Research Paper
United States History Historical Research Paper
Introduction:
A survey course in American history normally offers little opportunity for a more in-depth study of specific topics. In order to give you the opportunity to explore at least one topic in more detail you will be assigned a formal research paper. In addition to offering you the opportunity to delve more deeply into one topic, this paper will help you to develop better research and analytical writing skills which will be important preparation for the college level work most of you will be expected to do in the near future.
The assignment is to write a 5-7 page paper that responds to a historical question. The paper you write must demonstrate both detailed research and analytical interpretation of historical relevance. Your paper should not simply be a report of information on your topic, but rather, should be a logical and thoughtful examination guided by a probing question answered with a clear thesis, supporting evidence and original analysis.
Required Components of the Paper:
Opening Vignette: This is a brief, creative application of historical information to a description of a scene taken from the time period of your paper.
Focused Introduction: The introductory paragraph (second paragraph of paper) must clearly state your guiding question and thesis. Answering the thesis question (or questions) is what the whole paper is about. In this paragraph you will also outline the subtopics of your paper.
Thesis: A clear and focused thesis summarizes the answer to your guiding question (or questions) and sets the specific course for the rest of your paper. This thesis statement must he in the first paragraph or two of your paper and should be bolded to be easily found.
Background: After the introduction, a few paragraphs should discuss the historical context of your topic. This is where you should tie your topic into greater historical trends of the era.
Analysis: In the body of your paper, it is very important to personalize your writing with insight and interpretation. Your analysis will interpret the evidence given and offer commentary on that evidence that links to your thesis; this is what makes the paper "yours" and not just a regurgitation of facts you found. Your analysis should show a skillful use of primary and secondary sources. Blending thoughtful analysis in your own voice with the facts and details you discover is the most important part of a successful research paper. Superficial or minimal analysis will greatly decrease the score your paper earns.
Works Cited and Footnotes (or Endnotes) in proper format: You are required to consult and cite from at least Five (5) sources for your paper. You should consult at least two (2) primary sources. Follow proper format for footnotes and bibliographic references as described on the handout provided in class. Attach a properly formatted bibliography at the end of paper. We will be using Chicago style of citation for this paper. We will NOT use MLA or APA.
Written Expression and Tone
Typed & 5-7 pages long not including the Works Cited: Your final paper should be typed and with a conventional font like Times New Roman.
Conventions: There should be no "I" "we." "you." or "our" in this paper and your work should be free of grammatical and spelling errors. Proofread!
Project Deadlines
Important: You MUST submit each of the benchmark assignments in order for your final draft to be accepted without significant penalty! As well, each benchmark must be met before turning in the next benchmark.
Annotated Bibliography with at least 2 primary sources and 5 total sources. / Monday, March 7thEvidence of Research: Source Card and Note cards (Turn in at least 4 Source Cards—with correct citation-- and their accompanying notecards. You should have at least 6 notecards per source card) You will also include a list of questions you still need answered. / Tuesday, March 15th
Rough Draft of the Introduction (Vignette + Intro paragraph w/thesis) / Tuesday, March 22nd
Rough Draft Outline and Draft of First 3 pages / Tuesday, April 5th
Feedback Sheet from Responsible Adult / Friday, April 8th
Final Paper Due
You will also turn in:
Introduction with my comments
Draft outline and first three pages with my comments / Monday, April 24th
Introduction
Your introduction should have two parts (how you divide this into paragraphs is up to you). Begin your paper with an opening vignette that gives a sense of the topic, time period, person or event. After the opening description, outline the structure of your paper. Naturally this is likely to change as you do more research, but draft an initial structure to your paper. The questions you included with your notecards should be helpful for this.
Outlining/Organizing Paper
Your paper can be outlined chronologically, or by classification (related topics in an area). Again, this may change as you write your paper.
Tips: -Refer to sources in the text and footnotes.
-Use transitions among paragraphs
-Fully develop topics. As you draft leave spaces or insert brackets to indicate areas for which you still need information.
Sample Topic: Why were so many writers accused of being Communists during the 1940s?
Questions: Who were some writers that were accused?
How were writers accused?
What was the evidence used against writers?
Subtopics (these are areas I identified in my brainstorm and have researched)
Richard Wright HUAC
John Reed Clubs US Communist Party
John Steinbeck Proletarian Writing
Arthur Miller Themes in Proletarian Writing
“Communist” themes in these authors’ works
Preliminary Outline from Notes
I. Opening Vignette
II. Introduction of Communist threat + Thesis
III. Writing as propaganda
IV. Writers who were accused
A, Background on Richard Wright
B. Background on John Steinbeck
C. Background on Arthur Miller
V. Communist Party and Writers
A. Other writers
B. Publications
VI. Suspected Writing
A. Proletarian Writing
B. “Suspicious” Elements
VII. Trials and Hearings
VIII. Response of Writers
IX. Public Response: Analysis of news articles
X. Conclusion
Bibliography and Footnotes/Endnotes
For this research paper you are required to properly cite your sources. All sources will be cited using Chicago style citations. The manual of style is linked at my website and can be found at: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html . This should be done in two places. First, you will need to cite your sources in the text of your paper. You may choose either to use footnotes or endnotes, either of which can easily be formatted using the Microsoft Word program. Second, you will include a bibliography at the end of the paper. Your bibliography will include a complete list of the sources you consulted, whether or not you cited from them in the text of your paper. Hint: this is where you will include any encyclopedias that you may have used to gain background information about your topic.
