History Paper

Primary Source Investigation Project Instructions

Historical research necessitates utilization of primary sources such as newspapers. From colonial times, newspapers in the United States have been important in reporting, interpreting, and sometimes shaping events.

For this project, select a topic that we have studied in our course and locate three historical newspaper articles that discuss your chosen subject. This can most easily be accomplished by utilizing the MTSU library historic newspaper database.

What to Do

Think of a topic you have found of interest. Introduce your chosen topic in an opening paragraph (American Revolution, slavery, women in early American history, Native Americans, aspects of the American Civil War. The possible list is endless). Then, locate three articles that address the subject you have chosen.

Discuss the three articles you selected one at a time. Start with the first one you choose- perhaps underline its title and year of publication, give a few paragraphs summary of the article and then a paragraph or two of your analysis of it. Is the article historically valuable? Is the article biased? Does the article help us in understanding the past? Perhaps or perhaps not. Then do that two more times for the other two articles. You should end up with about one typed page per article for approximately three pages total plus a cover page. To be clear, the assignment calls for three pages typed, double-spaced twelve-point font in Times New Roman with 1” margins. The cover page should include your name, course number, and a title.

To Submit Your Project

The paper can be submitted in the Dropbox listed under 'Primary Source Investigation Project.' This project will help you learn the fundamental methods of research used in history and will assist you in learning to analyze and critically evaluate what you find, as well as connecting the past with the present.

This paper is an ideal opportunity to improve your grade. It is a humble project that should not be too time-consuming. Just provide a reasonable analysis of three newspaper articles relating to one single topic in American history from colonial times to the Civil War. The paper is worth 200 points. The due date for the primary source investigation paper is April 28, 2019 at 11:59 pm.