Questions We Can Help You To Answer

Pick A Topic

Your first task is to select a topic for your final essay. The list below includes various types of focii (focus) for your essay where your topic will be, in effect, developed from the following questions. Your thesis will be an ANSWER to the statements provided and needs to be listed on the annotated bibliography.


Historians continually debate whether Reconstruction was a success or a failure. Based upon your investigation of sources, which side do you find the most convincing?
The Progressive Era represented a time of reform. What were the conditions within the US that helped usher in the perceived need for change?
WW1 is viewed as the End of Progressivism. Was that the case? Why? If not, identify the what ended the Progressive Era.
What was the significance of the Harlem Renaissance?
What were the economic conditions that led to the Great Depression?
Why is the New Deal considered a "triumph of liberalism"?
What ended the Great Depression and why is that significant when investigating the effectiveness of the New Deal?
Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
What were the core reasons why the US decided to use the atomic bomb on Japan?
What were the core reasons for World Division following WW2?
What was the significance of Kennan's "Long Telegram?" and what impact did it have on the cold war?
What was McCarthyism's impact upon the US?
Why was it challenging to pass a comprehensive Civil Rights Bill prior to 1964?
What were the causes of the Vietnam War?
What were the Stonewall riots and what did they accomplish?
The New Left emerged during the 1960s. What was the New Left's objective and what significance did they have on 60s era politics?
What were the core reasons why the New Conservatism triumphed in 1980?
Why did the US "win" the cold war? (hint: it was not due to military buildup)
Select your own (email the instructor for approval prior to selecting sources)

For these questions, you will need to:


Select one that interests you
Research the topic. While the question might be "easy" to answer, those answers are not "all inclusive." You will need to provide a comprehensive answer to those questions with adequate background information to support your ideas (evidence)
Sources used should be *scholarly* in nature and not of the "history.com" or "wikipedia" variety. Points will be deducted for usage of popular sources.
Come up with a balanced answer to the question taking *all sides* into account. Are there any opposing interpretations? What are they? Why is your answer the "most" true?
Note: your essay's "thesis" will be the answer to the posed question. This should be a statement introduced early within your final essay. All content should be centered on supporting this answer.



Annotated Bibliography
To help prepare you for the final essay, you must first complete an Annotated Bibliography.

Once you develop an "answer" to the selected question, that will be your thesis. A good thesis is short and to the point and will identify exactly what the essay will argue. For example, "Although Reconstruction provided the means for the former Confederacy to re-enter the Union, the emergence of Black Codes and Sharecropping perpetuated a pseudo-slave system known as sharecropping".


The essay should focus fully on this and sources used, as identified within the Annotated Bibliography, need to identify exactly how each source supports this statement.


For the Annotated Bibliography assignment, you are expected to find at least 3 scholarly sources (from the CTC library or other scholarly databases and not casual web searches).



These should include journal articles from such journals as:



The Journal of American History
The Journal of Contemporary History
Journal of Women’s History
The American Historical Review 

The annotated bibliography must include the following:



An identification of your thesis (what do you intend to prove?) This should be a short statement at the beginning of the essay. 
A properly formatted citation in either APA or Turabian style
A brief summary of the source (what does it argue?)
An explanation on how you specifically will use the source to support your thesis (what information contained within will help you prove your point?)

The goal of the annotated bibliography is to develop, prior to the drafting of the research paper, the foundation necessary to draft a proper thesis-driven essay.


There must be *clear* identifications of the above points. For example, the phrase "the source provides detail about JFK..." does not indicate *what* detail it explains. What did it argue? What key information does it present? What *specific* information will be used to support your thesis?



Research Paper
NOTE: Before beginning this assignment, read through information contained in the Scholastic Dishonesty link in the course menu to the left.

The core assignment of this course is a documented research paper (1500-2000 words in length = approx. 4 - 6 pages double spaced, 12-point font).

The essay should support a thesis statement with information gained from research or investigation.
The paper will not be just a report presenting information, but will be an essay that carefully examines and presents your own historical interpretation of the topic you have chosen and your interpretation of the information you have gathered.
The paper may include consideration of problems and solutions, define key terms, or refute arguments against your thesis statement.
It will be important to choose a topic of interest to you.

Approach this assignment with an open and skeptical mind, then form an opinion based on what you have discovered.
You must suspend belief while you are investigating and let the discoveries shape your opinion. (This is a thesis-finding approach.)
Once you have found your thesis, write the paper to support it.
You will use some of the following critical thinking skills in this process:

Choosing an appropriate topic, limiting the topic
Gathering information, summarizing sources
Analyzing and evaluating sources
Defining key terms
Synthesizing information, comparing and contrasting sources
Testing a thesis, making an historical argument, using refutation
Amassing support for a position
Documenting sources
Because this may be a longer essay than you have written before and a complex process is involved, it is recommended that you complete this paper using the following steps:

Choose a topic related to U.S. History after 1877 (Chapters 16-28) that you would truly like to explore and that you are willing to spend some time on.
Do some preliminary reading on the topic(s). You may begin with the textbook, then further explore the information available. Refine your topic. Summarize your topic, your interest in the topic, the questions you want to answer, and a hypothesis you want to test.
Gather information from a variety of sources. Use a minimum of four sources for your paper, and at least one must be a primary source.Outline the results of your research and then plan for your essay.
Primary sources are sources "from the time" and include government documents, laws, newspaper articles, interviews, or even images.
They are sources that are contemporary to the times under investigation.
An example of a secondary source is our textbook, though the textbook also contains excerpts of primary sources, which you may use as a source in your essay.
Write the final draft and be sure to include a bibliography.

Note: The assignment should be *professional* in appearance. There should be no references to you or others (i.e., "In this essay, I intend to prove...) or any other anecdotal evidence. It should be written in "standard" essay format with an introduction (and thesis), supporting paragraphs (with citations for paraphrased or quoted content), a conclusion, and a bibliography. There is no need for a title page, an abstract, a running head, or anything of that nature. Please examine the rubric for grading criteria.