Paper+Guidelines

PAPER GUIDELINES  The paper is worth 15% of your grade and is 4-6 pages in MLA format (or any other standard format like Chicago, Turabian). Papers should be no wider than double-spaced, with standard margins and text size. This is a short research paper, which means that you need to use (at least) 2-3 sources from which to draw your argument. One of them must be a book. Others can include academic articles, film (no more than one), websites and literature. More than half of the paper should be in your own voice (not simply summary of these sources, but commentary on them). **Grading Rubric:**  1. Length and source requirement (4-6 pgs.- 2-3 books, articles and primary sources): /10 2. Grammar, spelling, punctuation:/10 3. Style, clarity, effective communication: /10 4. Creativity, boldness, unusual topic: /10 5. Engagement and effective argument: /10 _____

Comments: / 50 

There are several basic options when choosing a topic for your paper:


 * A) Write your own history.** Pick an aspect of your identity that you would like to explore (e.g. country of origin, religion, ethnicity, class, etc.), and connect it to the history that we have covered in our class. Gather sources that cover the period and place in which you are interested, and interview family members to connect yourself personally to the topic being explored.

//Example//: Bertrande’s parents are Haitian. They immigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s while “Baby Doc” Duvalier was ruling Haiti as a dictator. Bertrande interviews her parents about the economic and political problems Haitians were facing in their lives and during that of their parents. Using a book on the Haitian Revolution and another book on 20th century Haiti, along with several articles, she writes a paper discussing how her parents reasons for emigrating was directly historically related to the reaction of the world to the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804.


 * B) Choose a topic from one of our classes**. Add sources of your own. Your goal should be to go beyond the sources and make an argument about how to understand the period better or what it means.

//Example//: John reviews the recommended sources and begins reading other material on the Iroquois Confederacy and other North American First Nations. He begins to think that the picture Prof. Tyner painted of the Iroquois was too idyllic and ignores the fact that the experiment would never have worked without French funding and constant warfare. He complies a list of sources that he can use to support this position and to argue with when writing his paper.


 * C) What are you interested in?** Email me a proposal by September 17, and we will exchange some emails about the topic and bibliography.

//Example//: Nelly is interested in the emergence of professional sports in the United States and wants to argue that there is a connection with the emergence of militarism in American culture. We discuss sources, she writes her paper.

Some of the elements present in an "A" paper: Some of the elements present in a "C" paper: Some of the elements present in a "F" paper:
 * PAPER GUIDELINES:**
 * Few or no grammatical errors (use spell check!)
 * Uses plenty of sources, well and regularly
 * No more than half of the paper is composed of summaries of the sources. Most of paper is the student's thoughts, analysis, interpretation and argument
 * Creativity - the student makes a creative and interesting argument, especially by arguing against the teacher or saying something bold and supporting it
 * The argument is convincing
 * Doesn't quite meet the page requirement (except by increasing text size and margins)
 * Obviously hastily written, with many grammatical and spelling errors
 * Most of the paper is quotes and summaries of the sources
 * Argument is unclear, ineffective
 * Only uses 3 sources, or no books
 * Any part of the paper, even in a single sentence, presents the words of others as one's own (no quotes, rearranged entire paragraphs from a website, etc.)
 * The paper is invisible or for some other reason cannot be seen or read or graded by the teacher.

For a helpful guide on how to develop an argument, take a look at Brooklyn history professor Mark Wilson's guide on the ; for info on how to properly cite your sources, see his guides on  and.