Click here for a list of broad areas of interest to get you started!

Assignment

The culmination of your experience in this colloquium will be a research paper and panel presentation.  Although you have been working on this project since Week 3 of the seminar, your research project will be your primary focus during the last six weeks of class.  Your grade on this paper will be based not only on the final
product, but also your timely completion of several “lead-up assignments,” including:

     * Initial project statement - Due Week 4
     * Revised project statement and partial bibliography - Due Week 8
     * Project outline & partialy annotated bibliography - Due Week 10: Wed., March 18 (in class) or Fri., March 20 (in my office)
     * Writing workshop sample - Due Monday, March 23 or Monday March 30
     * Rough draft of research paper (at least 10 pages) - Due April 15 - marked up copy with suggestions will be returned April 22
     * Panel presentation - April 8, April 15, or April 22
     * Final Draft of Research Paper (with writing sample and marked up rough draft) - in my office by 5:00 p.m., Wed. April 29
 

Grading criteria

Interpretation:  have you developed an argument or point of view that has breadth, coherence, and insight, and is more than a description of "what happened" or a summary of other people's ideas?

Evidence:  how good is your command and deployment of relevant material, and are you employing the best evidence available to make your points?

Expression:  is your prose clear, concise, and engaging?  Do you introduce your argument in a well-articulated thesis statement? Do you have a title?  Do you use proper documentation for quoting and paraphrasing?  Is the paper grammatically sound (subject/verb agreement, complete sentences...)?  Are there spelling errors (for every three spelling errors, I will drop your grade by a third)?
 

Step by step

Defining topics
    Brainstorming: interests, questions, reading, thoughts
    Historiography: encylopedias/dictionaries of Late Antiqtuity; published bibliographies
    Problematic
    Initial project statement

Narrowing topics
    Availability of sources
    Research questions
    Finding a niche

Identifying sources
    Primary sources
    Secondary sources
    Working bibliography

Working with sources
    More research questions
    Revised project statement
    Standards of evidence
    Documentation

Outlining and drafting
    Organizing thoughts
    Arguments
    Deploying evidence
    Style and usage

Peer review
    Editing and revising
    Presenting historical work
 

Final checklist

As you write and revise the paper, please consult the Writer's Handbook available at the University of Wisconsin, Madison Writing Center webpage:   http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/  - You will find very helpful guidelines here for reserach, writing, editing, and proper citation of souces.

Your paper should have/be:

     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!)

     15-20 pages of text, preferably with footnotes rather than endnotes.  Use 12-point font and standard margins (1 - 1.5 inches).

     A complete bibliography that uses a standarized, accepted citation format.

     Page numbers.

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

     Printed on a laser-quality printer.
 

Turn in your writing sample, your revised project statement & outline (with my comments), and your rough draft along with the final copy of your paper!  You can turn it in to me (I will probably be in my office most of the day) or into the History Department Office on the ground floor of Keene-Flint.  Make sure it's in by...!