AS190 Fall 2017

Prospectus and Table of Contents Assignment
Due 11/1 at noon via email to me with 190 Prospectus in the subject line

Write an approximately 8-15 page (5000 word max) prospectus that explains the what, why, and how of your thesis.
 

What are the elements of a prospectus? Here they are:

1. Statement of topic, problem, and research question.
2. 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?
3. Literature review
   1. What are the schools of thought about the problem you are considering?
   2. How have other people analyzed your topic and problem?
   3. Background you bring to understanding the topic
4. Research Plan and 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?
5. Preliminary Bibliography of Primary Sources:  (see discussion below)
6. Preliminary Bibliography of important secondary sources
7. A chapter outline/table of contents of the thesis
8. A brief description of the chapter that you will write this semester
9. Thesis readers: Name ‘em

Things to consider as you write your prospectus:

• Is the research question clearly stated? 
• Is the project doable (not too broad or requiring interstellar travel)?
• Are the methods that are proposed the best or most appropriate methods to use to answer the research question?
• Does the project make an original contribution, or does it merely summarize already existing secondary sources?
• Does the literature review and summary of project rationale make it clear why this project would fill a gap in the scholarly literature?
• Does the literature review cover the most relevant literature? 
• If the project involves human subjects, has there been adequate consideration of ethical issues?
• Do you make any theoretical or empirical assumptions that should be questioned?   If so, what would be some helpful readings or ideas
• Is it clear this will be an American Studies thesis?
• If you are working with human subjects in conducting other than oral history or other exempt interviews include a sample consent form and discussion of how you will address ethical issues that could arise in your research. If your are unsure about if your project needs Human Subjects permissions, please discuss it with me.

The preliminary bibliography serves two purposes. It shows that you are making progress in your research and it helps you decide how useful particular material will be in answering your research questions. There is no specified length for the bibliography or number of sources required. However, you need to find sufficient primary material to answer you research questions as outlined in your prospectus. The bibliography will grow and chance as you develop your thesis

In your bibliography, you should:

• List all the sources for your project that you have identified as potentially useful. The citations must be complete with call number, URL, or collection and box number, as well as the library or archive name if relevant.
• Indicate whether you have actually obtained the material or looked at it yet. For Inter-library loan material indicate when you ordered the material. In the case of interviews or other non-documents, please describe where you stand in making arrangements.
• For each entry in the bibliography:
• indicate the nature of the source:  what kind of source--interview, document, database, book, article, etc.
• explain what sort of information you hope to gain from it
• discuss how that information will help answer your research question. How do they pertain to the topic and how accessible are they?
• consider what problems there may be in using it
• give it's status: have you arranged the interview, requested document or otherwise obtained the item?