Topic Proposals (Eng. 100 Argumentative)

As you continue on in the academic world, 300, 400, 500, and graduate-level courses will ask you to do several types of preparatory assignments prior to a major research paper. The longer the paper, the more detailed the topic proposal should ideally be. The types of these preparatory assignments are as follows: a topic proposal, a literature review, the precis and an annotated bibliography. Since the last three are relative to extensive research, say a twenty to thirty page research paper or beyond, I'd rather focus our attention to the art of the topic proposal.

Topic Proposal

The topic proposal's main goal is to lay out a game plan for an essay. Its main goal is to ideally fixate upon a stable theme or point, often in the form of the thesis statement. In general, here are some basic guidelines related to topic proposals:

Your proposal should answer the following questions thoroughly:

1. What is your thesis or research question (the thing about your topic you want to find out).? Your topic must be opinionated and well-phrased and formulated, rather than a petty observation about your topic: "The State of Hawaii needs to do more about littering" (poor thesis) versus "The State of Hawaii should do a better job of enforcing littering penalties, especially near state landmarks or historical sites." (a bit better)
2. How do you plan on supporting this thesis/research question? This question doesn't really focus on the sources you will use, but it is a question of the techniques, types of paragraphs, style you plan on employing. It's like an analysis of your analytical style. You can briefly outline your paper here, if you'd like.
3. What (2-3) outside, scholarly sources do you plan on using? You don't have to have read all of them yet, but try to have at least 3 good sources ready by the time you turn in the proposal. Such an approach attempts to ensure that you don't go about getting sources at the last minute. It also enusres that you steer clear of topics of which you cannot find adequate resources.

4. What is the best source at this stage? What makes it the best source?

What sources do you think you might need?

In research, there's so much out there, that it is really important to think if an interview, a survey, a graph, an online discussion, an editorial piece, a blog, etc., will be useful, because each type of source might provide a different type of ethos, logos, or pathos-based justification for your essay.

5. What's the whole point of this topic? What motivated you to pursue this topic? So what?
Why do you care about this topic? Why should your readers? (Don't be fooled by how short this question is - it's of vital importance!)

 

Sample Topic Proposal

Heinrich Mintlewick

Davin Kubota

Eng. 100

T/R 1045-1200

Topic Proposal

 

My plan is to investigate the role of fireworks in Hawaii, especially during the New Year or Fourth of July celebrations. A lot of individuals want to see fireworks banned permanently in the state; these individuals have pets, or they have respiratory ailments; a great deal of people are worried about fires and brush fires during the year. I've been playing with fireworks for the longest time, however, and I think that if they were banned, Hawaii would be missing out on a lot of its main cultural traditions—people in Hawaii used to blast a lot of fireworks.

Here's my tentative thesis: The State of Hawaii should not strive towards a permanent ban on fireworks, since the permit laws have already curbed fireworks usage—fireworks are an important cultural asset to Hawaii's people.

I'd like to utilize logos-based statistics in the form of seeing how fireworks have actually declined, due to the enhanced permit laws in the state. I don't see how a full ban can be truly enforced, because if they were completely illegal, then an entire black market might take place (as it does already). If I can prove that fireworks usage is already down, then there won't be a need for a complete ban.

I'd also like to interview my Chinese neighbor. He is part of the planners for the New Year Festival in Chinatown every year. I'd want to get his opinion on the matter, specifically, what he feels about the role of fireworks in his culture.

 

 

Marvin Kubonera

Davin Kubota

Eng. 257 G

915-1030 am, MW

Topic Proposal

Tentative Title: The Dark Tresses: The Use of Hair in Hideo Nakata's Ringu

At this stage, I'm interested in pursuing this thesis statement: As a powerfully-coded symbol of a woman's sexual identity, the use of hair in Hideo Nakata's Ringu suggests the raw power of Sadako's malevolence.

I plan on supporting this thesis by initally summarizing the major scenes in which we see Sadako or her mother's hair: we see (presumably) Sadako's mother brushing her hair in front of a mirror; we see Sadako's corpse and its mass of hair in the well, and we also witness the long mass of hair covering her face when she kills Ryuji. After this summary, I will assess the archetype of hair as it exists in Japanese and possibly in Western culture. I'm interested in the way how hair says so much about femininity and gender these days; even in modern culture, I'm intrigued as to why power is such a powerful indicator of sexuality and status. We use phrases like "bad hair day," but it's also a clever disguise for how we feel about the quality of our hair messing up our general appearance. There's a lot I can say about hair and how important it is in society today, but I want to connect it back to the movie.

The resources I plan on using are as follows: information about the film from the official Ring website, discussion on the Ring chat forum (I saw an entry about hair), and the DVD itself (my main resource).

I'm intrigued by the Ring, and primarily horrified by the scene in which Ryuji and the main character are sploshing about (well, at least the woman is sploshing about)...there seems to be a connection as to why the woman had to go into the well so as to discover Sadako's body—perhaps it was a connection or an identification of genders/sisters/mothers and daughters...whatever it was, the scene in which the main character begins to pull up clumps of Sadako's wet, nasty hair, attached to her skull—that was scary and strange, but utterly fascinating.

 

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