Much of Scope and Methods is designed to prepare you for the essentials of writing a research paper for graduate level courses. In this short research statement, you should specify a research problem, a question that you will focus on. This is only a preliminary bibliography of five sources or so. You should lay out a brief, sketchy outline of how you will proceed. Obviously this is just a preliminary statement of your project.
Nothing is written in stone.
It is necessary to begin a research project with a research question in mind and with some general outline of how you will proceed. In the process of research and writing you will modify the original topic on innumerable occasions. I will turn back your proposals on the following week with comments and some suggested bibliographical sources. In this writing of this preliminary version you should follow Tom Cronin suggestions and the Writing Guidelines for PS 558. These guidelines as I have indicated will form the core structure for my comments.