You are to write a 5-7-page research paper about some topic from any period we will cover (something you would like to see in a museum, perhaps). You could look at food, dress, the development of theater, art, music. I will ask you to get me a short proposal (it need not be a formatted document). You will need to consult books and articles (not encyclopedia articles) in or through the library (so database articles are good)—no web sources (no wiki, no random web page put up by someone who dreams of western civilization—if you aren’t sure, ask me). Wiki is a place to start (and a good place for images), but a bad place to stop. I will ask for a rough draft (so I can check citations, works cited, and organization) and a final draft.The project will consist of several parts: a proposal (50 points—due 18 March), an annotated bibliography (50 points—due 1 April), an outline (50 points—due 10 April), a rough draft (50 points—24 April), a final draft (150 points—due 13 May (or later if I have not yet returned your rough draft)), and a presentation (50 points—the week of 15 May).
Proposal: Here’s what I want in the written proposal: a statement of your plan for research. What topic will you be focusing on? You will be graded on the appropriateness of the topic to the course, on whether your proposed topic can be done in 5-7 pages (that is, is it too narrow or not narrow enough), and on the availability of scholarly sources for your topic.
Annotated Bibliography: For the Annotated Bibliography, please assemble a list of sources you might use for your project. The file should follow the template I have provided and should include a properly formatted bibliographic entry using MLA7. You should annotate your entries, providing some commentary about what you find useful (or think you will find useful) about each source as you prepare your project; you do not need to tell me whether you think a source is scholarly or not—that is for me to assess. There may be more sources on the list than you actually use—and you may use sources not on the list that you find after the due date. Remember that five of your sources must be good secondary sources: these will not be sources written for the general public (e.g., encyclopedias, textbooks, many web pages); they should be articles or books written by academics for academics published in academic journals or by academic presses. If you are not sure if your source meets these requirements, please ask me. You be graded on the number of scholarly sources you have included, on your bibliographic entries, and on the information you provide about your source.
Outline: Please provide a three-level outline of your paper using the template I have provided: tell me how you are organizing this. You will be graded on the whether you have three levels, on whether you have both a 1 and 2 (or an a and b), and on the clarity of the information you include.
Research Project: The topic should be concerned some aspect of Western Civilization from earliest times to 1400. This should be focused—don’t try to cover the whole period or everything about your topic.
The project must include the following:
· a bibliography including at least 7 sources, at least 5 of which must be legitimate secondary sources of acceptable quality (no Internet, and no Wikipedia!), and meeting proper MLA7 standards for presentation and citation of sources,
and scans of, pdfs of, or links to the sources you used.
The scans, pdfs, or links should be submitted with the rough draft.
· Most important, your project must make some arguable point (thesis).
Your project will take the form of a Formal Research Paper. This should be 5-7 pages of text (typed, double-spaced), and should also include a Works Cited list with a minimum of 7 sources as described above—this should be in the same file as the paper itself. It should follow the guidelines of the MLA7 for presentation and source citation.
The rough draft will be graded on organization and support. Comments will be made about documentation and sources. The graded and commented rough draft will serve as the basis for the final draft.
The final paper will be graded on how well it meets the requirements of the assignment, including formatting, documentation, sources, and whether or not it reflects some consideration of the comments and suggestions made on the rough draft.
Presentation: You will also be expected to do a 7-12-minute presentation during the last week of the course. This should not be a presentation of your whole project. It could be just your images, or images plus a few important textual points. I will let you know about the schedule for the presentations and how the presentations will take place by early May.
Late research projects will NOT be accepted unless you have talked to me about it in advance. Final presentations, obviously, must be ready on time.
