Dream Ingredients Assignment
For the Dream Ingredients assignment, I want you to create a list of six primary sources you believe to be the strongest and most compelling—that contain the most credible and convincing data/evidence or information—to substantiate your working argument/hypothesis.
Get creative. Think big. Be ambitious, yet realistic (i.e. you have a real shot at obtaining it). The goal is not to identify the exact “correct” sources but to get a better idea of what type of evidence you think you’ll need to convincingly answer your questions and substantiate your argument. It’s a starting point.
You will submit your list as a Discussion Post so that we might help each other brainstorm sources by offering leads for potential sources or specific sources. You are not required to respond, but if you have a suggestion-offer it up!
After I review and approve them, these sources will be the ones you evaluate in the Primary Source Analysis assignment.
Guidelines and Grading Criteria
Be sure to include the following:
Main Question and Hypothesis
Please list your main research question and your working argument/hypothesis first.
List of Primary Sources with Rationale
List each primary source using correct citation style and structure. Include brief 1-2 sentence explanation (50 words or less) of why you think the source is a “dream” one.
It’s important to list your sources using correct citation style and structure because it will not only tell me what kind of primary source it is but also when and where it comes from (and so you won’t forget where you found it!). For the most part, citations of primary sources include pretty much the same details and description (full name of author/creator; name or title of item; data of publication, when you retrieved it) regardless of citation style (APA, MLA, or Chicago). However, the structure and order in which these details are listed vary according to style—and differ slightly in description depending on the type of source. So please refer to the Library of Congress for guidance, as this is what I’ll be using to evaluate your citations:
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/citing.html (Links to an external site.)
You’re free to choose whichever citation style you like, although I’d go with the one most commonly used among your areas of study. The most important thing is be consistent. Check out the sample “Dream Ingredients” assignment available in this module for examples of primary sources listed in Chicago-style and an overall sense of how your citations should look.
Finding and Collecting Primary Sources
I’m sure many of us are wondering: “Okay, but what kind of primary sources do I need to collect to support or test my working argument/hypothesis? As interdisciplinary researchers, how do I know what I need to find? And how do I collect them? In the following video, I’ll answer these questions and provide some tips and suggestions.
