For this assignment, you will present a research proposal for a longer research project in the area of comics studies, with a comprehensive bibliography.

Length: 1500-2500 words, not counting bibliography.

Your proposal must contain:

1. A thesis statement (not a statement of intent).
2. Reference to at least two critical approaches (not necessarily ones we have discussed in class).
3. A literature review discussing previous work using your critical approaches and about your primary source(s) / artifact(s) for analysis.
4. An explanation of the significance of your project, in the context of the existing literature.
5. A project plan or outline. (Either describing how you will do your research or how you plan your argument to go.)
6. A fairly comprehensive bibliography of sources about your artifact(s) for analysis and about your critical approach.

(Not necessarily in that order.)

You need not specify precisely the length of your planned project, but it can be helpful to have that in mind as you describe the overall project. Is this a proposal for a regular-length seminar paper? A master’s thesis? A book- or dissertation-length project? Longer projects will probably tend toward the upper limit of the word count and have a large bibliography.

All bibliographic entries must be presented in conformity with MLA or Turabian citation style, and most follow other relevant guidelines from the manual of style.

For some relevant advice, consider reading my Guide to the Dissertation Proposal.