Research Proposal-Thesis, Major Points and Plan

The topic I choose for this persuasive paper is "should funding for the U.S. space program be changed?" The two reasons why I choose this topic is because I love the universe and I want our space program to be better so that we can take actual people up into space and not just robots. I believe there is life beyond our planet Earth and that one day we may need to find a new planet to replace our own. Thus we need more funding for the United State space program.

The first characteristic of my audiences are space enthusiasts who will most likely be supportive of the space settlement ideas and in turn, they will vote for future space enhancement program. The second characteristic of my audiences are astronauts and astrophysicists who will be the ones to understand and explain why we need to go out to space. The third characteristic will be the law makers who will be able to change the space program to provide more funding.

The major scope will be on providing studies of space and answer the "why". I want to convince our law makers to support our space program. The major outlines will be funding, information about space, what if scenarios, current space missions and goals. Funding will outline about how much it will cost to support a space mission. Information about space will outline what is out there in space. What if scenarios will be about what will happen if we do not explore space. Current space missions will be about National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions and what they do out in space. Lastly, goals will outline what we, as a human race, should do in the next 20 years.

Some of the questions that I will try to answer will be: Why should we go in space? What do we need to spend all that efforts and money on getting a few lumps of moon rocks? Aren't there better causes here on Earth? Is there life beyond Earth? I think these are the questions that many people have in mind when we talk about space program, including myself. I plan to do research so that I can answer these questions and help people to understand the important of a good space program.

My research plan will be searching and reading through NASA and National Space Society websites. I will also look up space journals and books through Strayer University Resource Center and my local library.

The layout of my paper will include an introduction which will have attention catcher and my thesis statement. The body of the paper will list my major outlines which are funding, information about space, scenarios, space missions and goals. The conclusion will restate my thesis statement and brief overview of what space program is about.