420: Unit 3
History 420: United States, 1861-1941, Winter 2023-24
Part III, The Research Paper
22. Research Project-1 (See Guidelines.)
HOMEWORK for the project: Two things: 1. READ THE assignment thoroughly. Come to class with questions about it. 2. Choose a topic and two alternative topics that were discussed in the periodical literature of the time. THEN:
Take a few minutes to prepare for our METIC. Get a blank piece of white paper, and write about the quality of Harkness/learning environment in this class. Make two lists. What is going well? What could be improved upon? Tuck this piece of paper into a book that you bring to class every day. Before we go back into the classroom, we'll pass these around and read them anonymously and then have a discussion about them.
MEET IN LIBRARY. By now you should have a topic chosen. We will meet in the library as a group to work on our projects. We are skipping the librarian presentation since most of you got it last term, but make sure you know the basics of using the library databases and biblion.
DURING class time, we will set up a schedule of rough draft conferences. Plan accordingly. When will you need to begin writing to have a rough draft ready?
LINKS: On this web site, all my stuff on research can be found HERE.
PROPOSAL: Before the end of class, hand me a piece of paper with your Name, Format letter, a tentative title of your paper, and this sentence with items 1 and 2 filled in. (You'll probably figure out 3 only at the end of the writing process.)
CITATIONS: If you are compiling a bibliography now as you gather sources, rather than waiting until the final draft is due, good for you!!! Please include that below the proposal. BTW, most Exeter teachers (including this one) like you to separate your sources into Primary and Secondary. Here is a link to a Citation Guide you can use as a reference. More general information on citation can be found HERE. You are responsible for making sure any automated citation software you use gets it right.
23. Research Project-2 (See Guidelines.)
MEET IN LIBRARY. Work on your proposal/bibliography. You should be familiar with the relevant Libguide and the various electronic databases of periodicals (newspapers and magazines).
Find sources. Read them. Take notes. RESUBMIT your proposal with a bibliography showing that you have found enough articles that will enable you to do this topic.
24. Research Project-3 (See Guidelines.)
Continue with research but plan to begin actually writing the rough draft. A common mistake of researchers is that they wait too long to move from research to writing (Hint: the research can and should continue after you've begun to write).
25. Research Project-4 (See Guidelines.)
Meet in library and continue to work on your project. (See Guidelines.)
26. Conferences. We will not meet as a class. I will meet with each of you to go over your rough drafts in my classroom. Here is a schedule of individual meeting times. BRING TWO HARD (PRINT) COPIES OF YOUR PAPER. THIS IS IMPORTANT! And be on time. I have 33 people to meet with.
I'll look particularly closely at your bibliography, intro paragraph, and topic sentences of body paragraphs. (See Guidelines.)
Note: you should have an actual draft of a paper, not just notes.
27. Research Paper Conferences/Release time. All my US sections have release time for conferences on Wed. and Thur. Feb 7 & 8. C format also has release on Friday.
28. Revision. Work on producing the final draft of your paper. We'll meet briefly in the class to discuss the METICs you did; make sure you bring them. G format, Friday, Feb. 9; C & D Monday Feb. 12.