Directions for Senior Capstone Project Proposal
& Annotated Bibliography
ENGL/WR 403 - Fall 2003 - Prof. Cora Agatucci, Ph.D.
 URL of this page: http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/EOUcapstone/proposal.html

Suggested Length of Proposal (not including bibliography): 8-to-10 double-spaced, word-processed pages, conforming to standard MLA style (or APA style if preferred for education topics) for in-text citation and to the conventions of standard written English.

Suggested Length of Annotated Bibliography: Your Annotated Bibliography should be as long as it needs to be do the following:

Review Senior Project goals, expectations and upper-division competencies (listed on Course Schedule webpage), and be sure to integrate explicit statements or demonstrations that these goals, expectations and competencies are being met at those points in your Proposal and/or Annotated Bibliography that seem most appropriate and logical.

See Example Proposal by Wendy R. Weber:
 URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/EOUcapstone/proposalweber.htm

Senior Project Proposal, plus Annotated Bibliography, is typically comprised of the following parts, arranged in the following order:

(1) Title Page
 (see Weber's Title Page for model)

(2) Introduction

·        Introduce the focused topic of your Senior Project, including definitions of key terms and concepts, and a description of your own initial orientation toward the topic (your own assumptions, theories, approaches, etc.)

·        Explain why you have chosen this topic: Why does it interest you? What previous courses, projects, experiences, etc., led you to it? What do you hope to gain from this project? How do you think it will benefit you personally and professionally as a capstone to your cumulative work in Discourse Studies (and Secondary Education, if relevant)? What might its value be to others?

·        Identify the leading research questions, issues, problems, hypotheses, assumptions, etc., that you set out to answer, resolve, test, investigate, through this research project.

(3) Review of Research
Based on research you have completed thus far--and you should have a solid research foundation of 15-to-20 usable sources before the end of the term:

·        Place your focused topic--as well as related theories, approaches, methods, applications, etc.--within the larger scholarly context of English Discourse Studies (and the larger pedagogical context of Secondary Education, if relevant).

·        Summarize the major trends, patterns, developments, theories, movements, schools of thought, assumptions, issues debates, problems, approaches, methods, experts, studies, and/or journals, etc., in the field--those most relevant to your topic. 

Be concise and selective: choose and represent those that seem dominant and influential in the field, most reliable and authoritative according to your evaluation criteria, and most interesting and relevant.  In the Review of Research section, try to respond to these kinds of questions:

(4) Prospectus Outline for the Senior Project

·        Describe the type/genre, design, goals/purposes of the ENG/WR 407 research-based Senior Project paper or web, and oral presentation that you plan to produce in Winter term 2000. 

·       Present an organized full-sentence outline (or web plan), as detailed as possible, of the main topics and subtopics to be addressed and developed in your Engl/WR 407 Senior Project. 

·        Integrate into your outline, where relevant and appropriate, the most fruitful and reliable “answers” to your leading research questions, issues, problems, etc. (i.e. as identified in your proposal Introduction & Review of Research) which your research has yielded to date. Credit specific sources, theories, approaches, etc., that have exerted important shaping influences on your project. Explain your rationales for choosing to adopt, build on, modify, extend, and/or apply the theories, methods, approaches, etc. represented in these sources. Look for opportunities to include explicit statements, demonstrations and/or projections of how your Senior Project will meet key Senior Project goals, expectations and upper-division competencies (listed on Course Schedule webpage).

(5) Conclusion - Project Work Remaining (to be accomplished in ENGL/WR 407)  Describe significant work remaining to be accomplished (questions, issues, problems still to be resolved; further research to be completed, skills to be developed, etc.) to prepare you to finish your research-based Senior Project paper and oral presentation in ENG/WR 407, in Winter 2004.

(x) Notes
[Content or substantive endnotes, if any, would be placed here on a separate page entitled "Notes"]

(6) Annotated Bibliography
[See Annotated Bibliography directions & requirements given above.]


EOU Capstone Project Home Page | ENGL/WR 403 | Fall 2003 Course Schedule |
Proposal & Annotated Bibliography Directions | Example ENGL/WR 403 Proposal by Wendy Weber

You are here: Directions for Senior Capstone Project Proposal & Annotated Bibliography
 URL of this page: http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/EOUcapstone/proposal.html
Last Updated: 11 October 2003
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