Research Project Proposal Template
Use the information and planning you developed on the “Crafting a Project” handout
to help you complete this proposal template.
Step 1
What is the working title of your project?
The Power of Horses
Step 2
What is your focus going to be in researching in your family?
I am going to focus on stories that my father told me about horses, and stories of
horses with my boyfriend and me. Then how I tie it in is talking about horses in
relationship to mine and my father’s life.
Step 3
List the connections you’ve picked out between your family story/stories and other
contexts from the “Defining a Purpose” section of the “Crafting a Project” handout.
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Some connections that I have made with other content are information and
facts about horses.
o For example resource what are mares, geldings, fillies, colts, and
stallions.
A connection that I made was my father and me are a lot alike.
o Relationships with one another are like bond between our animals.
o “Great colts come from great sires.” Use an analogy to compare horses
to humans. For example great children come from great fathers.
They strongest relationships are ones that the other person believes in you.
o The famous racehorse Secretariat won the Triple Crown when no one
believed him but his owner. She knew from the coin toss that he was
the one to pick.
Step 4
What are the research questions you have used to find some sources?
 Secretariat story and quotes about Secretariat.
 Differences in types of horses according to gender.
 People’s relationship with their animals such as horses.
Where have you looked to find those sources?
I look for those sources on Summon and the Internet. I used the Internet because
Summon is limited on its information about horses.
What sources have you found so far? (Use MLA to cite them here.) Include a
statement about why you chose each source.
Citation:
Maranzani, Barbara. "Secretariat’s Record-Breaking Run, 40 Years Later."
History. A&E Television Networks, LLC., 7 June 2007. Web. 21
Sept. 2014. <http://www.history.com/news/secretariats-recordbreaking-run-40-years-later>.
Annotation:
I chose this source because it has lots of facts about the famous racehorse
Secretariat. The tell use facts about him like his whole fate rested on a coin toss.
Citation:
"Why Horses Make the Best Kind of Friends." Horsetalk World Equestrian
News and Information RSS. 7 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
<http://horsetalk.co.nz/2014/01/07/why-horses-make-best-kindfriends/#axzz3E09K9w2J>.
Annotation:
I chose this website because it is very informative. It talks about the scientific side
to how horse makes the best kind of friends. They have multiple stories of
researchers findings and they tell of stories of researchers and their bonds between
their horses.
Citation:
"31 Random Facts About Horses." Random Facts. 12 Nov. 2008. Web. 21
Sept. 2014. <http://facts.randomhistory.com/2008/11/12_horses.html>.
Annotation:
I just chose this web site because it has facts bout horse. Some facts are completely
random while others could be relevant to my research.
Step 5
Describe, as best as you can at this point, what you believe your project will “look
like” in terms of the scope, range, and possible modes of delivery.
I believe at this point the project will look like Susan Griffin’s essay “Our Secret”. I
feel that it will be like hers because I feel she has the format I am going for. My
project most definitely will be a paper. My scope is wide; I am planning on talking
about I wide range for topics but still saying on a directed path.
I believe that for the range I will dive deep into my topic and really research horses.
Possible modes of delivery will include starting off with my dad story and them
moving on to my story all while tying in sustain about horses.
Step 6
Describe your purpose and audience for this project. What do you hope to learn
from this project, and what do hope your audience learns from this project?
My purpose for this project is making connection between the relationship with my
father and me in relation to human relationships to horses. My purpose as well is to
tell about my boyfriend’s and mine horse stories.
The audience could be anyone that loves horses and want to read about how horses
can bring one another together.
Step 7
Discuss the key challenges you will face or imagine you will face as you work on this
project. What concerns do you have as you work on this research project?
The key challenges I am going to face with this project would have to be making sure
everything flows. I fear that when I try to tie things together the reader may not
understand what I am trying to do. Another concern that I have for the project is
finding enough resources to use. I have had trouble trying to find some sources
because Summon does not have a large archive about horses.