Your classmates are valuable sources of advice for you.  They understand the expectations I have for your research paper as well as the patterns of explanation I will look for in your final draft and use as a standard for grading it.  Additionally, they are intelligent people who can tell you when a topic is compelling and when it is boring. 

You want your topic to be compelling for several reasons.  The primary reason is that you will be working on this topic for the rest of the semester and you certainly do not want to make a conscious decision to be bored for the next  month. But another, equally important, reason is that you want people to be drawn into your topic as they read your paper.  If your audience is attracted to your details and main ideas, they will pay attention and be better able to follow the thought patterns in your paper. 

The purpose of the small group discussion is to get feedback from your classmates and me before you begin writing your research paper itself.  As your group members listen to you talk about your proposed research paper topic and thesis, they will be able to tell if you have clearly presented an argumentative thesis and main supporting points to argue, or validate, the strength of that thesis.  Additionally, they can give you feedback about the organization of your supporting ideas and if they feel any ideas should be left out or any added, to strengthen the overall structure of you paper. 

Another purpose of the small group discussion is to force you to speak about your topic. My guess is that you do not want to "look foolish" in front of your classmates, so you will work hard to prepare a good outline before you give your presentation.  This of course also insures that you work on your paper.  In addition to forcing you to work on your paper, speaking your ideas to classmates will probably make you more certain of the ideas you want to put into your paper and what order they best fit together to logically explain your thesis.  This idea of orally stating your ideas before writing is often overlooked by students, but can be a powerful organizational tool. 

Keeping this purpose in mind, be prepared to talk in a small group about your research paper proposal in class on Tuesday, March 24.  Your discussions should follow this format.