GUIDE TO DOING PAPERS
Prerequisites for Research Papers
In using the term "prerequisites" I mean to imply that to merit a passing
grade papers must fulfill ALL of the requirements given below.
A. At least one week before each paper is due you must submit via DISCUS your topic choice and the most important works you plan to use. See below under Topic Approval for details. I will not accept papers whose topics have not been approved.B. All papers must be machine printed (or typewritten) and double-spaced with one inch margins all around. My preference is that you use CG Times font with a size of twelve points. Be sure to use Letter Quality printing that is nice and dark.
C. Length Requirements: Papers should meet or exceed the specified length requirement (3 pages, five pages or eight pages). If the size of your font is twelve points you may estimate that one page of text contains 300 words. Important: In calculating length of the paper you should count only the words in the text of your paper. Do not include words in the title page, footnotes, endnotes or bibliography in your figure.
D. Each paper must have a title page and it must provide citations using endnotes or footnotes. Your paper must also include a bibliography which lists all the works you used. Citation and bibliography style should conform to the Chicago Style as described in The New St. Martin's Handbook.
E. Page numbers are required. Page one is your first page of text, NOT the title page.
Citing Web Sources
When using sources found on the Web you have the same obligation to tell where your information came from as with any other source of historical information. The following on-line citation guide will show you how it is done.
Other Important Requirements and Suggestions
A. Once I return your papers to you DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY. In grading your papers I am concerned to see whether you are learning from the feedback I give you. Therefore, each time you hand in a paper you are required to hand in all previous papers with it.B. Only rarely do I misplace a paper, but it has happened. Therefore you should ALWAYS make two copies, one for me and one for you. Or, if you are relying on your computer files, make two copies of the file and keep them very separate from one another.
Topic Approval
Before beginning your research for either paper please use Discus to submit for my approval your requested topic choice, and your most important primary source (author, title, editor if any, place of publication, publisher, date of publication and volume) and your most important secondary source (author, title, editor if any, place of publication, publisher, date of publication and volume). No two students will be permitted to work on the same subject so it will pay you to make your submissions in a timely fashion. Before you submit your subject please check to see that no one else is claiming the topic that interests you. I will convey my approval by e-mail or Discus.
The Four Page Paper
This assignment is concerned with helping you to gain experience using primary sources (eyewitness sources) to explore an historical subject. You are to use at least three primary sources (including Douglass) to explore a significant issue having to do with the nature of the slave system. Such an issue might, for example, deal with some aspect of the question of how the slaves were treated by their masters. Or it might deal with the world of the slaves (e.g., family, resistance to slavery, religion, work, relations with overseers or masters). Get ideas for how to focus this paper from the assigned readings. Submit your chosen topic to me as described under the heading Topic Approval above.
The primary sources you use must use include at the very least: a) the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, b) a primary source that reflects the perspective of the slaveholders and c) one additional source reflecting the perspective of someone who witnessed slavery firsthand. This additional witness may be a slave, a free Negro, a planter or planter's wife, a non-slaveholding white or even a northern visitor to the South just so long as that person has had a firsthand experience with slavery.
As well you must make use of quality secondary works on slavery that will introduce you to the issue and explore its ramifications.
Remember to look above under Prerequisites for other requirements of
this paper.
The Eight Page Paper
This paper will be on a topic of your choosing that relates to some
aspect of the history of race in America. For topic ideas see my list of
viable paper topics. Like the first paper, this one is concerned
with giving you experience using primary sources, but this time you will
have greater responsibility for finding these sources on your own.
In this paper you should use no fewer than three primary or contemporary
sources and a good variety of secondary sources as well.. To get
the topic of your choice submit your subject choices to me via Discus as
soon as possible. When handing in this assignment YOU MUST HAND BACK
THE MARKED UP COPY OF YOUR FIRST PAPER.
Approaches to Finding Sources
When dealing with slavery start with the Selected Bibliography on Slavery that I have prepared for this course. If you need help beyond this, go through the bibliographies of quality secondary works on slavery looking for titles that might be published autobiographies, memoirs, collections of letters or papers, or diaries. A problem with this approach is that some of the works you find may not be available in our library. For subjects beyond slavery begin with the bibliography in Meier
When using the Hope
catalog to find sources try using the library's Boolean Keyword Search.
Search for likely combinations of key words like diary and southern.
Such a search would look like this on the Keyword Search line: DIAR?
AND SOUTHERN? The question marks make the search include word variants
like diary, diaries, southern, southerner and southerners. To get
a reasonably full listing of all the relevant primary sources you need
to try a variety of approaches.
Other Resources:
Syllabus
Guide
to Papers
Guide
to the Course
Discus
Email: cohen@hope.edu