Topic Proposals

For the second Class Period you will prepare a topic proposal for consideration by the class. This is what you are proposing as your personal research topic for the semester. Post your topic proposal in the "Topic proposals" forum on our Moodle class site. On Monday evening (second class period) you will come prepared to defend your topic and seek initial approval.

You will refine your topic further, and on the second reading, on the next Monday, we shall approve or fail to approve proposals. 

Picking a topic

Rule 1: Be bold. Pick something that is interesting and compelling to you.

Related: Avoid topics that you find distateful or ideas that you start out wanting to discredit. 

Beyond this, there are the usual aspects of picking a topic:  Making sure it is not too broad or too narrow, and realistic in terms time and bibliographical resources available.

Rule 2: Do not pick a "pet topic" that you have already explored thoroughly (e.g. written a paper about for another class). Pick a topic through which you and the group will learn. You will be expected to use your expertise. But you are not expected to contribute only what you already know. 

Format of your proposal

Your proposal should have the following outline:

  1. Subtopic Title
  2. Relation to the principal topic. Explain in crisp sentences, but sufficient detail, how this relates to the assigned principal topic.
  3. Anticipated, or hoped for results. Explain what you hope to discover. This should be presented in terms of questions that you will consider.
  4. Bibliography. Your first topic proposal should have at least 3 proposed references (which you have at least skimmed, for your proposal).  You should have a list of works.  For the topic proposal the formatting of the your list of works can be somewhat more informal than APA or MLA style, *but* there must be enough information for another scholar to locate the resources you are referring to.

Sources

  • Refereed articles or published books which have been reviewed by an editor are great. Sometimes articles in scholarly journals may be targetted at a very narrow group of scholars in a field, and despite their high quality, employ specialist lingo, assume a high degree of prior knowledge of a field, and or/not give a great deal of context to the issue at hand.
  • Sources targetted at a more general audience, but from a reputable publisher that includes oversight from an editor and, ideally, fact checking, are also quite acceptable. E.g. Larger newspapers, university publications.
  • Web sites which have not been reviewed by anyone other than the author would require justification. (See "Bibliography and Resources").

For examples, see Paul's list of Recommended Sources ranked by quality for Core 160 'Energy and Environment' - A GC reading and writing core class. Your sources should be mostly from the two highest quality categories on here.