HIST102 short paper (3 Pages)

HIST102 

Read everything please:

 With this assignment, you will learn how to do proper and adequate research and write a short paper and prepare you for writing the research paper. 

This short paper is at least three double-spaced pages of text (Times New Roman, font size 12) and you must consult a minimum of two academically credible sources. Bibliographies and citations will be in the Chicago Manual of Style format or APA or MLA. 

The short paper needs to be turned in through the assignment section for grading. If you use any of the information from your sources word-for-word, you must cite the source by using endnotes or footnotes. If you read the information and write it in your own words and it is not common knowledge, then you must cite the source because you are paraphrasing someone's information. 

The short paper must include a cover page with your name, course number and course title, instructor's name, and date. You must also include a bibliography at the end of your paper. While composing your paper, use proper English. Do not use abbreviations, contractions, passive voice, or first/ second person (I, you, we, our, etc). Before submitting your paper, check your grammar and use spell check. Remember, the way you talk is not the way you write a paper. Please label your paper as follows: lastnamefirstnameHIST101ShortPaper. 

Information from Lynn:

Remember that: the more specific your topic, the better the paper. In other words, a paper focused on World War II in general will be a less scholarly paper (and not acceptable) than a paper focused on Army battles in Europe in WWII, for example. My topics ideas below are a little vague on purpose, you will need to refine them. If you have a topic in mind that is not on the list, but you really want to write on it, that is fine. Do NOT use tertiary sources like Wikipedia or answers.com.

The aim of the paper is NOT to repeat the basic elements of the topic that you find in textbooks. The aim is to read about your subject and become somewhat of an expert on it (hence the need to narrow it down) and both lay out the basic ideas and elements of it AND analyze it. So, for example: if you wrote a paper on the Iraq War, (which is too recent for this class), you would start by laying out some of the most pertinent elements of the facts of the war. But, the “meat” of the paper would be your analysis. What thinkers or politicians believe that we should stay in the war, what thinkers or politicians want to withdraw our troops? What is the background for these beliefs? You would state your case (backed up by the entire paper’s facts and analysis) – or your argument. This is a much different paper than simply stating statistics and a list of “who’s who”. 

Finally, once you decide on a topic listed here, but don’t know what some of the deeper questions regarding it are, just ask me. Make sure to use an American history topic, something covered in the text. 

Again, these are just ideas, you don't have to use them, and they must be narrowed down in all cases:

1. Tuskegee Airmen 

2. U.S. Army or Navy in WWII 

3. Women’s civilian or military roles in WWII 

4. Little Rock Nine

5. American labor movement 

6. The Bay of Pigs 

7. Stock market crash of 1929 

8. 1950’s culture and counter-culture 

9. Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s or 60’s 

10. LBJ and the Vietnam War/ Kent State 

• Students need to cite at least once every paragraph, to acknowledge an author’s ideas. This is done even if there are no quotes, see Chicago guides or APA guides for more information. If more than one author’s ideas are used in a paragraph, then more than one citation needs to be used. 

• Any quote needs a citation at the end of it. 

• Use both footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography. 

• Papers need an intro (with a thesis statement) and a conclusion. 

• Papers need a title page. 

• Papers should be free of writing errors, there is help available at APUS for writing if you need it. Watch for grammar, typos, etc. in

* No biographies (but you can focus on a person's work) and the topic must be in American history, in this period - after 1877.

Here are good websites for extra help with Chicago styles. If you take higher level history courses (300 and above) you will have to use Chicago (your syllabus has the standard info): 

http://library.osu.edu/sites/guides/chicagogd.php

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/hacker/papers.htm

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html 

If you see that two or more submissions are available, it is only if someone accidentally submitted a blank paper, or something like that.