Research Proposal

A Note to Instructors . . .

COMPSS (Composition Open Materials Promoting Student Success) is a collection of free, high-quality course materials—readings, videos, discussion prompts, group activities, and sample assignment guidelines—available to you as you design and lead low- or no-cost courses in any modality (face-to-face, online, or hybrid). Almost everything about COMPSS can be adjusted to fit the goals of your courses. COMPSS materials can be used instead of or in addition to traditional textbooks; like traditional textbooks, COMPSS materials supplement (but do not replace) the lectures, activities, and other content you develop for your course. 

This unit contains five sections, and each section includes materials for at least one week of instruction. Because one of the guiding principles behind COMPSS is choice, we have provided an abundance of content for you to sort, adopt, adapt, or reject at your discretion. Some sections include more materials than you might typically choose to assign; we invite you to make use of as many or as few of these materials as you like.

All materials created by the COMPSS team are licensed CC-BY and can be adopted, remixed, or shared at will as long as the materials are attributed (see items in bold font with the * symbol next to them); some linked materials may have stricter licensing guidelines, although they are all free to use.

One final note: Students who have already completed another COMPSS unit may already be familiar with some of the materials included here.  

We hope you and your students will benefit from using these free, high-quality OER!

 

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  Major Assignment: : Research Proposal

  This research proposal assignment may be used as part of an ongoing research project, or it may be used as a stand-alone project. You are encouraged to adopt, adapt, or remix these guidelines to suit your goals for your class.

  • Assignment Guidelines

 

Students will . . . 

• Identify research topics that genuinely interest them.
• Conduct preliminary research.

• Readings
  • Major Assignment Guidelines: Research Proposal * 
  • "De-Coding Assignment Guidelines" *
  • "Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content"
  • "The Purpose of Research Writing"
  • "Understanding and Using the Library and the Internet for Research" 
  • "Googlepedia: Turning Information Behaviors into Research Skills"
  • "Reading Like a Professional" 
  • "Art of Reading a Journal Article"
• Videos
  • "Decoding Assignment Guidelines" *
    • Accompanying article: "De-Coding Assignment Guidelines" *
  • “Picking Your Topic Is Research” 
    • Activity: See discussion. 
• Discussion prompts and/or group activities
  • Option 1: Topic Generator Activity * 
    • Initial post: Students complete the activity to generate a total of 25 potential topics.
    • Responses: Students select 3-5 posts with potential topics they think are most interesting and write 5 questions about each potential topic for a total of 15-25 questions.
      
      
  • Option 2: Topic Generator from Photos Activity * 
    • Initial post: Students complete the activity to generate a total of 25 potential topics.
    • Responses: Students select 3-5 posts with potential topics they think are most interesting and write 5 questions about each potential topic for a total of 15-25 questions.
• Activities and low-stakes writing assignments

  Brainstorming Activity *

 

Students will . . . 

• Develop research questions.
• Design research plans. 

• Readings
  • Students’ sources 
  • Research Log Guidelines *  
  • Source Analysis Mini-Paper Guidelines (due in Section 3) * 
  • "Narrowing and Developing"
  • "Introduction to primary research: Observations, Surveys, Interviews"
  • "Primary Sources and Secondary Sources" 
• Videos
  • "Developing a Research Question" 
  • "How to Read a Paper Efficiently"
  • "Evaluating Sources: See It In Practice" 
    • Evaluation Checklist
• Discussion prompts and/or group activities
  • Discussing the Future of Our Research *
    • In 6–8 thoughtful sentences (total), address all of the following questions:
      • What research questions do you hope your sources will help answer?
      • What are you most interested in learning more about?
      • What concerns do you have at this point?
• Activities and low-stakes writing assignments
  • Research Log with 5+ sources *
  • Research Plan *
  • Begin drafting the Source Analysis Mini-Paper *

 

Students will . . . 

• Compose drafts of their research proposals. 
• Begin composing drafts of their research proposals (complete drafts will be due in Section 4).

• Readings
  • "Avoiding Plagiarism" *  
  • "Evaluating Sources"
  • "Assessing Source Credibility"
  • "Googlepedia: Turning Information Behaviors into Research Skills"
  • "Integrating Sources" * 
  • "Annoying Ways People Use Sources"
  • "Exigency: What Makes My Message Indispensable to my Reader"
• Videos
  • "Organizing Body Paragraphs with the MEAL Plan" *  
    • Corresponding article: "MEAL Plan" *
• Discussion prompts and/or group activities

  Research Proposal Check-In  *

  • In 6–8 thoughtful sentences, address all of the following questions:
    • What did you know about your topic before you began conducting research?
    • What have you learned?
    • What do you want to know more about? 
• Activities and low-stakes writing assignments
  • Source Integration Activity *
  • Source Analysis Mini-Paper *  
  • Begin or continue composing the research proposal—a complete first draft will be due in the next section for peer review.

 

Students will . . .

• Submit complete first drafts of their research proposals.
• Engage in peer review.
• Revise their research proposals. 

• Readings
  • "Research Proposal Peer Review Guidelines" *  
  • "Giving and Receiving Feedback" 
  • "How to Write Meaningful Peer Response Praise"
  • "Revision" * 
  • "Reverse Outlining" * 
  • "What is 'Academic' Writing?"
• Videos
  • "No One Writes Alone: Peer Review in the Classroom"
    • Activity: Peer Review--See discussion prompt below.
• Discussion prompts and/or group activities
  • Research Proposal Peer Review *
• Activities and low-stakes writing assignments
  • Reverse Outlining + Revision * 
  • Peer review of research proposal—see discussion prompt above. 

 

Students will . . . 

• Reflect on their peer review and revision processes. 
• Edit and proofread their research proposal drafts.
• Submit the final drafts of their research proposals.

• Readings
  • "Editing" *
  • "Proofreading" *
• Video

  "The Magic of Revision"

• Discussion prompts and/or group activities

  Discussion of peer review and revision experience:  *

  • Initial post: Consider your experience conducting peer review last week. In 5-7 thoughtful sentences, consider some or all of the following: What specific element(s) did your peer reviewer help you improve in your draft? What specific element(s) were you able to identify and highlight in your peer’s writing to help them improve, and how successful do you think you were in helping them improve? In what way(s) did reviewing and providing structured feedback on your peer’s writing help you look at your own writing with fresh or wizened eyes? What do you now understand or appreciate about the process, benefits, or challenges of peer review that you will carry with you as you tackle future writing assignments?
    
    
  • Response: Respond to the person you partnered with for peer review.
• Activities and low-stakes writing assignments

  Letter to the Reader

• Major assignment

  Research Proposal: Final Draft *

 

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These materials were compiled by the COMPSS team. All materials created by the COMPSS team (see items in bold with the * symbol next to them) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and are free to use: they can be adopted, remixed, and shared at will as long as the materials are attributed. Some linked materials may have stricter licensing guidelines, although they are all free to use.