AS190 Fall 2017

Prospectus Outline Presentation:

to be presented in class on 11/1


This assignment is to present in class an outline of your thesis prospectus. The presentation should take no more than 5 minutes and preferably less so you won't be able to go into detail on much of anything in it.

At this stage of the project you won’t know how to flesh out all the parts of this outline. Instead this assignment will give you a chance to think through the different aspects of your prospectus. These are suggestions for things that you will want to include in your prospectus. Try to integrate them into the presentation. 

  1. Intro:
    1. Topic,
    2. problem
    3. Research question

 

  1. Rationale
    1. What do you hope to accomplish with this thesis? 
    2. What is the significance/importance of the problem and why is it worth studying?
    3. Has this topic not been studied in a rigorous way before, or not from your angle?)

 

  1. Background you bring to understanding the topic

 

  1. Methodology:  
    1. How will you do your research? 
    2. How will you interpret what you find? 
    3. What sort of intellectual tools or critical methods will you bring to bear?
    4. How is what you propose feasible? 
    5. How can your methods help you answer your research question?

 

  1. Primary Sources:  (documents, interviews, media other materials etc] —
    1.  how  do they pertain to the topic and how accessible are they?
    2.  What sort of sources are they?
    3.  Where are they?

 

  1. Most important secondary source(s)
    1. What are the schools of thought about the problem you are considering?
    2. How have other people analyzed your topic and problem?

 

  1. Thesis readers: Name ‘em