A Prospectus and Working Bibliography for your Research Paper are due PRIOR TO THE MIDTERM EXAM, and no later than the date indicated on the course Calendar of Assignments.  If submitted electronically, please save your prospectus as a .doc file with the filename  "[yourlastname]512prospectus.doc" and submit it to me as an email attachment (I do NOT use the "digital dropbox" section of Blackboard).  Please do NOT submit your prospectus as a .docx file; use the pulldown "save as" menu and select .doc as the format if the default format of your Word file is .docx rather than .doc.  Note that you must have submitted your prospectus BEFORE the midterm exam since I will refer to it when grading the Paper Preview section of your midterm exam. 

The Prospectus is normally ungraded: if it is submitted on time and it follows these assignment guidelines,  it will be used solely for feedback to help you write a stronger final research paper.  If however no prospectus is submitted or the prospectus does not fulfill the requirements of the assignment, it will be graded and will count for 10% of your final course grade.  In that case, the weight of the research paper will be reduced to 30% of your final grade.  (Note: failure to submit a prospectus and working bibliography or to follow assignment guidelines will result in 10% of your final course grade = F.) 

• a working title which clearly identifies the work(s) you will discuss and gives some indication of the topic you will explore and the thesis you will argue in your paper; 
• a fully articulated thesis, i.e., an explicit statement of the interpretation you will argue in your paper (what you will argue about your topic, not just the topic itself); 
• a tentative outline of your paper mapping out its paragraph structure (to ensure you will make your points in logical order) and indicating what, specifically, you will argue about the evidence you will introduce in each paragraph

In choosing your sources, be sure to include at least one of each of the following kinds of sources: 

• a book written entirely by an individual or joint author(s) (i.e. not an edited collection); 
• an essay from an edited collection published in book form (what the MLA Bibliography refers to as a "book article");
• a scholarly journal article.

• at least one item from Cal Poly library's print collections (indicate "Cal Poly" and provide call number in parentheses after citation); 
• at least one item accessed electronically from one of the subscription databases in the Kennedy Library's collections (no need to include the mode of access parenthetically, since the name of the database will be included in a correct and complete bibliographic citation for an item from a subscription database);
• at least one item obtained through LINK+ (e.g. an essay in an edited collection or other book not in Cal Poly's collections; indicate LINK+ in parentheses after citation); 
• at least one item obtained through ILL (e.g. an article from a journal not avilable in Cal Poly's collections or a book not available through LINK+; indicate ILL in parentheses after citation).

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