EUH 4930 Final Project Guidelines

The culmination of your experience in this seminar will be a research paper and panel presentation.  In close consultation with me and with members of your project group, you will develop a topic concerning some aspect of the intersection of imperialism and religion, preferably in the context of the British Atlantic world between the 17th and early 19th centuries.

You will be working on these projects throughout the semester, starting in Week 3.  Your grade will be based not only on the final product, but also your timely completion of several “lead-up assignments,” including:

• List of possible topics
• Progress reports
• Project proposal
• Writing workshop sample
• Rough draft
• Panel presentation

Grading criteria
ARGUMENT/ INTERPRETATION
Your paper needs to provide an analysis of the material.  Do not just describe events or summarize other people's ideas.  Frame your paper around a problematic (a question or issue for analysis).  Over the course of the paper, develop a logical, well-substantiated argument in response to the problem you lay out in your introduction.  Provide an interpretation that has breadth, coherence, and insight.

EVIDENCE
You should back up your argument with evidence from authoritative secondary sources and primary sources.  You must cite every idea you borrow from another author.  You must cite every time you quote a primary or a secondary source. 

EXPRESSION
Writing in clear, well-organized prose is crucial to effective rhetoric (the art of making an argument).  If a reader cannot understand your meaning, then s/he will certainly not be convinced by your argument.  Think about your writing in both global (the paper as a whole and its component paragraphs) and local (the sentences and their elements) terms.

The stages of a research paper

I. Identifying topics [list of topics/ small group meetings]
brainstorming: interests, questions, reading, thoughts
historiography (what is the conversation? include journal articles and use book reviews)
problematic (identify a central question or issue for analysis)

II. Finding and using sources [progress report/ project proposal]
the catalog: subject vs. keyword searching
sources of sources:
General Collection (published sources, document collections, microfilm)
databases (EOL, ECCO, EBBO, Historical Newspapers Online…)
Special Collections
the web (do searches for “your topic” and “primary sources” or “documents”)

III. Narrowing topics [project proposal/ annotated bibliography]
availability of sources
research questions
problem-centered history
finding a niche
developing  a working bibliography

IV. Working with sources [annotated bibliography]
taking notes
interrogating primary and secondary sources
revising research questions
developing a working thesis
documentation

V. Outlining and drafting
organizing thoughts
arguments
deploying evidence
style and usage

VI. Peer review
editing and revising
presenting historical work

Final checklist
As you write and revise the paper, please consult my writing guidelines. Your paper should:

• Have a title page (try to come up with an enagaging title, one that does not seem to have been thought up at the last minute!)

• Be 15-20 pages in length. Use 12-point font and standard margins (1 - 1.5 inches).
  
  
• Use footnotes, following Chicago citation format (for examples, see Rampolla, Pocket Guide to Writing in History)

• Include a complete bibliography, following Chicago citation format. Note that first names come first in footnotes, while last names come first in bibliographies. Divide the bibliography into two sections: primary sources and secondary sources.

• Have page numbers.

• Be proofread: avoid careless grammatical errors and typographical errors.  The spell checker is not a substitute for proofreading!