The progress report is your opportunity to show me what work you have done on your research paper up to this point. There is some flexibility here, of course, but a successful report should show at least that you have done the following:

1) stated your research topic, question, and significance as Booth, Colomb and Williams (BCW) describe in chapter 4 of The Craft of Research.

2) collected and evaluated your sources as BCW describe in chapter 5. You should have a list of sources that you are using in your research and a short description of what is in the source and how reliable it is, along with any questions you might have about its reliability.

3) taken a series of notes from your sources. If you'd like to show me the notes that you've taken, I'd be happy to look at them. But you should give me a sense of the scope of your notes by giving a few highlights, which sources you've already used, a description of how the process has been going for you, etc.

As BCW argue, the best way to keep the thread of research going is to write as you go, at every stage of the project. If you've got random scribblings, tentative outlines, questions about your claims, or anything of interest that you'd like to show me, please do so.

N.B. Please include your original research proposal along with the comments of your group members.

Late progress reports will not be accepted.