Rhetorical Arts Research Pledge Spring 2024

Young
Rhetorical Arts
TOPIC PROPOSAL CONSIDERATIONS
Overview: You will select a debatable topic that you are interested in, that you may have some preexisting knowledge
regarding, that you are passionate about, and one that you are able to examine over two-thirds of the semester. This topic
should somehow apply to the overall theme of this course: “a good person writing and speaking well for the common good.”
For the purpose of your research, you may think of “common good” as a topic located in the contemporary realm of civic
engagement and/or social justice, which means that the issue has a significant and real impact on people’s lives and – due to
issues of power, equality, and social structures – that there is both a debate around this issue and that action is required.
Specific Instructions: Please be prepared to answer the following questions:
• What area, topic, are you addressing? Why are you interested in this issue? How much do you know about this issue?
• What are the key debates, as you currently understand them, that frame this issue?
• What types of research (think: kinds of sources, WHO is already talking about the issue) are you discovering? How
will you research this question? Specifically – where will you look, when will you look, how will you know that what
you find is credible?
• What is your central research question (Remember, research questions are questions that interest you and that could
potentially help you focus your research and paper)? If you were asked to write your question another way, how would
you rephrase it?
• Who is your intended audience? Is it your classmates? Someone else?
• If you had to guess, what might the sources in your annotated bibliography say about your central research question?
Are they answering it? Providing background info?
After keeping in mind the questions above, please consider at least five tentative references that you may explore further. You
may use sources discovered in your Research Exploration worksheets if applicable. Please use MLA format for citations.
Keep in Mind: You want your research question and your research as a whole to follow the “Goldilocks Principle”: you don’t
want it to be either too broad (so that you can’t focus your research) or too narrow (so that you can’t find enough
information). For example, try to avoid describing your research approach in a broad way, such as saying, “I want to examine
homelessness.” Instead, your topic will emerge over time as you learn more about the subject and generate a series of
questions that become more targeted and refined. So for homelessness, you could begin with the question, “What are the
current arguments, debates, or controversies over homelessness?” After reading, doing some research, and developing an
understanding of who is involved, why it’s a social justice issue, where it’s occurring, and how it’s occurring, you will then
create a central research question. That research question could be: “Is homelessness something we can eliminate?” or, “Is
homelessness the government’s responsibility?” or, “Is homelessness a crime”?
What’s Next?: After you consider your research proposal and develop a central, focused, research question, you will then
begin the next phase of research, using your more narrow focus, in order to gather a group of sources that help you answer
this question thoroughly and thoughtfully. Your explanation of these sources, and your contextualization of these sources
(identifying how these sources help you attack your question), will become your Annotated Bibliography (due in Week Seven).
Building off of your Annotated Bibliography, and your growing knowledge of your research question, you will then compose a
fully developed academic argument (your persuasive research paper) around your research question. In your paper, you will
use the appropriate evidence in order to persuade your audience – academic readers – of your well thought out, well
structured, and well researched thesis on the question (First Draft due in Week Eight).
RHET 1000
Young
Research Pledge
Directions: Please sign the pledge below and supply a brief, one paragraph description of your research. Due before
class, 2/2.
I have completed at least three hours of research—popular and scholarly—in exploration of my chosen topic in order to substantiate the persuasive
claim that I am a good match for and will make a strong case on this particular topic.
Sign:______________________________________________________________________________________
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TOPIC PROPOSAL CONSIDERATIONS

Specific Instructions: Please be prepared to answer the following questions:

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