Through this week’s process of thinking, drafting, talking, and reading, you’ve likely got a much clearer picture of the project you’re proposing to write. So take this opportunity to revise your proposal and bibliography. And I mean really revise them: You don’t yet know (nor should you) what Big Idea you’re going to present in your TED Talk. But you should have a crystal clear sense of the question and subquestions you’re asking; you should be able to articulate clearly and confidently how and why they’re bound to yield an original and exciting idea to share with the TED audience; and you should be able to explain in detail why that idea will excite both the scholars and the laypersons in that audience. You should also have at least 8 sources to help you (no more than 4 from popular sources found via Google and at least 4 gathered from the Libraries databases), and it should be clear from your annotations — clear not only to you, but to me — how those sources will help.

So, read again the prompt for the proposal and the one for the annotated bibliography and, in a new document, revise both to create a vivid and compelling vision of the research project that you’re undertaking.

N.B. Sometimes folks assume (incorrectly!) that things like proposals and annotated bibliographies are relatively unimportant, that they’re just checkpoints for the teacher to make sure you’re following instructions or (worse) busy work on the way to the “real” writing.

Let me assure you: Nothing could be further from the truth.

A word to the wise: The work you’re doing now will pay real dividends going forward. And so, to emphasize the point, I’m going to grade these revised proposals and annotations pretty darn hard. Calibrate your efforts accordingly.

Another word to the wise: The point of research — real research, the kind you’re doing now — isn’t to find support for ideas you (or someone else) already has; rather, the point is to invent new ideas. So if you think you already know what you’re going to argue in response to your research question, then — believe it or not — you’re on the wrong path. Research is a process of invention: i.e., of building new knowledge. True, as researchers we build upon the work of our predecessors. But scholarly research isn’t a way to confirm what we think we already know; it’s a way to develop an original, credible contribution.

In the case of this TED Talk, you’ve set out to discover something new about what technology means for us as human beings. Your proposal and annotations should reflect that search for new meaning.