The prospectus is the first writing assignment that asks you to pull your research together.
Academics often write prospectuses of papers on which they are still working.
Producing a prospectus at this stage in your writing process will help you to figure out your argument for yourself. Present, in 250-500 words, an overview of your research paper. Communicate, in a narrative format, the main points you will make in your paper, in roughly the same order in which they will appear in the final draft. Specify the historical context of your paper and the particular people and practices or phenomena that you will be investigating. Summarize the scholarly arguments concerning your topic.