Conference Proposal versus Research Question

How does my Conference Proposal differ from my Research Question Assignment?

Research Question Assignment	Conference Proposal Assignment
Statement of the research question or problem as you now see it.  Give enough context for me to help you.	Refined statement of the research question.  Give enough context to engage your reader’s interest and curiosity.  Make the reader want an answer to this question as much as you do!
Tentative answering claim  or claims (thesis).	State your answering claim with confidence.
Tentative methodology	State your methodology with confidence.  “I look at X, Y, and Z.”  “I apply X’s notion of the spatial turn to two representative texts on each side of the year 1600.”
Bibliography (a list) with summary-style annotations (neutral).	Explain how your claim relates to other claims made by prior scholars.  Not a list but a narrative. Not a neutral summary but a “they say, I say” statement.