historical topic or event 1880-present day – African Americans, woman, the social effects of a military conflict, slavery and/or indentured servitude, colonization, Manifest Destiny, the Red Scares, labor and unions
Course Research Paper Guidelines
Subject:
The Subject of this paper is to be over an event, a group of people,or a topic that pertains to this course.I end up getting a brief blow by blow of the war that does not qualify as a historical research paper. The student can choose any other topic that interested them as long as it is within the time frame we cover in class. The point of this paper is to make you somewhat of an entry level expert on this particular topic. Some examples of subjects could be African Americans, woman, the social effects of a military conflict, slavery and/or indentured servitude, colonization, Manifest Destiny, the Red Scares, labor and unions, the west etc.
Required Text and Sources:
To write this research paper the student will need to use at least one secondary source. The book is a secondary source so the students will be able to write the entire paper only using the text book. With that said, the student is able to pull information from outside materials. This includes both primary and secondary sources. The source, however, must be scholarly and legitimate. If in doubt, please do not hesitate to ask me. No Wikipedia!
Length and Structure:
This paper is to be four to six double spaced pages long. The paper should be written in size 12 Times New Roman font. The paper is to have one-inch margins, and the page length does not include notes or bibliography. The paper cannot be any longer than six pages.
Thesis Statement:
All historical works include a thesis statement as all texts are making an argument. As this is a history paper a thesis statement is required. The thesis statement is the argument that your paper is making, and should be present in the introductory paragraph/s. The main body of the essay should reinforce your argument or your thesis statement.
Overall Structure:
The essay should be broken up into three distinct sections. The first section is comprised of your introduction, which includes your thesis statement. The second section should contain your body paragraphs that reinforce your thesis statement. The third section is your conclusion where you bring it all together.
Completion:
The essay must be turned in both in class and online through the plagiarism checker. This is to ensure that the essay is the students own original work, and not simply copied and pasted from a website. If the report comes back from the plagiarism checker that the student did plagiarize then the student will receive a grade of zero and undergo the consequence of academic dishonesty as per the institution’s guidelines. If the student does not upload their paper to Turnitin they will automatically receive a zero.
Style:
This research paper will be written in the Chicago Style. The Chicago Style is the style used by historians, and since this is a history paper Chicago Style is required. Below are examples of how to cite various sources in the Chicago Style. If the student fails to use Chicago style citation it is an automatic 20 points off even if they cite MLA.
Book:
Authors First Name Last Name, Title of the Book (Place of Publication: Publishers Name, Date of Publication), Page Numbers.
James Oaks, Et Al, Of the People: A History of the United States to 1877 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 133-134.
Et Al is only used if the book has more than two authors
*** If you use the same book more than once you do not have to use this long citation after the first time citing the book. *** example below:
Author’s Last Name, Page Number(s)
Oaks, Et Al, 276-277
Academic Journal:
Authors First Name Last Name, “Title of Journal Article,” Title of Journal Volume Number (Date of Publication): Page Numbers.
Pramod K. Nayer, “Marvelous Excesses: English Travel Writing and India, 1680-1727,” Journal of British Studies 44, No. 2 (April 2005): 213.
You can use the shortened version of the citation here after using the long citation first.
Manuscript or Letter:
Authors Name, What the Document is, date of the document, Where you found the document i.e. what collection the document was found, collection number, where that collection is located.
James Oglethorpe to the Trustees, January 13, 1733, Phillipps Collection of Egmont Manuscripts, 14200:13, University of Georgia Library, Athens.
You can use the shortened version of the citation here after using the long citation first.
Website:
Author, “title of the page”, Title of the website, URL, Access Date
Kyle Dalton, “Revolt of the Marlborough: The Toll of Captain Codd”, British Tars 1740-1790, http://www.britishtars.com/2016/08/revolt-of-marlborough-toll-of-captain.html, Accessed September 16, 2017.
There is no shortened version of a website citation. You must use the long citation every time.
Lecture:
Speaker, title or topic presented, location, date.
Professor Amber Jolly, The English Civil War, Tarrant County College: Southeast Campus, Day 2 Week 3 Fall 2017.
There is no shortened version of a lecture citation. You must use the long citation every time.
Inserting footnotes in Chicago style formatting:
If you use WORD:
Place the cursor at the end of your sentence or wherever you want the citation.
Go to References then click on AB1 insert footnote
It will automatically place a number where your cursor is and drop you to the bottom of the page. The bottom of the page is where you will type your citation. DO NOT USE A CITATION GENERATOR!
If you use Google Docs:
Place the cursor at the end of your sentence or wherever you want the citation.
Go to insert then footnote
It will automatically place a number where your cursor is and drop you to the bottom of the page. The bottom of the page is where you will type your citation. DO NOT USE A CITATION GENERATOR!
If you use Google Docs make sure that you download your paper as a word document. So, go to file then click on download as Microsoft word. It’s that simple. You must do this before you attempt to upload your paper to Turnitin but ONLY if you use Google Docs.
To turn your paper in to Turnitin just click on the research paper tab if you are a blackboard user at TCC or go to assignments and then click on research paper if you are a Canvas user at Collin College then follow the steps to upload the paper.
JSTOR is a very helpful place to go to find a lot of sources for almost any topic. They are journal articles. How to access JSTOR:
TCC:
Sign into tccd.edu and go all the way down to the bottom of the page and click on libraries
TCC article databases click down arrow and go to JSTOR
Type a subject ie: women in the 1920s
Collin:
sign into collin.edu and go to cougar web login
at the top left click on libraries
go to find articles in databases and click on the letter J
then click on JSTOR and search a topic ie: 19th century Irish immigration
