1 History 11 Topic Paper: Guidelines, Helpful Hints and Paper Prompt Paper Due Date: Please see the syllabus for the exact due date for this assignment. The paper will be collected at the end of class. Papers that are turned in after that date are considered late. You will need to submit an electronic copy through Blackboard and the Turnitin.com feature in Course Documents. Papers will not be considered turned in for grading purposes until both a paper and electronic copy are submitted. Length: 2-4 pages Format: double spaced, 12 point font, regular margins Prompt: see page 5. Sources and Research Expectations: The assignment for this paper is designed so that you DO NOT need to do any additional reading or research. The material from lectures and from our readings is sufficient for writing this paper. Assuming that you have taken good lecture notes and completed the background reading assigned for each week as well as the reading assigned for our discussions, you should be able to write the paper without consulting any outside sources. Citations and Documentation: Use footnotes for citations. Use The Chicago Manual of Style guidelines for the footnotes. You may decide that purchasing a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style is a good investment. You may not. If not, you can find copies in Madden Library. There is one on reserve and one in the 2 reference section. You can also consult the online version of The Chicago Manual of Style. The online version is not as exhaustive as the hard copy version, but for the purposes of this paper, the online version is sufficient. Access the online version at: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html If you would like to use a lecture as a source, you may. Remember that information that is considered general knowledge does not have to be documented—and much of the lecture material falls under this category—but there may be certain statistics or quotes from lecture that you may wish to use. When you cite from a lecture, use the format: name of lecturer, Title of Lecture (date and location of lecture). For example: Vernon Creviston, “The City on a Hill”: The New England Colonies, (lecture delivered for History 11, California State University, Fresno, Fresno, CA, September 9, 2010). As a general rule, the textbook is considered a source made up of general knowledge and, therefore, does not need to be cited. The exception, again, would be if you want to include certain statistics or quotes. For the most part, you should avoid quoting at length from your textbook. Why? Because secondary sources such as your textbook do not provide material for particularly interesting quotations. You should paraphrase instead. Primary sources, on the other hand, can often be great sources for quotations and should ALWAYS be footnoted. Rules on Citations: At all costs, you should avoid plagiarism. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to know what constitutes plagiarism. The “I didn’t know defense” WILL NOT WORK. University policy says the following: “Plagiarism is a specific form of cheating which consists of the misuse of the published and/or unpublished works of others by misrepresenting the material (i.e., their intellectual property) so used as one's own work." This means that stealing 3 from a famous historian’s book is just as serious as having a friend write your paper for you. Plagiarism can result in expulsion from the University. Plagiarism will certainly result in your failing this class. In citing sources, you do not have to cite information that is considered general knowledge. Much of the information in lecture and in the textbook is considered general knowledge. You do need to provide citations for things like statistics and, of course, any time you quote from a source, you must cite that direct quote. You must also cite any parts of your paper that are paraphrased from published sources. Remember, if it is not your idea, then you need to acknowledge the source. TO REPEAT: IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to know what constitutes plagiarism. Again, the “I didn’t know defense” WILL NOT WORK. Lastly, you will find a great aid for creating your citations in Microsoft word itself, under the References tab which allows you to select the style of citation you want to use and to insert the citation when needed. Please refer to the Microsoft Word help wizard for more on this or see your instructor personally. 4 Sample Footnotes colonies remained few in numbers and poorly organized.1 For Metzger, the colonial press played the primary role in mobilizing colonists against the imperial legislation with their anti-Catholic rhetoric.2 Sister Mary McDermott expanded upon Metzger’s views by arguing that for those outside of Puritan New England, it was the expansion of Canadian territory that proved to be the prime motivational factor driving many to the Patriot cause.3 While both Metzger and McDermott examined the impact of the Quebec Act on the thirteen colonies, their biased pro-Catholic views undermine their work. Furthermore, they not only look at the American colonies in a political vacuum, ignoring the leadership role that British opposition initially provided American colonists, but they also fail to recognize the influence the act has in the process of American declaring independence. Yet other historians would examine the role of religion in less strident terms, even if they too limited their scope to New England. Peter Doll provided an excellent example of how the Quebec Act helped identify social forces at work in colonial society, with his study, Revolution, Religion, and National Identity.4 While Doll’s primary goal was to ______________ 1 Charles H. Metzger, The Quebec Act: A Primary Cause of the Revolution (New York: The United States Catholic Historical Society, 1936), 204-205. 2 Ibid. 3 Sister Mary C. McDermott, “The Quebec Act” (Master’s thesis, Creighton University, 1930), 191. 4 Peter M. Doll, Revolution, Religion, and National Identity: Imperial Anglicanism in British America, 1745-1795 (Madison, WI: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000), 45. 5 Brad Jones, “England and Empire,” (Lecture given at CSU, Fresno Hist. 210, 14 April, 2008). 5 The Writing Center: Writing services are available in the University Writing Center, located in ED 184 of the Kremen Education building. Hours: Monday – Thursday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Friday 10:00 am – 2:00 pm Phone: (559) 278-0334 Writing tutors are trained to provide assistance on any academic writing assignments. During a session, students can work on the many aspects of the writing process, including topic choice, brainstorming, revision, document formats, and editing. The website is http://www.fresnostate.edu/artshum/writingcenter/contact.html Paper Topic: Frederick Douglass gives a vivid account of his life as a slave in the rural, plantation setting of Maryland’s Eastern Shore and in the city of Baltimore, and when his book first appeared in 1845 it caused a sensation and made Douglass a famous individual. With this in mind, please explain why this book would cause such a strong reaction in both the North and South. Why was it seen as divisive? Why would Northerners care about what he had to say? Why would Southerners see it as propaganda designed to dishonor them? Please answer these questions using your resources from this class and feel free to draw on not only Douglass’s account but also the material on antebellum slavery covered in both the textbook and in lecture. Indeed, you will need to refer to both your textbook and other sources from the class to help support your argument. 6 Please note:  Your essay should not attempt to answer all of these questions as you would tackle a laundry list, covering each and every question, one by one. Instead, you should approach them as a prompt to get you thinking about what Douglass was trying to do in his narrative. In short, you should aim to produce a coherent essay that addresses the general theme of the prompt as a whole. Helpful hints: Strong history papers must have a central argument. The argument is laid out in your thesis statement (which can be more than one sentence) and is woven throughout your paper. This argument is backed up with specific evidence. Your paper must have an argument that is backed up with specific evidence. If you do not know how to construct such a paper, you need to seek help from one of the writing centers. It should be obvious that some things we have covered in the course are not relevant to the topic. You should focus only on those things that are relevant. Pick what is going to work best for the argument you want to make. You may decide that a chronological organization works best for your paper. Alternatively, you may decide that a thematic or topical organization works best. There is no “correct” way to organize your paper. The Thesis Statement: • It is an argumentative statement, not a simple fact – Example of a thesis statement: “From its very inception as colonies, the United States has been a land of freedom and opportunity for all who settled here.” 7 – Example of factual statement: “The English colonies, from which the United States was created, relied upon the English form of government and law.”