[Research Paper Prospectus—Template][all content in this template in brackets should be deleted and/or replaced][Title][Name]Rationale[Here is where you offer your argument for why this topic is imp

[Research Paper Prospectus—Template]

[all content in this template in brackets should be deleted and/or replaced]

[Title]

[Name]

Rationale

[Here is where you offer your argument for why this topic is important and worthy of study. In some articles and essays, it may be titled as the introduction. Consider the basic syllogism in offering premises leading to a conclusion—that being your claim that the study merits attention. I expect about three paragraphs—keep it tight and concise.]

Literature Review

[This section may take up more time as you feel obligated to provide summaries of various studies related to the work you are proposing. However, do not simply give summaries, but work from your rationale. The studies/literature you are reviewing support your premises, and ultimately your claim.]

Research Questions/Hypotheses: [Avoid clumping too many ideas together, but separate each one into a separate question or hypotheses. Please keep in mind that the focus needs to be on behavior, especially communicative behavior—which should besupported by the studies and concepts explored in your literature review.]

Methods

[This section contains a few subsections that I have provided below. You may refer to previous studies in establishing the boundaries/parameters of this study, which can strengthen your claim. However, that would be if you were doing something different from what has already been done.]

Participants: [Who are the people you will be asking questions of and/or observing? Provide as many demographics or conditions as you can. The results section would clarify the specifics of the actual participants, but you don’t have to worry about that for this assignment.]

Procedures: [How do you plan on accessing the participants? If you are using a survey instrument, provide the questions; if interviews, the protocol of questions. Here is where you explain what you are going to do.] 

Conclusion

[As you will not have any data to report, this section is just to wrap up your paper clarifying what you plan to set out to do and its value in terms of our understanding.]

References

[Alphabetize your list of references that you have used in the body of this document. Do NOT just list them here. You must provide in text citations. Your references should be from academic sources—Wikipedia, magazines, newspapers, blogs, most websites, etc. are not valid references. Also, do not just reference the textbooks, but go back to the original sources. Failure to cite references properly will result in a poor grade on this assignment (e.g., D or below).]