest. As you eliminate sources, cross them off of this list. Mark sources that are particularly useful, and add new sources as you come across them. This will enable you to make a Works Cited list at the end of your project (i.e. a list of only the works you have summarized, paraphrased, or quoted from in the paper.) I recommend that you NOT rely just on JSTOR articles; JSTOR's pool of articles is small compared to the valuable information available in other sources. If you get an early start, there will be time for Interlibrary Loan requests to arrive. The MLA Bibliography, available through the library's electronic resources, is the standard database for articles in literature of all languages.
Note that an annotated bibliography is a bibliography that includes an additional summary and evaluation of each of your sources. That is, you will have read the works on your bibliography and will indicate what ideas you find most useful—as a support or a foil—in developing your paper. For more information on annotated bibliographies, look at this link to OWL: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/
Here's a sample annotation (from a bibliography that I'm compiling on plague writings) that combines a summary with a short assessment:
Friedman, John B.
“’he hath a thousand slayn this pestilence’: the iconography of the plague in
the late middle ages.” Social
Unrest in the Middle Ages, ed. Francis X. Newman. Papers of the Fifteenth Annual Conference Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies.
MRTS, Binghamton, NY, 1986: 75-112.
Good, cautious, very well-researched investigation into
visual representation of plague.
Great plates. He begins by
noting that plague imagery preferred to adapt itself to earlier representations
than to invent new expression—in part because of the ease of using familiar
imagery especially in hand-making books, it was also a custom (old images of
Hercules replaced with Sampson), and they hadn’t yet found an ‘artistic
vocabulary” suited to the new affliction.
Rather than focusing on transi tombs, momento mori and the 3 living and
3 dead—which he finds too generally about death—he concentrates on explicit
plague imagery: images accompanying the Decameron, books of hours, a survey of
medical and moral ideas and their representation (pomanders, saints Roch and
Sebastian), the imagery of arrows.
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