Prospectus

A Prospectus of about 750 words (or 1000 at most) should answer the following questions:

 

1. What is your subject of study? What are the main research questions the study aims to answer?
2. Why are you addressing this topic? What have other people written about this subject, and how is your approach, information, or perspective different? What need or gap does this proposed study fill in the conversation? What new approach to a familiar topic does it propose to offer? What will be the study's original and special contributions to this subject?
3. What are the main sources that will be used to explore this subject? Why are these sources appropriate?
4. What is the proposed organization of the study? 

 

 

Organization of the Prospectus:

 

A. Title: it should be informative and helpful in pinpointing the topic and emphasis of your study.

 

B. The body of the prospectus: this section should concentrate on addressing questions 1-3 above. The goal of this section is both to describe the project and to "sell" the reader on its potential interest and significance.

 

C. A section breakdown: This can either be a formal section, in which each section is described in turn in about a paragraph's worth of text, or it can be done more narratively, in which the whole project is outlined as a more seamless story. Either way, it should address question #4, above.