The proposal should be 4-5 pages in length (page numbers please!) and should have a well thought-out title and contain effective visual rhetoric as appropriate. It should be a traditional, linear Word document, although it may be broken into sections with subheaders, which should include

• an introduction, designed to interest your reader in your topic and proposal and provide some historical/cultural context for your project. At the end of your introduction, include a tentative thesis to indicate to your reader that you are entering your project looking at your topic through a critical, analytic lens -- this thesis should clearly state your intentions (i.e., "In this project, I will..." or "This research project will investigate ..."). A good formula for an introduction is context + problem/complication + proposed argument or research question. Each stage in this formula should be a few sentences long.
• the research questions that seem relevant to you at this point in your work; be sure to offer a framework for the questions in your proposal (i.e. a sentence or two to introduce them and situate them in relation to your larger project). Be thorough in thinking about your questions -- don't just include one or two. You may want to break your questions into different categories if appropriate.
• the methods you will use to conduct your research, including specific references to sites, databases, key texts or authors that you feel will be indispensible to your project. Include here also reference to less traditional text-based research -- fieldwork, interviews, surveys, visits to chatrooms, gaming -- as applicable to your topic. This is also the section in which you might troubleshot the research project, or weigh the benefits and drawbacks of certain types of sources (i.e., availability, bias, etc.).
• the timeline for your project. Look at the course schedule to keep your due dates in mind and set up certain milestones (by day or by week) that you will accomplish to keep yourself on track. Be sure that your timeline is more than a simple reiteration of the assignment deadlines for the course; it should reflect some awareness of the demands of your time outside of eRhetoric, as well as the different stages in the process of research (going to the library, taking notes, reviewing sources, etc.).
• a conclusion in which you address the "So What?" of this research. That is, why does what you are investigating matter as more than an academic exercise? Why should your audience want to read it? Why does it matter?
• Finally, as an addendum to the proposal, create a biography of yourself as a researcher -- an "About the Author" section in which you establish your persona for writing the research paper. This is a place to build up your ethos as a student-researcher on your topic. Please include an appropriately sized photograph of yourself alongside your bio (remember to consider ethos in your photo selection!). Finally, be sure to use the third person in your biography.
• If you cite any sources, you'll also need to have a works cited at the end of the proposal, with the citations in MLA format. Any parenthetical citations in the text itself should also follow MLA guidelines (these can be found at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html).

• First of all, since this is a formal piece of writing, think about your stylistical choices, especially in your introduction and conclusion. Think about starting with example, a quote, a statistic, a question, a fact, an opposing opinion, etc. Also, use concrete language and specific example to grab your reader. And for your conclusion -- don't trail off at the end. Conclude with a solid statement, something that makes us think, or at the very least makes us understand your project and want to read more about it.
• Think of it this way: if you were writing a proposal for a $10,000 grant, how would you convince your readers that they should fund your project? Would you use bland language, or would you finely craft it?
• Don't forget to frame your research questions -- don't let the subhead "Research Questions" be our only introduction into the questions you list. Is there an overarching theme to your questions? Do you already have a detailed knowledge of the topic, so they are very specific? Are you just learning about the topic, so they are foundational questions? Are they questions related to your thesis? Do you have basically two or three different categories of questions? Set up the questions for me; don't just list them.
• Also, don't forget the power of visual presentation. How your proposal looks reflects on your argument and your persona as a rhetor. For instance, do you want your subheads to be bold? do you want indented bullet lists or ones flush against the left margin? do you want to use horizontal lines, color (it is going to be read on-line after all), boxes, shading, etc. to format your text? Do you want to embed relevant images -- not as decoration -- but as evidence for your argument? Thinking this way about the visual aspects of your paper are an important first step in thinking about web design as well (as we will be later in the quarter).
• Don't forget to format your sources correctly: Article titles should be enclosed in quotation marks; titles of books should be underlined or italicized. Also, if you quote, don't forget to cite your sources.
• Overall, don't just go through the motions -- use specifics and concretes in your language and development as much as possible. Make your proposal an interesting read!