For JURI495 and 496, the research issue that you select must encompass at least two disciplines, law and a liberal arts discipline such as history, philosophy or political science. Your proposed area of research must require the contribution of more than one disciplinary perspective in order to gain adequate understanding and arrive at conclusions that integrate the various disciplinary perspectives. SEE RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS EXPLANATION.
Write your Research Paper Proposal in the following format:
⎫ Paragraph of introduction to your topic.
⎫ Research Hypothesis—expressed three ways : o As a one-sentence hypothesis o As a research question o As a title for your paper
⎫ Essential Disciplines and Sub-Disciplines
⎫ Definition/Explanation of any essential terms [legal terms or disciplinary jargon of the field you are researching] with footnoting of the sources of your definitions
⎫ Description of how you will conduct your interdisciplinary research; the design of your research [may be up to 2 paragraphs]. Note: In this section, you must include a sentence which begins “An interdisciplinary approach is essential [or required] to [fill in……….] because no single disciplinary perspective can adequately address this question/issue. This section is the “road map” in two prose paragraphs describing your research. It paints a picture of the proposed path of your research OVER THE TWO-SEMESTERS OF THE COURSE.
⎫ Predicted research conclusions. These conclusions must be responsive to your research hypothesis. Maximum total length is approximately one to two pages, depending upon whether you need to define terms and, if so, how many.
Here are some common errors in Research Paper Proposals:
-no attribution of sources for definitions or no definitions for discipline-specific terms.
-inadequate research plan: the plan is a prose roadmap of where you want to go with the paper. It will useful for your outline, but it is much more general.
-no mention either in the introduction or the research plan of the need for interdisciplinarity [i.e. necessity for 2 or more disciplines] to fully study the topic
-expected conclusions: just as, in a case brief, the rule of law is the answer to the issue, in your papers, the conclusions must answer the hypothesis. Do not introduce into the conclusion any element which does not follow from your lines of inquiry for the hypothesis.