Economics Research Paper Proposal
Assignment: You need to decide on a topic to research for your term paper. The topic can
cover anything that you want as long as you can explain why it is relevant to economics.

Think about the following when brainstorming your topic:
1. Previous knowledge
2. Course content
3. Personal or professional experiences/interests

Use one of the following brainstorming strategies to come up with your research topic:
list, map, or freewrite on a separate sheet of paper.

Now, go online and survey sources.
1. Read abstracts, headings and subheadings.
2. Make note of charts, statistics and graphs.
3. Read the reference lists.
4. Read introductory and summary paragraphs.
5. Skim body.

Find 3 reliable sources and cite them in MLA style. Under each source, you must briefly
explain why the source is reliable, and how you can use it in your paper.

This should help you to FOCUS your topic.
 Examples:
 Topic: Technology and consumerism
 Focused topic: the way television impacted consumerism within the
nuclear family from the mid-50s to the early 60s.


Topic: Environmental issue connected to global warming
Focused topic: coal fires
Your brainstorming method, 3 sources, and focused topic will be due on Friday, April 6. On that
day, you will be getting the rest of the requirements for your paper, including a schedule of the
research process. This assignment is worth 50 points and will be a part of your final paper
grade. Students who do not turn this assignment on time will receive a phone call home and
will need to attend GSH the week of April 8.