Make sure not to use Wikipedia as a source. It is not a reliable source as anyone can post anything to it. Also, avoid general websites such as ask.com, answer.com, about.com, or ehow.com etc…. Use authoritative sources on the topic of your paper, mainly sources from Coastline library, from government websites, from colleges, or from specialized websites.

Do not worry about the percentage of plagiarism in the proposal. The proposal is exempt from the plagiarism percentage.
But pay attention to the percentage in the research paper.

Although the proposal is tentative and you may make changes to the sources and outline later, it has to show a clear vision of a complete paper. It will be graded on the sources that contain information on the ideas shown in the outline. It will also be graded on the evaluation of the sources.

The thesis statement will be graded on clarity, emphasis, form, and grammar. It has to express a clear idea of what the paper is going to discuss. It has to show the emphasis of the paper as a whole. It has to be a complete sentence, not a title. Also, pay attention to that the thesis statement is not a definition of the topic. It just tells the reader what is going to be discussed in the paper.

The outline has to list clear ideas that the paper will discuss. Only the main ideas are requested. You may use bullets, numbers, Roman letters, or just a list of the main ideas in any order. This is not a formal outline. It is a very informal list of the main ideas that the paper intends to discuss (later you may discuss all of the ideas, some of the ideas, or additional ideas in the paper, as you deem best when you actually write the paper).
EXAMPLE:

Tentative Outline

Thesis Statement: Chemical Engineering

A. Introduction: A brief overview on the history of Genetic Engineering in Food

B. States that use Genetic Engineering and how they are dissimilar.

C. Whether or not Genetic Engineering is unconstitutional.

D. Whether or not Genetic Engineering affects human development.

E. Conclusion: Highlight the main ideas and bring them all together.

Tentative Sources: CITE 3 (example)
This source is reliable because the website is copyrighted, has contact

information available, and is updated.

The source provides specific

information on actual Genetic Engineering cases as well as provides

information on consumers rights.

Thesis statement: 15%
Outline: 35%
Sources+evaluation: 40%
Format 10%