Project Proposal Part I

 

You’ll write your project proposals in two stages:

 

--The first stage is largely invention- and planning-oriented. It includes prompts for expansive thinking, for more focused planning, for text gathering, and for sectioning off the anticipated work load.

--The second stage aims for a conference proposal—so of course is a much tighter, abstract-like version of Part I. Draft due May 1. Electronic submissions to CCCC in Louisville (March 2010) are due May 8. URL call for proposals. Gwendolyn Pough, program chair, is African American; she has a book out on hip hop and composition and works on contemporary African American book clubs—as an extension of the club tradition. You might also consider submitting your proposal to the

Rhetoric Society of America.

 

Proposal Part I

Due March 30 in an email to me—to be shared with the class.

 

  1. Lay out the large-scope version of your project and say specifically why it is important to do this research. Here you’re aiming for an “open-ended project” that will lead to more and more questions and activities. This is the space to dream w/o time constraints. Why is your topic/project worth writing about—for yourself and for others? Try putting your project into a question form.  If you have a dissertation topic in hand, lay out its dimensions here.

 

For example, Connor’s response would begin like this: What happens if we look at writing instruction through the lens of the textbook industry from the 18th century forward? (Note the huge scope.)  This is important because compositionists now treat textbooks unreflectively—as a staple of the field not subject to historicizing, not subject to standards other than a seat-of the-pants kind of like/dislike.  It’s important to understand why teachers do or do not rely on textbooks in the classroom so that we can better understand our own programs and practices. (This is the contribution to others.) Personally, says Connors, I’m an historian who has read through many of these 19th c. textbooks already; I collect them; I have a knowledge base.  I write textbooks so I’m curious and defensive about them. (This is his personal stake.)

 

  1. Now narrow the scope significantly so that you can claim your project is “well-defined” as a semester project—do-able yet not superficial and over-committed. Try out your narrow version as a series of questions, even if these questions do not quite converge tidily.

Example: Royster narrows her study to writing (not speech), to elite women, to the essay form. She develops a short rubric: context of production, development of ethos, social activism. A couple of Royster’s more focused questions: How do I represent the experience of Maria Stewart using my rubric for analysis and sticking to the essay form? What do we know about West African culture and is it relevant? What sources help me find out?

 

  1. What are your primary texts? These would include speeches, writings, theoretical texts, textbooks. How do these texts help you answer the questions you’ve developed above?

 

  1. What are your secondary texts? These may certainly include the authors we’ve been reading plus additional secondary scholarship. Check the bibliographies of our textbooks and articles. Create a healthy bibliography even if you don’t wind up using everything. Once I know what everyone is writing about for sure I can provide lists of bibliography.

 

 

  1. Pretend you have four research assistants working for you. Parcel out the tasks at hand among them. For example, you assign one to review your secondary sources; you assign one to return to the CSWR for further searching or to comb the Liberator’s Ladies Department section; you assign one to check Zimmerman for holdings of 19th c. textbooks; you assign one to review and summarize Blair’s work on taste; you assign someone to do some close readings of the primary texts, expecting this person to correct any misconceptions you may have once you start writing.

 

  1. Using this parceling out device above, return to reality and decide which parts of your project are do-able in the next month. Schedule your time accordingly; maybe do a time line. Estimate what your finished project will look like.