At the same time, we often see very interesting directions for a research proposal and can easily push a student down a path that she would not have chosen on her own. It is a complicated dilemma. Expect to get many proposals that are too broad and general. I focus on these kinds of proposals below. But two other proposals merit brief discussion.
Some students select a topic that is just too specific.
This is relatively rare and the dearth of sources in the annotated bibliography usually signals that the student needs to broaden the topic a bit. We can help the student by getting her to think about a context for the topic, or by helping her drop from the specific issue a little bit. More common is the student with an ideological axe to grind in her project. This student tends to ignore sources that challenge her position. Students who choose very controversial issues can be prone to this sort of project.