history 1301 Aj

GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH PAPERS FOR HISTORY 1301

In order to receive credit for a research paper, the student must submit a paper prepared in accordance with these guidelines.

Before beginning work on a research paper for History, you should do the following:

1. Get the topic approved by the instructor.

2. Do some preliminary checking of available resources to make sure that you will be able to find enough information about the topic you have selected.

LENGTH: The body of the paper should be 6-8 double-spaced pages. In addition, you should include a detailed outline.

A minimum of 6-8 different sources of information (books, articles, interviews with resource persons, and/or video material) including dictionaries, encyclopaedias and internet. And the utilization of peer-reviewed scholarly sources with proper citations.

Your research paper should be an organized presentation of ideas relevant to the topic you have selected. And, while some of the sources of information you use may present a biased or one-sided view of some issue, your job, as a history student, is to present an objective analysis of the topic. Therefore, you will not only be organizing and summarizing the reference materials used, you will also be evaluating them in terms of their contribution to an objective understanding of the topic of your research.

ORGANIZING AND EVALUATING THE INFORMATION USED:

Be sure that you do each of the following:

1. State clearly the purpose or purposes of your research in the beginning paragraphs of your paper. For example, whether you are describing some historical event (such as the Conquest of Mexico by Cortes), exploring the causes and consequences of some historical event (such as the Crusades), make it clear to your reader from the beginning what you are doing.

2. Follow through with the purpose(s) stated in your opening paragraphs through-out the paper. Avoid including material that is not really relevant to the topic or purpose(s) of your paper.

Students should use the MLA STYLE.

Student's Name:

Date: Class:

Proposed Topic for Research Paper:

OK'd

Instructor's Signature