Formatting your footnotes/endnotes can seem overwhelming. It requires careful attention to detail. You will be citing most often from one of three types of sources: a book with one author, a magazine article with one author and a website. Listed below are the basic forms for each of these sources. If you find a source that does not fit one of these models, you can see your teacher, or you can check the Redwood High School library website (http://rhsweb.org/library/) to find the proper format for your source.
Book with one author:
Footnote/Endnote format:
1 Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States (New York: Atheneum, 1959), 155.
Bibliography format:
Flexner, Eleanor. Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States.
New York: Atheneum, 1959.
Magazine or Newspaper article with one author:
Footnote/Endnote format:
1 Barbara W. Tuchman, “If Asia Were Clay in the Hands of the West,” Atlantic, September 1970, p. 72.
Bibliography format:
Tuchman, Barbara W. “If Asia Were Clay in the Hands of the West.” Atlantic, September 1970,
pp. 68-84.
A general website:
Footnote/Endnote format:
1 William J. Mitchell, City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn [book on-line] (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995, accessed 29 September 1995); available from http://www-mitpress.mit.edu:80/ City_of_Bits/Pulling_Glass/ index.html; Internet.
Annotated Bibliography format:
Mitchell, William J. City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn [book on-line]. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1995, accessed 29 September 1995; available from http://www-mitpress.
mit.edu:80/City_of_Bits/Pulling_Glass/index.html; Internet.
This source has a chapter on Silicon Valley and will be useful in the examination of how technology that transformed cities originated in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a valid source because it is a published book that has been peer-reviewed by journalists and historians that write about cities.
Citation styles for other types of sources:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/footnote.html
Footnote Tips
A footnote is one of several techniques used in academic papers to cite sources of specific information within the body of your paper. Footnotes are done in addition to a bibliography. Footnotes are normally needed in three different circumstances:
1) A direct primary source quote
2) A fact, statistic or detail that is not “common knowledge”. “Common knowledge” normally means that the fact, statistic or detail is found in more than one of your sources.
3) When you paraphrase someone’s opinion, whether or not you name the source of the opinion in the text.
There is no exact required number of footnotes, but at least a few can be expected. If you have no footnotes or very few footnotes in your paper either means the paper is:
1) Very generic and poorly researched (no supporting quotes or facts that are only “common knowledge”)
or
2) Plagiarized. Plagiarizing is cheating and will result in a zero on the paper.
Using footnotes is part of the learning process in doing academic research papers – if this is your first time using footnotes, do not worry, just give an honest effort.
Examples
George Herman Ruth was born on February 6th, 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents were so poor; they sent him to live in an orphanage where he received the nickname “Babe”. Despite this tough upbringing, Ruth eventually went on to play professional baseball for the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.
Babe Ruth was hugely popular with the fans. Ruth demonstrated this optimistic appeal when he said, "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run" after being questioned about his high number of strike outs.
Babe Ruth eventually became such a national icon that he transcended baseball and became a symbol of everything “American”. An example of this wide reaching fame is illustrated by reports that during World War II, Japanese soldiers fighting the Americans in the Pacific used “Go to hell, Babe Ruth” as the ultimate insult towards U.S. Marines.
How to insert a footnote with Microsoft Word:
1) Place cursor where you want footnote.
2) Pull down Insert menu at top left of screen
3) Highlight Reference option
4) Highlight Footnote option and click
5) Use preset options when Footnote/Endnote box appears on screen and click Insert
6) Type footnote citation following proper guidelines at bottom of page
Sample Opening Vignette and Introduction
The roar of high caliber machine gun fire from Japanese fighters fed the confusion aboard the USS Oklahoma; the guns’ powerful rounds cut through men, planes, and boat. After three torpedo hits, the ship was capsizing, and her crew scrambled to abandon ship or to make it to the USS Maryland to man the anti-aircraft guns.[1] Suddenly, another explosion rocked the boat, making her capsize even faster and trapping sailors in her hull. Down the line of battleships, the USS Arizona exploded and went up in flames. Other ships were firing at the Japanese bombers with everything they had, but amidst so much carnage it seemed like little help. The message of the destruction was clear: direct involvement in World War II had begun for the United States.
When news of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor reached California, the residents of the San Francisco Bay Area panicked. Many believed that since the Port of Oakland was one of the major western shipping ports of the US, the San Francisco Bay Area would logically be the next target. But the San Francisco Bay wasn’t defenseless: on the contrary, its defenses had been redesigned due to a national modernization of coastal defenses that had taken place in the 1890s.[2] During that modernization, the San Francisco Bay took second place in national priority for upgrading, with only the defenses of New York Harbor deemed more important.[3] The problem with those upgrades was that by World War II, technology had advanced so fast due to World War I that it made most of the San Francisco Bay’s defenses outdated and obsolete. As war in Europe looked more and more imminent during the late 1930s, the US once again upgraded its coastal defenses, preparing for war on either coast. But the Bay’s coastline defenses weren’t the only thing changed by the war. Workers flocked to the Kaiser Shipyards in Oakland, soldiers embarked for the Pacific from San Francisco, and twice weekly radio broadcasts for soldiers in the Pacific radiated out from Treasure Island.[4] The San Francisco Bay Area became the hub of preparation for the west coast defense, as well as the industrial powerhouse for the very real war in the Pacific. This flurry of activity profoundly changed not only the Bay Area’s infrastructure and environment, but also the social status of its residents, women in particular.
[1] “USS Oklahoma BB-37,” Navy History, http://www.historycentral.com/navy/battle/Oklahoma.html
(accessed 4 Apr. 2012).
[2] “Seacoast Defense – Fortress San Francisco,” World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area, http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwiibayarea/seacoastdefense.htm (accessed 9 Mar. 2012).
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.