Securing Sponsorship for Undergraduate Independent Study (COMM 489)

The following general principles constitute requirements of Robert Gaines in his sponsorship of undergraduate independent study (COMM489). The principles may also be useful as guidelines for the preparation of proposals for other faculty members in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland.

1. You should have a specific research area that you wish to investigate; this research area must fall clearly within the communication field.

2. You should have a research question (or hypothesis) that you wish to pursue through independent study. The research question (or hypothesis) should either concern an issue not explicitly covered in a departmental course or represent an extension of some issue explicitly covered in a departmental course you have taken in Communication.

3. You should provide your potential faculty sponsor with a written proposal which details how you will pursue your research question (or hypothesis), what are the expected outcomes of the research, and how the independent study project will be evaluated.

a. The proposal should state clearly what research question (or hypothesis) you wish to pursue.
b. The proposal should indicate that your research question (or hypothesis) is pertinent to a research area in the communication field.
c. The proposal should include a bibliography of materials (e.g., books, articles, web sites) that you will consult as part of your independent study project.
d. The proposal should specify the frequency and purpose of your contact with the faculty sponsor during the independent study project.
e. The proposal should describe the product(s) that you will produce during your independent study project (e.g., essay(s), presentation(s), program(s)). The due dates of submission for each of the product(s) should be specified.
f. The proposal should specify the number of credit hours requested for sponsorship and the procedure by which the independent research project is to be graded by the faculty sponsor. If there are multiple products of the independent study project, the proposal should specify how each product is to be weighted in the final course grade.

4. All documents submitted pursuant to independent study, including the written proposal, should be composed consistent with the advice in Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, 7th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Last Updated 8 September 2007