Guidelines for Honors Research Proposals
The proposal submitted with the application for College Honors should be a concise, clearly written and thoughtful description of the projects and its significance. As the Honors Committee may not include a specialist in your field, you should avoid technical jargon. Your ability to carry out Honors research successfully is judged, in large part, by the quality of the proposal. Examples of previously accepted proposals are available.
The entire proposal must not exceed 8 pages (including any tables and figures but excluding references). Proposals should be double-spaced, set in 12 point Times New Roman font, and have 1-inch margins top and bottom and 1.5-inch margins left and right. The Honors Committee will not read past page 8.
The proposal must contain each of the following components, clearly labeled:
- Title
- Abstract: Give a short summary (no more than 100 words) of your project and its significance.
- Description of the Project: Explain the question you hope to answer and what it is you hope to accomplish.
- Previous Work: Explain the status of work in this field. Explain what other scholars or artists have accomplished in this area to date.
- Significance: Explain why your project is important. Explain what original contributions you hope to make. Explain the relevance of your project to the existing literature in this subject.
- Proposed Methodology: Explain how you will proceed. Explain how you will collect and analyze your data or materials. Explain how you will interpret your results. This is an extremely important section of the proposal. It is imperative that it be detailed and well constructed. Timetables, schedules, and budgets (where appropriate) are helpful.
- References: Include any references cited in the proposal and any important works which you expect to use during your research.
Last modified September 10 2009 03:29 PM
