The History of America

The History of America

You are being tasked with writing a research paper that tells the story of the United States through an historical perspective or lens. “The entire history!?” You ask incredulously. Yes, the entire history. Wow! How long does it have to be? You may be asking yourself this question right now. It must be 10-15 pages. Holy shcnikeys that’s short! I know—that’s the hard part, silly!

Two things make this difficult. First, telling the story of being American from a perspective means putting yourself in the shoes of the group you are representing and coming up with a cogent argument that represents that group’s view of what it means to be American. Second, condensing two and a half centuries of history into 10- 15 pages is challenging. In the process of doing these two things, you have to make difficult decisions: what parts of history get left out? What parts of history are MOST important in telling your perspective? What happens to truth, objectivity, and understanding when we leave out parts of history? These are all questions we will reflect on as a group through the writing of this paper. Your primary goal is to better understand what it means to “be American” from the perspective of the group your are studying.

Here is the task:

Choose a historical perspective (Native Americans, Women, Sports figures, Musicians, Immigrants, political groups, politics in general, social class… we can discuss others)

Develop a research question

Write the history of the U.S. through that historical perspective

10-15 pages

Minimum of 8 sources of information: 1 book, 1 academic journal, 1 encyclopedia, 1 primary source, the other four are open. PLEASE NO ASK.COM, WIKIPEDIA, or other NON-ACADEMIC sources; those are fine for background, but not good for citing in the paper.

Deadlines:

Research Notes Checks: dates throughout
Draft 1: November 20
Meet with Angie to discuss draft changes: Students need to schedule during after school office hours
Final Draft Due: December 18

Honors History Paper Packet
Keep this packet. You will have various deadlines associated with this packet to get points, and you will also be required to turn this in with your final draft of your paper.

Topic: From what perspective do you wish to tell the story of American history?
______

Brainstorm: Why are you interested in this focus for American history?

Preliminary Research /Brainstorm Questions:
1.

Thesis: After research and investigating, you will develop a thesis for your history paper.
EX: The story of young people in America is one that tells the tale of progress, hope and change. From the time of the war for independence to the era of the digital revolution, young people have been at the forefront of change for the better in this country.

Your Thesis: Due Date: ______

Good Researchers…
Here is a list of things you should be doing while you research.
Read through the list and place a CHECK MARK next to all of the things that you are currently doing.
Then place a STAR next to all of the things that you need to focus on.
Then, write your plan of action for the weekend.

1. Write down MLA source citation information for ALL research I do.

2. Take hand written or typed notes while I read and research.

3. Make note of the pages and sources my notes come from.

4. Take notes from the novel I am reading that strike me as interesting or that puzzle me.

5. Keep track of page numbers when I write down quotes

6. Spend time organizing my notes and information

7. Spend time synthesizing my research and notes (writing your thoughts and feelings about the research process and findings)

8. Keep track of my progress and set daily manageable goals for completion

9. Keep all notes and articles in one designated location (binder/ folder/ notebook/ desktop)

10. Read articles and texts in entirety to understand what the author is trying to say.

11. Use websites that end in org. or edu.

12. Use the library database

13. Go to the library and find books

14. Spend quality time reading about your historical time period

15. Generate questions or FIERCE wonderings about your author, time period, text

16. Answer those FIERCE wonderings through research

Reflection: What are your next steps? What will you do THIS weekend to meet those goals? Who will you check in with to hold you accountable?

Taking Notes

Source information: (MLA format) Whenever you find what seems to be a good source of information, write the information down IMMEDIATELY!

______

Summary of the source: