Capstone Proposal Feedback
Journal 5-
In addition to the given guidelines, I kept Joseph Harris’ concepts of forwarding and revising in mind.
Can a Just God Allow Suffering?
Strengths-
- The student will be using other texts from philosophers and writers to illustrate his argument. The student will be listening to the “conversation in the room”.
- I also can appreciate the student’s clear outline of how they will work with their advisor. This will help the student set the pace and schedule of the project.
- The detailed description of how the student will use their resources will help them maintain their focus.
- The student discusses how they will contrast a historical vs. philosophical approach to their work.
Opportunities-
- The topic-I feel that the student’s capstone question is general and that the topic is an old one. I would ask the student to brainstorm a more unique angle/thought process.
- The student does not describe in detail how they will extend, revise, and counter the conversation into a unique direction.
- Although the student might not know this yet, they do not define the implications of the project. Why does it matter that they are now joining this old-age conversation/debate? What exactly are they contributing?
- At first I thought that the student’s bibliography was less than robust, but then I realized that the annotated bibliography requirement was for the English proposal guidelines. However, I do think that an annotated bibliography is more helpful to the student and the professor.
Analyzing the Use of Animals in Popular Victorian Literature
Strengths-
- The student clearly states what their project is, how they are going to approach it, and how they are making this project their own.
- The student will make use of illustrating, authorizing, and then work to extend her project into an argument that has not been widely discussed.
- The theme/questions of the project are interesting, thoughtful and involve numerous literary sources for comparison.
- Annotated Bibliography-Sources are well described so that student can keep track and Professor can understand how the student is utilizing them to make their argument.
- The student does anticipate critiques and has already offered a counter argument.
Opportunities-
- Although the topic is exciting, I’m not sure if the student stated how understanding the human-animal-Victorian relationship is relevant for readers today. Why does it matter?
Sample 3-
Strengths-
- This proposal is brief and to the point (for the most part, sections A-E are answered).
Opportunities-
- The bibliography is missing (section F)
- The primary sources are not listed specifically (section G), so it is difficult for the advising or Capstone Professor to understand how the student is going to develop their project.
- Section C: The student states, “I want to address what qualities are used to classify or recognize others as human.” Why is this important? What is the exact argument that the student wants to extend upon?
- The student should expand upon section D-what range of literature will they be using? What points will the student be bringing to the conversation?
By looking at these thesis proposal samples, I realized that for my own project:
- I need to come up with an interesting, unique question/conversation based on my topic.
- I must state my intention on how I will extend, revise, and counter the conversation.
- I want to state why my project is important-how is it relevant to an audience today?
- I need to clearly state what the next step forward would be-what’s next?
- I think an annotated bibliography would be useful to include.
