• State the writing/research question (or questions). For example: "My essay will explore the intersections of representations of gender, class, and race in seventeenth-century English literature. In particular, I want to explore the ways in which understandings of femaleness and blackness merged and overlapped and how they serve to construct the (unmarked) English gentleman. I also wonder if/how understandings of these categories changed over the course of the seventeenth century. How did the Civil War inflect social categories? What was the effect of the Restoration on dominant thinking about gender and race? How is 'gentle' status different by the end of the century?"

• Delineate the main areas of your proposed inquiry and analysis. For example: "In order to answer these questions, I will look in particular at narratives of plantation and discovery (Raleigh, Hakluyt), at Jonson's masques, Behn's plays, and Nashe's Unfortunate Traveller. I will rely in particular on the analyses of Kim F. Hall, James Shapiro, and Walter Lim."

• Suggest how you will organize the material in your essay. For example: "I plan to begin with an overview of recent literature that connects gender and colonialism. From there, I will move chronologically through the literature of the century, since I hope to show how notions of nation and class changed over that period.

• Provide an annotated bibliography of at least ten sources (including class readings as appropriate), listed with correct citation form using an accepted documentation style, each of them annotated with 2-3 sentences summarizing the author's argument.

• List three journals where you might attempt to publish an article on this topic, noting what makes each of them particularly appropriate sites for your proposed article.

The prospectus is due in class Wednesday, February 20. It counts as10% of your total grade.