nquiry Question and Capstone Project Proposal Assignment 
By the end of Module 1, you will need to decide on the topic for your capstone project, which will be a sustained, original piece of scholarly work. This capstone project is a scaffolded writing assignment that you will be working on all semester. After taking time to brainstorm possible ideas, engage in prewriting, and meeting with professor, you are asked to write an inquiry question and project proposal. 
During this first Module, we will read about and discuss the process of developing an inquiry question. I plan to meet with you all individually (via phone, Skype, WebEx, or Google Hangout) to discuss your academic and personal interests and help you develop and hone your topic.
The project proposal is a persuasive document; you need to convince your reader that this is a topic worth pursuing and one that can be addressed in 15-20 pages. You will need to make sure your topic is not too broad or too narrow. It can be challenging to develop a sufficiently focused project, particularly when one is passionate about their chosen topic. Students will commonly attempt too much, for example, by identifying a problem that is too broad or too complex and time-consuming to be tackled in just a few short months. The project might need to address only a small “piece” of the larger puzzle, perhaps by completing a first step or two, but the wonderful thing about identifying a problem in your cognates/chosen profession is that you may continue to work on it even after you graduate.
The proposal should be approximately 2 pages long and should include:
a draft title for your project (with an understanding that it’s likely to change during the writing process);
an introduction with a brief narrative of how you came to choose the topic and how it relates to your cognate or 2 disciplinary areas, previous coursework, and/or future career goals;
the primary research question(s) you want to investigate;
the primary audience of your essay (could be academic specialists in the field or a more general audience);

some of the possible points/arguments you hope to make in the essay.

A proposal is a speculative document. It’s quite possible as you start to research the topic and write the essay that you will develop new ideas and arguments (that’s one of the exciting things about writing!). It is important to start getting ideas down on paper and this proposal is the first step on your journey to writing your capstone!