This assignment is an
exercise in choosing, editing, and introducing a historical
document. The assignment requires you first to find a
suitable primary document, that is, a first-hand historical
source, such as a letter, an eyewitness account, an
autobiography, a diplomatic document, a contemporary pamphlet,
etc. The document may relate to any era we touch on in our
course material up to the midterm exam. You must
okay the document with me before you try to do the
assignment.
Next,
you will want to study the document to make sure you know what
it means, to what events or matters it refers, what knowledge
it assumes, to whom or for whom it was written, and any other
elements which would assist you in drawing on the document for
historical knowledge.
You
will then annotate the document, that is, choose a number of
spots in the paper which require elucidation to make sense
to the average educated reader. This might be a
really archaic word (but look it up to make sure it is
archaic. The Oxford
English Dictionary will tell you that). It could be a
first name (e.g.--"Freddie told me yesterday that the French
were massing troops in Alsace"--find out who Freddie was an
add the note: Freddie was Germany Foreign Ministry official
Friedrich Theobald von Reibersthal). It could be a foreign
word or sentence--translate it clearly however you can. It
could be an unusual or technical phrase: "We are all working
hard here at the stope-face"--explain this. Etc. Etc.
Choose a
section with 15 or more such points. You must annotate
consecutively; that is, in the section of your document you
choose to annotate, don't skip anything that needs
annotating. If you can’t find what something refers to,
give that a number and say, “I tried to find this and
couldn’t.”
On the
copy, mark those spots with a superscript, and
write an endnote or footnote which supplies the information
necessary to make it intelligible. Don't just restate or
explain. I can’t emphasize the last sentence enought. You
are not interpeting the document for the reader. You are
adding information, enough to help the average reader
make sense of the document.
Each
annotation should include the source or sources which you used
to write the footnote. These
sources must be solid sources, not of the anonymous
internet type. You may of course use Wikipedia to help
you figure it out, but you must find solid sources which
confirm your Wikipedia info.
Finally,
write a short (at least 800-word) introduction which will
serve to introduce the document to the general reader, put
it into its historical context, and perhaps point out
interesting or useful points about the document. You
should use at least three solid sources as a basis for this Intro. Give
footnotes for those separately from your annotation
notes/citations. No anonymous internet sources may
be among your three.
Put
the whole package together: title page (no
page number--and the first page of text is page 1), introduction,
the annotated document (with numbered superscripts
marked in the text), and the corresponding
explanatory notes or annotations, typed consecutively.
All of it must be typed double-spaced.
You
should put all this in one document so as to turn it in via
Turnitin.com.
You should either choose
a document which will require at least 15 notes or simply
use an excerpt of some longer document. In other words,
don't just pick and choose the spots for
annotation: annotate everything that you think needs
it--up to 15. If the document contains more than fifteen,
just annotate a section or excerpt which contains fifteen
notes. Again, please give, with each note, the source of
your information.
And
to repeat, you should create footnotes for the citations you
used for the Intro, then list the endnotes for the
annotation separately.
In your
introduction, DO NOT USE INTERNAL CITATION SUCH AS MLA
STYLE. All references should be in the
footnote/endnote style. Please see the following site
for a complete description of the required footnote style:
The Short
Research Paper
Short Analytical
Research Essay OR Analytical Biography
Research
Paper
The paper should have have a clear introduction, including
a "Fragestellung," as we will be discussing in
class. There should also be a clear, summary
conclusion. The audience is History students and
scholars. The paper should be in the range of 2700
words of text.
Think
of the framework this way:
Introduction
Body
Section I
Section II
Section III
Conclusion
Bibliography
The
paper should focus on a narrow, enclosed topic that allows
you to dig in and analyze a trend, event, person, episode,
etc. Beware of a
topic that is too broad. If
you can envision a book on the library shelf about the
topic you are thinking of, then you should narrow it down
drastically. Consult with me before you go too far with a
topic. I can help you avoid projects that are too broad or
otherwise too difficult.
As for
the writing itself, we will discuss systems for writing
larger research papers, and you must discuss with me what
system you will be using.
The
Finished Paper
The
paper should have title page and bibliography, but not an
annotated one. The bibliography must be works you actually
used in
the footnotes of your paper.
Please
note: you must write footnotes or endnotes in correct form
for the evidence in your paper. We will look at examples
in class.
Please
note that the actual form of the bibliography entries is
different from footnote references.
Don't Forget to Number
Your Pages. The
first page of your paper is the first
page of text,
NOT the title page.
You
should run spell check. And you should proofread
several times. Mechanical and writing matters will
be factored into the grade, for good and bad.
You
must turn in it in via Turnitin.com.
DO NOT USE AN INTERNAL CITATION SYSTEM SUCH AS
MLA STYLE . All
references should be in the footnote/endnote style.
Apart from The Chicago Manual of Style page given above,
you can also look at the following sites for a complete
description of footnote and bibliography style:
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocChicago.html
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/turabian_citationguide.html
Please NOTE:
bibliography entries are not arranged in the same order
and with the same punctuation as footnote references.
Plagiarism is so easy with electronic sources, that I want
to make clear my stance on it. If you simply rewrite
slightly some source you found on the internet (or in
print for that matter), that constitutes plagiarism.
If I discover this, you will receive an F for this course,
and I will report the case to the Dean and the appropriate
conduct committees. But whatever the conduct
committee decides, you will still receive the F. I
may not catch all cases of plagiarism, but I promise to
give immediate and full attention to those I do.
Give full credit for an idea, for any information that
goes beyond common knowledge, for someone's words, for
someone's brainchild, etc. Otherwise you are being
dishonest.
Same scope as the short research paper, same
requirements, except that the thesis/Fragestellung works
a bit differently. I will explain this carefully in
class.
Other Important Issues:
--ALWAYS number your
pages. Don't turn in anything to anybody that
looks half-baked.
--In quoting, remember to
TAG or attribute your quotations in the text:
don't just rely on the footnote to give that information
to the reader.
--You can make your writing
strongly immediately by revising out all the verbs in
the passive voice and most of the uses of the verb to
be.
--Please see the "Exam and
Evaluation Sheet" which I use to
help me mark papers and tests a bit faster and give you
an idea of what kinds of issues might come up.
This will give you some idea of what sorts of things to
look for --when you do your own revising.
FINALLY...
With both
papers, after you have gotten your paper back with
comments and a grade, you may choose to edit the paper
and turn it in again. If so, I will average the
edited version grade with the research paper grade.