Assignment: This assignment asks you to produce a formal proposal of at least 1000 words describing the research project you intend to pursue for the rest of the semester. Your paper can be on any hip hop related topic. The proposal provides a clear vision for the major research paper.
Due: March 5th
Format: The proposal is 1000-1200 words. Use the formatting style of your major (eg. APA). The formatting must be consistent throughout the entirety of the essay.
Proposal Requirements
Section #1 – Introduction. This introduction should be designed to interest your reader in your topic and proposal and provide some historical/cultural context for your project. At the end of your introduction, include a tentative thesis to indicate to your reader that you are entering your project looking at your topic through a critical, analytic lens — this thesis should clearly state your intentions using a metadiscursive structure (i.e., “In this project, I will…” or “This research project will investigate …”). A good formula for an introduction is context + problem/complication + proposed argument or research question. Each stage in this formula should be a few sentences long. If you are not ready to construct a hypothesis at this point, be sure to include at least one well-thought-out research question to indicate what line of inquiry you’re going to use in your research. After reading this section the reader should know what hip hop related issue/topic you are discussing, context on why this issue/topic is important, and your thesis (thesis is a central argument that you intend to make.)
Section #2 – Research methods and sources. In this section, you should discuss the methods and sources you will use to conduct your research, including specific references to sites, databases, key texts or authors that you feel will be indispensible to your project. For example, if you want to study the relationship between hip hop and the university your methods could involve attending university events where hip hop is played, such as sporting events. Another example is, you can analyze the top hip hop songs of 2022 according to Billboard. These are just two examples of what methods can look like.
Section #3 – Conclusion. In your conclusion, address the “So What?” of this research. That is, why does what you are investigating matter as more than an academic exercise? Why should your audience want to read it? How does your proposed research project impact how we understand hip hop.
Section #4 – Scholarly Bio. Write a bio about who you are and your relationship to the project.
Section #5 – Work cited. Cite the sources that you used to create your proposal.