Prospectus

Post date: Mar 25, 2015 2:34:30 PM

Mr. Shurtleff

AP Lit/Comp

Boardman High School

A prospectus is the plan for your research project that you submit before actually writing the essay or completing the research. Your prospectus should accomplish these tasks:

• State the writing/research question (or questions). For example: "My essay will explore the economic and educational class structures in seventeenth-century English literature. In particular, I want to explore the ways in which understandings of how economic and educational attainment result in social class distinctions. I also wonder if/how understandings of these categories changed over the course of the seventeenth century.
• Delineate the main areas of your proposed inquiry and analysis. For example: "In order to answer these questions, I will look in particular at Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as well as Jane Eyre, and Pride and Prejudice. I will rely in particular on the analyses of Lars Lunsford, Melissa Bloom Bissonette, and Thomas H Schmid."
• Suggest how you will organize the material in your essay. For example: "I plan to begin with an overview of recent literature that connects education, economics and social status. From there, I will move chronologically through the literature of the century, since I hope to show how notions of nation and class changed over that period.
• Provide an annotated bibliography of at least seven sources (including class readings as appropriate), listed with correct citation form using an accepted documentation style (APA, MLA), each of them annotated with 1-2 sentences summarizing the author's argument.

Make an appointment with the instructors if you have any questions or concerns about your research focus.