How to Craft The Research Proposal

The Heading for your Research Proposal (single spaced)

Your Name

English 101/course#

Prof. Mallory

Assignment #5: Research Proposal

Due Date

A Research Proposal helps you respond to a specific topic. It also helps you clarify your ideas and gives your reader basic information about what your paper will be about. When writing your proposal, it should be a minimum of three full body paragraphs.

Please follow the directions below. This is based on the topic of Child Labor. Adjust it to fit your topic.

The first body paragraph:

Begin with a broad discussion of your topic. But DO NOT use the term “I plan to research.” Instead, begin with a hook that introduces your topic in an engaging way. If you’ve selected child labor as your topic, you should tell me why you’ve selected the country (or countries) of your choice and industry (or industries). If you’re writing about AI & the workplace you should tell me what specifically you’ll focus on in your essay. For example, you may want to investigate the potential for job displacement, the potential risks and/or benefits. Perhaps you’re researching AI and Fake news and you’re increasingly concerned about the ways in which tech companies are working with the government to create disinformation and misinformation (i.e. the most recent White House created app that is marketed as a tool to “text the president directly” but when downloaded the app allows for 24 hour surveillance on your phone). If you’re researching Free Speech and censorship, you may want to focus your research on protests that use AI surveillance to collect data on protestors and intimidate them from speaking out. Or the Trump Administration ordering the defunding of NPR which a federal judge now says “violated free speech.” You may also choose to focus on independent media vs. corporate controlled media.

In addition, tell me in a few sentences what you’ve discovered during the research process that has sparked your interest in this topic AND what your position is.

Next, the last several sentences of your first body paragraph MUST include three to four research questions specific to your topic. The research question(s) must be: Problematic, significant, and interesting. At least some of your questions should be arguable, too For example, if you’re researching child labor in the US and your focus is meat packing plants in the US, here are a few possible questions for research: “Should meat packing companies in the United States employ children under the age of eighteen? What are the working conditions like in a meat packing plant? What kind of jobs are the children expected to perform? Furthermore, should states revise child labor laws so that children can work longer hours? ***Some or all of these questions will be turned into statements and will become part of your plan of development in your thesis statement. Of course, they will be proven/argued in the body of your research essay.

If your topic is AI & the military, one possible question you could have posed is: “To what extent are drones used by our military?” Another could be “Is the US military relying on AI to determine possible targets?” “How reliable is that information?” “What are forever wars?” “Who benefits from them?”

Here’s an example of a first body paragraph with a focus on Child Labor: ***Note that the italicized sentence is a possible way to smoothly integrate the questions at the end of your paragraph.

In recent years there has been a surge of migrants at the US border. Thousands of those immigrants are children. They’re coming from Latin American countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. These children often come without parents. They may already have family here, and if they do they’re often required to earn their keep by working. One of the business sectors that hires undocumented children are the meat packing plants. Several have been fined as a result. However, the fines are insufficient. A fine alone does not properly address the problem of American countries profiting off of undocumented minors. Our government must do better to eradicate child labor in previously prohibited business sectors. There are several questions I would like to pose as they will help me better understand and refine my topic. Moreover, these questions will help me research this topic and write a research essay about it. One question is, what meat packing companies participate in hiring children? What is the ratio between children and adults working there? What kinds of jobs are the children expected to perform? What are the percentages of casualties in the industry? What safety measures are put in place to protect the children? How do the hiring managers get into contact with these companies in the first place? How much are they getting paid/difference of pay between child and adult? Are the fines a true deterrent for meat packing plants? How is this positive for America when the United States has had policies (since the Indus. Rev) that deter companies from hiring children in certain business sectors? Do child labor laws change from state to state? What if the child is sixteen years old and needs a job? Is it child labor if it’s voluntary? What is the global impact of children working in the United States? How does this affect children and their future generations? Has the Covid 19 pandemic exacerbated child labor conditions?

The second body paragraph:

First, you MUST begin with the following sentence: “To discover the answer to these questions, I will need to follow a specific plan. First, I will use the methods of argument and persuasion.” Then select one or two additional methods such as cause and effect and example.

Next, mention the specific search terms and/or key words you used during the source selection process. For example, the Library Sample Research Proposal uses search terms like “leave no trace” and “pollution.” If you’re researching AI and the military possible key terms: “New Industrial Military Complex,” “Forever Wars.” You must list at least four search terms or phrases. Don’t forget to put quotes around them. Some of those search terms can be taken from the questions you’ve posed in body paragraph 1.

Next, you must list at least three articles (one of them must be scholarly and from one of the WCC databases or Google Scholar). These articles can come directly from your Annotated Bibliography. And finally, you must include at least four additional kinds of sources you plan to use in your research. Additional sources can include the following: books, a chapter in a book, a dissertation, video clips, magazines, interviews, radio, podcast, peer review articles, government report, fliers, map, graph, chart, documentary, images, blogs, cartoons, documentaries, personal interview, websites, etc.

QUESTION: Should your sources be italicized? Where would you go to find out?

The third body paragraph:

This paragraph can begin like this: Gathering these sources and researching this topic matters to me because…. . You should also mention any interesting information or discourse you’ve discovered in your research thus far. Lastly, please discuss—in your own words—the significance of your topic and its global impact.

FYI: Your thesis statement can be an amalgamation of the questions you provided in your Research Proposal (from the 1st body par.). For example, your thesis statement might look like this if your topic is child labor: Meat packing plants in the United States should not employ children under the age of eighteen. The work is hazardous to their physical and mental well being. Furthermore, several states are introducing legislation to expand child labor laws so that children can work longer hours without parental approval. Legislation of this kind should not pass because the primary goal of all children should be to further their education. In addition, if child labor laws are expanded it would only encourage companies to take advantage of immigrant children who are vulnerable and lack the protections American children have.

WRITE MY PAPER

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