By February 13th, you should choose a topic from the list of nearly 30 Research Topics on the following page entitled: “List of Research Topics.”  I tried to assemble a wide variety of what I believe are interesting topics to choose from.  IF there is another topic you would like considered, email it to me in advance and state “why”, and I will consider it.

This paper is DUE April 30 but may be submitted after its due date for up to six days, with a deduction of ten points per day.  You may also earn 10 points of extra credit for turning it in two weeks earlier (April 17).

Your research paper will require you to provide in-text citations for direct quotes (only) and provide a Works Cited Page using complete MLA citation format. Any partial or incomplete citations will not count as a source, and points will be deducted per the assignment rubric.  You MUST use at least these three sources: one Primary Source, one Secondary Source, and one Scholarly Source, and then two others of similar nature.  You may use more than five.  Tertiary and Quaternary Sources may not be cited.

Research Paper Focus: You must focus your paper on the exact assigned topic.  For example, if the chosen topic is the Assassination of John F. Kennedy and you mainly write about his accomplishments as President, 25% will be deducted from your Research Paper Grade.  All Research Paper topics must be selected from the research topic list (or approved by the instructor).  If you write your paper on a topic that is not on this list and without my permission, you could receive a zero for this assignment and fail the course.  You must select a topic BY Feb. 13 (worth 20 of the 250 total points).  This can be changed after that date but only with the instructor’s written permission.

Annotated Bibliography: By March 19 you need to submit an Annotated Bibliography listing THREE sources you intend to use for the paper.  One must be a Primary Source, one a Scholarly Source, and one a Secondary Source.  These are explained in the “Types of Sources and how to find them” section in Canvas.  You are encouraged to use (and get extra credit for) the school Librarian as a resource.  This submission is worth 30 of the 250 total points.  (NOTE: you will need FIVE such sources for your final paper, but only three are required at this point.)

Research Paper Length: It is important that you meet the 1000-word minimum requirement for this assignment (there is no maximum).  Only YOUR words count, not excessive quotations or those copied from someone else.  [Note: quotes are good, even necessary for a well-written paper, but if in excess of 15% of the total paper those extra words won’t count toward the requirement.]  Also, only the body of your paper will count towards this word count.  This means that neither your header nor your works cited page will count towards your overall word count.

Note on File Type: Please submit all uploaded assignments as Microsoft Word Files (.doc or .docx, preferred) or as PDFs (.pdf.)  Because Canvas is not equipped and I do not have a Mac, I am unable to open documents in Pages (.pages).  YOU WILL NOT TURN IN A PAPER COPY OF THIS, only the above file on Canvas.

Note on Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the stealing of intellectual property and is therefore illegal.  If you knowingly copy information from another person’s literary work and do not give credit you will receive a zero on the assignment in question.  This same now applies for AI-generated text.

Step Two: Decide where you are going to look for your sources. Now that you know what you are looking for let us talk about where you are going to look.  Each and every one of the topics on the Research Topics List has been written about by Academics. In other words, for every topic, there is a myriad of scholarly sources out there.  The hard part is knowing how to find them.  For most students, the first step is turning to Google.  Again, see step one.  I cannot overstate what a horrible idea searching the internet is, particularly when you have free research databases at hand.  So instead of wasting your time on the interwebs and putting your grade in jeopardy, go search the library databases.  I have recommended a few in the Canvas Research Module, but you are welcome to use others.  Just remember that many databases include both scholarly and non-scholarly sources so be sure to click on the right buttons to isolate your scholarly sources.  With the recommended database I provide handy how-to instructions.  If you use the others just play around with advanced search features.  P.S. – Remember, Google Scholar is not a reliable resource.  The only thing scholarly about it is its title. 

Step Three:  Using the right search terms. This is a big one.  For many students, the first thing they do is type in their topic.  It’s a good place to start but what happens when you get zero search results?  The first thing to do is not to give up.  As I said before the sources are out there, they just might take a little more digging to find.  In most cases, the problem isn’t the database it is your search term.  Notice that the search term here is singular.  That is your problem.  A good researcher doesn’t head into the research battlefield with one term, they do a bit of pre-search (yes, I made up that word) to come up with a list of terms!  I know, work upfront.  But believe me, it saves time on the back end!

So how do you come up with this search term list?  First, brainstorm your topic.  In other words, what ideas are related to your topic?  What is he/she/it known for?  What makes he/she/it famous (or infamous)?  When did he/she/it live or happen?  To make this a bit clearer let us use an example, such as Jackie Robinson.  Now think about what we know about Mr. Robinson.  He was African American, he played professional Baseball (for the Brooklyn Dodgers), he lived during a time when society was very segregated.  So just from this brainstorming activity possible search terms could be: baseball, segregation in baseball, integration of baseball, baseball 1950s- 1970s, baseball hall of fame, American Segregation, the list goes on.  The point is that all of these terms relate to Robinson’s life in some form or fashion.

REMEMBER: Your research does not have to specifically mention your person, but it does have to relate to it in a meaningful way.  For the example above, if you are writing about Robinson, you could use a scholarly source on segregation to paint a picture of what life might have been like for Robinson.