Confused about how to write a statement of scholarly intent

[JiHoo]

Hello,

I have worked in public service and non-profit affairs for the last 10 years, and am now applying to some Masters-level political science and public policy programs

The policy programs basically ask me to write about my experiences and motivations for applying, which is clear enough to me. However, for the political science programs , I am asked to write a 1-2 page statement of scholarly intent (or something to this effect), which should be independent of any autobiographical personal statement, and should discuss my main research interest and the main question I'm interested in examining as part of the program.

 I have been out of academics for a while and am not really not sure how to approach this. Like, do I outline what my thesis would be and the specific design and components of that (e.g. 'I would like to start by defining terms x and y, and establishing their casual such and such to ___)"? Or should I just discuss the issue I'm interested in without going deeply into how I would actually go about studying/writing on it?

Any help on this would be appreciated!

Edited October 11, 2018 by JiHoo