Writing assignment #7, approximately seven single-spaced pages submitted electronically for Tuesday, April 7
Pages 1-2:
1a. Your working research topic as a set of keywords arranged into a title:.
1b. Why is this topic interesting and important to you personally?
1c. Why should this topic be interesting and important to other people?
1d. Your working research topic, phrased as a question: Why was/did?....
1e. Your one-sentence (hypo)thesis statement, featuring an analytical argument and narrative tension about the process of historical change:
1f. What kind of power was at stake for people in the past? In other words, why is your topic important for our modern historical understanding?
2a. Chronology -- time frame (from when to when)? Why?
2b. Start date (year or decade)? Why?
2c. End date (year or decade)? Why?
3. Geography -- specific place and general context? Why?
4. Who were the main social group(s) involved? Why them in particular?
5. Which of the following is/are what your paper is really about -- i.e., the metatnarrative, the highest stakes)? Why that? (This should be among the keywords in the title of your research project.)
a. rise of empire a. ideologies (values)
b. discourses (assumptions)
c. identities
d. social statuses
e. cultural styles
f. institutions
g. infrastructures
h. networks
i. spaces
j. activities
k. roles (occupations)
l. services
m. circulations
n. resources
o. commodities
p. objects
q. other (please specify):
7. Which of the following is/are course themes feature in your project? Why?
a. construction of ignorance in society
b. construction of “knowledge” about outside world
c. construction of moralistic self-image
Pages 3-4:
8. Keyword and subject search terms so far used in IUCAT or any other database:
8a. Keywords:
8b. Subjects:
(Always keep track of searches.)
9. Bibliography of secondary sources, drawn from IUCAT, the America: History and Life database, and anywhere else. These should be broken down as follows:
9a. Thematically central books and articles (these are crucial for helping you generate your own hypotheses and ultimate thesis):
9b. Useful background books and articles:
9c. From the existing scholarship we seem to know what (if anything) about your topic? (Base this assessment on titles, table of contents, and your reading especially of prefaces, introductions, conclusions, and epilogues.)
9d. Once you complete your research, how will you add to our knowledge? What will you tell us that we don't already know? Why is this interesting and important?
10. Bibliography of primary sources. These should be broken down as follows:
10a. What kinds of primary sources are these? E.g., genre of book? Newspaper? Magazine?
10b. What kinds of authors? E.g., elite? Middle-class? White? Non-white? Men? Women? Urban? Rural? Etc.
10c. What kinds of audiences? E.g., elite? Popular? Etc.
Page 5:
11. Tentative outline of paper, broken down into 3 sections:
11a. The before -- i.e., the early part of your paper will focus on what was specifically at stake in early American society concerning your particular topic; this is the situation at the starting point of historical change and narrative tension.
11b. The during -- i.e., the middle part of your paper will focus on what changed with respect to your particular topic; this is obviously the central analytical portion of your paper, featuring the process of historical change.
11c. The after -- i.e., the latter part of your paper will focus on the degree and scope of change -- the ultimate outcome -- with respect to your particular topic; this is the situation at the endpoint of historical change.
Page 6:
12. Introductory paragraph: This should include all of the above -- thesis statement (argument), the stakes involving power, chronology, geography, social groups, the metanarrative, the key concepts -- but in prose rather than outline form.
Pages 7-8:
13. Complete outline of paper, broken down into 13 substantive paragraphs:
13a. Particular topic of each given paragraph.
13b. Connection between that particular topic and your overall thesis.