Assignment
The research proposal is merely a short (roughly a page or so) explanation of the following four elements:
1. What is your topic. That is, what do you intend to investigate or what will be the basis of your research?
2. What is your working claim/thesis-what do you hope to prove/establish? Or, what is the central, over-arching question you seek to answer?
3. Where do you intend to find your evidence to support said claim? BE SPECIFIC. You need to know what information you'll need and where it's located.
i.e. "I'm gonna look online and in books and stuff..." is not sufficient. Instead, "I will need to find the most recent statistical data regarding unemployment percentages over the past two years. This will help me determine if the recent economic stimulus attempts have had any impact whatsoever on the recovery. I will begin my search using the library databases; most likely CQ Researcher."
4. Why are you interested in this topic? Why is it important to you or society?