Evolution in AmericaWinter 2008PROSPECTUS ASSIGNMENT*At this point, you have seen your topic through several phases: writing your vignette, discussing it with others, rewriting it (or writing a new one), interpreting it for readers, learning the difference between a topic and a project, developing a central question to investigate, sketching out a plan, and requesting help. Hopefully, you have some idea now—still early and still forming—of what your project is. A prospectus is “a formal summary of a proposed venture.” A summary “presents the substance of a larger work in a condensed and concise form.” The “summary” nature of a prospectus makes the proposed work understandable and accessible to others. It allows readers to talk to you in practical, useful ways about your pursuit of your interests. People write prospectuses to apply for grants, scholarships, or fellowships, or to propose a plan for a senior thesis, masters thesis, or dissertation. A prospectus requires you to locate your topic: to name its who, what, when, where, and why. The assignment lets you continue to develop your topic from several different directions, which may seem unrelated at the moment, but which will gel as you think, read, research, and begin to write.But a prospectus is also much more than this. It is an indispensable tool for the person who writes it. You can to go back your prospectus weeks, months, or even years after your initialthinking, reacquaint yourself with your ideas, and continue to work with them. You will write your Prospectus in two phases. The first will be a working document in which you will keep track of all the thinking you are doing toward the final draft. While you are in the middle of doing research, keep track of your work, and particularly information that is useful (or might be), and insights that are valuable (or might be). We will give you guidance as to how to keep track of your work. The second phase turns most of Phase I into a narrative that describes all the thinking you did about your topic this quarter, and points toward future thinking,research and writing. Good work on Phase I will lead to good work on Phase II. Good work on Phase II will put you in a position to actually complete the project, perhaps by doing an individual contract at some point in the future.___________________________________________Phase IDue February 13, 10:00, in class. Bring enough copies for your research group, plus three more copies for Bret, Ernestine, and NancyIMPORTANT: IF PHASE I OF YOUR PROSPECTUS ASSIGNMENTIS INCOMPLETE, SHOW UP WITH IT ANYWAY.(Phase I, cont’d)Write Phase I in sections as described below. Think of the sections as works-in-progress. Each one relates to the others. Sit down in the next day or so and, devoting one piece of paper toeach section, write what's in your mind right now in response to each section. Between now andFebruary 13, revise the sections as you learn. You will define your topic more narrowly, re-writequestions, develop new hypotheses, add to the bibliography, rearrange your outline, and so on. All this will happen as you read sources, think about what you are learning, and convince people to read your work and talk to you about it. Our research groups start today. From the members of your group, your faculty, and Ernestine, you will receive a great deal of help getting this project off the ground. Important: When you sit down to start writing your prospectus, you do not need to start with section 1. Read through the entire assignment, and start where you currently have the most confidence in your ideas and work thus far. 1. TITLE: Give your prospectus a title that reflects the gist of your project. Propose several possible titles, if you like.2. VIGNETTE: Recall the vignettes that you have written. Again, write an illustrative vignette. Make it as alive as possible. For inspiration, take a look at Philip Kitcher’s Living With Darwin, our book for the seventh week. The book begins with a vignette that illustrates the author’s impetus for writing the book. 3. QUESTION OR THESIS: Work on developing the question or claim (thesis) that undergirds everything that you will do in your research. Isolate that one question or claim as best you can. State it clearly and succinctly. You may introduce it with a paragraph that gives a context for it.4. HYPOTHESES: A hypothesis reflects an APPROACH to your topic. It’s like a needle on acompass that points in a particular direction. Be aware of whether your approach, for any given hypothesis, is historical, sociological, philosophical, biological, political, psychological, etc. Theapproach will tell you what kind of sources will help you to investigate that particular hypothesis. Some will be more informed than others. Be honest with yourself. Hypotheses can be based on facts, hunches, observations, guesses, etc. Make sure you know the difference between each of these. Don’t make claims that you can’t back up. Cite sources where appropriate. 5. SECONDARY QUESTIONS: Write all the secondary questions you can think of that willhelp you to explore your central question or thesis. Use who, what, when, where, how, and why questions. You may have several “What” questions, and only one “When” question. Each case will be unique. Add to this section as you learn from your sources. Ask other kinds of questions,too. Your sources will have the answers to some of these questions. Other answers will come from your own mind—the conclusions you draw from using those sources to explore your question or claim. Refine and edit the questions as you begin to get some answers.26. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: List all the sources you find. Cite correctly: author, title, date of first publication, and publisher. This information locates the book in the intellectual history of your topic. Annotations tell the reader why the source is useful to your project. It therefore both describes some aspect of the source, and shows its link to some specific part of your project. If there are other kinds of sources that you have not been able to find, write a list of sources – “dream sources” – that you still hope to find.7. NARRATIVE: (optional) If you are ready, write a narrative of any length that walks the reader into your investigation. This section will be short, since you still have a lot of work to do. For Phase II, it will be