history

mber of

hours reading and writing about it.

For topic ideas, check the weekly schedule of

th

emes in the course syllabus (ex

amples there include Reconstruction, Inequality, Black Power

Movement, Central America), then narrow th

e

theme by isolating a part

icular region of the

country and/or

peri

od of time (like Industrialization in the South, or

the

“

Red Scare

”

in the 1950s

, or the Feminist

Movement in the 1970s

).

Check your topic with me if you are unsure at al

l. I

can

recommend

scholarly

(i.e., peer

-

reviewed) sources

to use as well, if that is helpful to you.

Thin

k of

your paper as an extended

response

to one or two central questions, based on research

using scholarly sources and sou

nd arguments infor

med by learnings from class lectures, discussions, etc.

Establishing one or two research questions at the beginning of the process enables you to read your

sources with those questions in mind and cut throu

gh what is not necessary for your purposes.

General

Writing

Guidelines:

Avoid rambling,

overly

general statements. F

ocus

on

specifics

and describe

major shifts and changes,

historical patterns, trends,

movements, and events discussed in

your sources.

Doing history is about

tracking change over time

;

analyzing

social, cultural, economic, and political developments

in particular

contexts

; and

examining structural elements and everyday

life, with human actors across socioe

conomic

categories.

You will be graded on the substance of your writing as well as the correct usage of grammar,

spelling, and

good structure and

organization. Write in complete sentences. Well

organized papers will

have a thesis

statement

(central argument or point)

, an introduction,

a conclusion

,

and be broken into

several paragraphs with topic

sentences.

Your thesis, or argument(s), should

be clearly stated in both the

introduction and conclusion sections, with the rest of the paper exploring and supporting that thesis.

Citations

:

Use the format required by your major/di

scipline. Whatever you use, be consistent

, and do it right

.

Whether you use MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, or other, you might

consider

it

a choice between a)

parenthetical citations in the text with a Works Cited page at the end, or b) footnotes with the full citation

of the article or

book at the bottom of each page.

If you quote phrases or sentences directly from the text you MUST

place these quotations in

quotation marks and use appropriate citation (footnotes or

parent

hetical). Copying directly from the text

without quotations and citation constitutes

plagiarism, will result in a zero on the paper, and may be

reported to

university disciplinary authorities

.