PURPOSE OF THE PROSPECTUS

The prospectus is a research proposal, which should explain your project to a lay audience (e.g., CHC students in other majors). It’s completed as part of the Thesis Prospectus Class (HC477) which you take at least two terms before your projected graduation date (see The Thesis Prospectus Class below).

Formats for research proposals vary by field (you can find examples of past prospectuses in the file cabinet in the CHC student lounge). Regardless of discipline, there are three fundamental questions that must be addressed:

1. What is the research about?
   This is where you identify your intellectual goal. It can be both difficult and liberating. A successful prospectus (and thesis) will choose one of many possible goals to be the primary focus. This will permit you to exclude some material, and to abandon some questions as you sharpen your investigation and thereby make it more efficient.
2. Why is this project important?
   What are your intellectual or aesthetic justifications for choosing this topic? Put bluntly, why should anyone else care? How does your project relate to other work in your field? Are you criticizing a particular theory or approach, or exploring a new technique? Here you need to make a simple but effective argument that your project is indeed worth doing.
3. How will you do it?
   What methods will you use to answer the questions you are posing? “Methods” can have a very wide range. The goal is to identify research techniques appropriate to your project. This could be a carefully controlled lab experiment, a public opinion survey, interviews with policy-makers, analysis of archival documents, or application of a particular literary or musical technique. Your research design is important.

THE THESIS PROSPECTUS CLASS (HC 477)

The point of the Thesis Prospectus class is to strengthen your own work by interaction with fellow students. You’re likely to get a lot from seeing how your classmates are approaching their projects. You’ll also be able to test the tone and vocabulary of your work to be sure it is clear to people from other fields. Here are some other key facts about the Thesis Prospectus class:

• It’s mandatory. You can’t graduate or get signed off on your thesis unless you have taken HC477.
• You need to take it at least two terms before you plan to graduate (e.g., fall term if you plan to graduate in the spring).
• You’ll need to register for the class the term before you take it (e.g., spring term if you plan to take it in the fall).
• You need to have a signed commitment from your Primary Thesis Advisor to be able to register for the class. This can be done using the Thesis Prospectus Application Form. He or she will attend your prospectus presentation or “defense,” and will need to sign a copy of your revised prospectus.
• An Oral Defense of your prospectus is required in order to pass this class.
• Your prospectus should be ready for your classmates at least a week before your prospectus oral defense is scheduled. They will make written comments on your prospectus before your presentation.
• As part of the Thesis Prospectus class you will meet with the instructor for a Graduation Audit to determine that you are meeting all your requirements in time for your intended graduation date. In order to pass the course, your audit must occur before the end of your thesis prospectus class. You’ll need to return this signed form to the instructor, who will see that the CHC Academic Coordinator adds it to your academic file.

THE PROSPECTUS ALSO CONTAINS…

• An annotated bibliography. It doesn’t need to be elaborate, but it should show that you have begun probing the relevant literature for your project. It needs to be a formal listing of works you have consulted or expect to consult. Each item in your list should have a descriptive or analytic sentence explaining what it provides to your research and how you will use it. If you haven’t yet read the work, you can speculate on its utility. Use a recognized format appropriate to your field (e.g., MLA, APA, another standard style, or a leading journal in the field.).
• A proposed timetable that schedules goals to be accomplished on the road to completing your thesis. It should state the probable month of your thesis defense (see Scheduling Your Defense.
• A cover page that lists the thesis title, your name and major department, and a signature line for your Primary Thesis Advisor. (click HERE [link to: 15th web page] for a format model)

DOING A CREATIVE OR PERFORMANCE PROSPECTUS?

Students pursuing creative theses will be concerned with issues of audience, technique, style, and aesthetic contribution. Here is a suggested format for addressing these issues:

Statement of Artistic Purpose:
Describe your choice of medium and explain why you chose it, (i.e., artistic reasons).
Talk about the subject and theme of your work and the significance of each.

Discussion of Style:
Explain how it affects your purpose. Where would you personally place your work in the traditions of your medium? Are you following in a classical tradition? Modernist? Post-Modernist? Are you a science-fiction author? A post-modern poet? An impressionist painter? A realist sculptor? A historical novelist? How do you fit within the current art movement of which you are a participant? Who influenced you in terms of technique, medium, innovation, composition, and how?

Intended Audience:
Who is your intended audience? How much background, exposure or training is needed to appreciate the performance or work? Why are you addressing this particular audience?

Artistic Influences:
Who are your influences in terms of techniques used, subject matter, “school” of performance? How does your work build on, change or modify what you gained from those influences? In light of these influences, what is particularly unique in your work?

Techniques:
Describe the specific techniques of your own or others’ that you intend to use.
What artistic advantages (and/or disadvantages) are involved in this particular technique? What techniques do you hope to show you’ve mastered in your art? Describe where especially in the work we can see this, or where and how you will innovate on traditional techniques (e.g., revising the symphonic form, combining creative genres, writing stream of consciousness, reworking the camera angles of documentary film-making , sculpting in wood, etc.).

Bibliography--Annotated
In this section, you should list both theoretical and (if written) artistic works you have mentioned in the influences section and in the techniques section. Include a brief annotation that explains where each fits into your project. Annotation should follow STANDARD bibliographic entry!

Proposed Timetable:
This section should list a proposed timetable toward completion of the thesis—include probable month of defense.

Glossary:
Be sure you put all technical terms and definitions in a Glossary at the end.

Cover Sheet:
The cover page for the prospectus is standard.

HOW LONG IS THE PROSPECTUS?

There is no single answer. Those in mathematics tend to be shorter, those in creative writing may well be longer, if, for instance, they include a draft chapter for a novel. In practice, most fall between twelve and twenty pages.