Assignment:
PART ONE: Scholarly Prospectus
Instructions
If you choose the thesis option over the comprehensive exam experience, then one of the first steps you take would be crafting a Thesis Research Prospectus.
According to the Graduate Thesis Guide (see "Thesis Process" under Content or the attachment below), your Prospectus should include a Summary and Statement of the Research Problem, Argument, or Inquiry.
Your prospectus (sometimes referred to as an Abstract in other programs) should contain a concise description of:
a) The question or topic to be examined in the research; TOPIC: The impact of Crime & Underground Business on Human Rights, THESIS: When underground business use forced labor that threatens the physical, emotional and financial welfare of their employees?
b) The topic's relevance, including its relevance/importance to the field of study in your graduate degree program, related disciplinary field, and any other logical audiences;
c) The topic's new, original or innovative approach/ inquiry to be used in the research.
If any of this sounds vaguely familiar, then it should. It consists of the same Topic + Question + Significance (or T + Q + S) three-step rubric that you developed earlier in the course.
For the purposes of assignment:
1) Choose one of those rubrics, (TOPIC, QUESTION or SIGNIFICANCE), that you have begun researching in the library and exploring in online databases for scholarly literature, journal articles, and other information.
2) Write (using complete sentences) a statement (no longer than 500 words) of the problem, the procedure or method, and the results and conclusions. (The latter part might be tentative pending further research.)
Be sure to integrate into your statement index or key words or names of individuals or works related to your topic, which allows for quick retrieval by other researchers and can be used to find your thesis when searching a library's database.
The writing style of your statement should be clear and concise, and be sure to check your spelling and grammar, but do not fret too much at this point about paragraphing, sentence structure, or punctuation.
PART TWO:
Citing SCHOLARLY Sources
Instructions
Objective: This assignment allows you to familiarize yourself with the style manual that is appropriate to your area of study and to practice the basic citation or documentation mechanics required of academic writing.
In Chapter 13 of The Craft of Research, the authors explain the importance of citing sources of evidence, if for no other reason than to avoid a charge of plagiarism. But there is much more.
They discuss the "social contract" that you have with your audience to provide an analysis that is both truthful and reliable and can be supported by scholarship. Without such scholarship that is effectively utilized and properly cited, you would risk losing your readers' respect and trust, and no one in the academy will take you seriously.1
Prepare a bibliography of at least 20 citations in an area of your choice that relates directly to your Prospectus that you are creating. Ideally, your area of choice would be one in which you are actively researching, ( FORCED LABOR) utilizing a three-step rubric Topic + Question + Significance (or T + Q + S) that you developed earlier in the course.
Your bibliography must follow a designated style manual. According to the Graduate Thesis Guide, you may select any citation style manual that you wish (APA, Chicago, MLA) for the thesis.
Compose your bibliography by fastidiously following the format in your style manual.