what do you mean by "formal," and how is this different from step 2?
You might just want to pop down to the bottom, check out the samples, then come back up here to see what the assignment is all about. It's up to you.
The Museum Proposal is not just ca casual "I want to do a museum of make-up" or "I think something to do with cars might make a great museum." That sort of quick thinking happens BEFORE STEP 2, BEFORE YOU DO SOME BRAINSTORMING. You should already have your idea focused, refined, fleshed out. The point of your museum should be clear. The small size of the collection, the organization, the Special Exhibit for the Research Paper, specific items that go into each room--all of that was discussed last week. So "make-up" has already been reduced to "Deadly Make-up" and your special exhibit will be on "The Kiss that Kills - When Lead Was a Common Ingredient in Lipstick."
That was all quickly brainstormed, and a rough museum design was sketched out. This is a Formal Proposal, typed in MLA format, developed in complete sentences and paragraphs, and it must include a number of things:
The unique focus of your museum needs to be explained in some detail (Coffee Museum is non-specific, but Museum of Convoluted Coffee-Brewing Contraptions is nicely focused).
We need to know why we are looking at this collection of things; what's the point? Not because "They are neat" but because they reflect WHAT element of civilization and HOW? Put this in the context of Station Eleven. This "point" of your museum is its mission statement.
Explain how you are going to separate out different exhibits into categories (grouped into different rooms or spaces or displays).
Look ahead to Step 4: The Research Paper which will focus on just one attraction or exhibit or thing or small display in your museum. It should be a thing that has an interesting or surprising or controversial or trend-changing history that you can explore (research) in great detail, and there need to be adequate sources to do detailed research.
You need an MLA-8 formatted Works Cited page for just that one Special Exhibit (not the entire museum). The minimum number of sources/entries is three; at least one of those must be a book.
Include a rough sketch of your floor plan that shows how you are separating your collection into logical exhibits. A regional Guatemalan Cooking Museum might have rooms associated with each region in Guatemala that have distinctly different cooking techniques, apparatus, recipes, etc.
NOTE: the floor plan drawing can go before or after your Works Cited page (your choice).
very important points
If you did not print out and read the MLA-8 Works Cited Information page (Files section of Canvas), and if you did not yet read The Special Lecutre on Research, you have some rapid catching up to do. This time you are porducing a Works Cited page. So, yes, the paper itself must be in MLA document format, but if the Works Cited page is not done correctly, then you are going to end up doing this over and falling behind (and likely getting frustrated). Yes, I know this is the same format REQUIRED in English 101, but some of you might have forgotten it, or your instructor may not have stressed it enough.
Also: if your Formal Proposal is not APPROVED, that is, if you do not do it correctly the first time around, you will be able to re-do it once more to try to get credit/points for this assignment. After that, if your topic is still unfocused; if you do not have a special exhibit to research; if your WC page is not in MLA-8 format, you can keep turning in revised proposals for feedback, but you will have lost the points. Yes, you do need to nail down this step to insure the Research Paper and Final Project are going to be done correctly, however, re-re-re-doing this stp not only chews up time, but it is frustrating, so please look at the samples, see what is required, and you should be able to get APPROVED the first time around. Here are the two most common reasons these do not get approved quickly:
- The museum was not narrowed down to something reasonably small and/or unusual that has a clear point.
- There is no single exhibt that is the Special Exhibit, the subject of the Research paper.
- The Works Cited page is not in MLA-8 format.
Now that you know, I'm sure none of you will do any of those three things.
and, yes, there are samples:
Here are two samples here for you to look at so that you are sure you are doing this correctly (the samples are also in the Files section of Canvas):
Formal Proposal on Barbie's Image Museum Formal Proposal on Failed Inventions Museum