resarch paper
Budget: $10 – $30 USD
The
paper is to be 6 to 8 pages in length, “double spaced”: Double spaced, 12 point type, and standard margins. I
require that you include a title page, page numbers, and a bibliography. As to your sources, I require that you use a
minimum of 4 books or journal articles. You can use internet sources, but these should not be the sources you quote
most often. List all sources used in your bibliography. My lecture notes are not an appropriate source for citation.
When you use a quotation from a source, or when you include an idea you’ve read about from a source, you
should footnote it. Footnotes should include the author, the book or article title, and the page number. Quotations
without footnotes or citations are considered plagiarism. Writing verbatim from another source— and projecting it
as your own writing— is also plagiarism. This is a serious offense, and is subject to the conditions of the honor
code.
You should, in your paper, put forward a point or argument you wish to prove...this is your thesis. Then you
should construct an argument that supports that thesis. Finally, you should include a conclusion that wraps up or
summarizes your argument and why the supporting material you included proves it. This is basic collegiate writing,
but it is the area where students struggle the most.
Below I list three topics you can choose for your paper. You are certainly not obligated to choose one of them,
and I encourage you to pick one of your own that you are especially interested in. History should be fun, after all.
But, if you are not able to find your own topic, then you are certainly welcome to choose from those below.
1. Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” legislation was a clear response to the onset of Depression. It
involved the creation of multiple institutions to regulate economic activity and the creation of state
sponsored (and funded) organizations to provide jobs for the unemployed. Was Roosevelt’s program
the right one for the country given the circumstances of the time, in your opinion? Why or why not?
2. Was the Truman Doctrine, the overarching foreign policy to contain communism wherever it might
spread on the globe, a realistic and appropriate policy for the United States in the years of the Cold
War?
3. Given the circumstances of the time (the years from 1945 to 1968), do you think the approach of
Malcolm X’s “Black Nationalism” or Martin Luther King’s non-violent approach was the most
appropriate and/or most effective? Why?
paper is to be 6 to 8 pages in length, “double spaced”: Double spaced, 12 point type, and standard margins. I
require that you include a title page, page numbers, and a bibliography. As to your sources, I require that you use a
minimum of 4 books or journal articles. You can use internet sources, but these should not be the sources you quote
most often. List all sources used in your bibliography. My lecture notes are not an appropriate source for citation.
When you use a quotation from a source, or when you include an idea you’ve read about from a source, you
should footnote it. Footnotes should include the author, the book or article title, and the page number. Quotations
without footnotes or citations are considered plagiarism. Writing verbatim from another source— and projecting it
as your own writing— is also plagiarism. This is a serious offense, and is subject to the conditions of the honor
code.
You should, in your paper, put forward a point or argument you wish to prove...this is your thesis. Then you
should construct an argument that supports that thesis. Finally, you should include a conclusion that wraps up or
summarizes your argument and why the supporting material you included proves it. This is basic collegiate writing,
but it is the area where students struggle the most.
Below I list three topics you can choose for your paper. You are certainly not obligated to choose one of them,
and I encourage you to pick one of your own that you are especially interested in. History should be fun, after all.
But, if you are not able to find your own topic, then you are certainly welcome to choose from those below.
1. Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” legislation was a clear response to the onset of Depression. It
involved the creation of multiple institutions to regulate economic activity and the creation of state
sponsored (and funded) organizations to provide jobs for the unemployed. Was Roosevelt’s program
the right one for the country given the circumstances of the time, in your opinion? Why or why not?
2. Was the Truman Doctrine, the overarching foreign policy to contain communism wherever it might
spread on the globe, a realistic and appropriate policy for the United States in the years of the Cold
War?
3. Given the circumstances of the time (the years from 1945 to 1968), do you think the approach of
Malcolm X’s “Black Nationalism” or Martin Luther King’s non-violent approach was the most
appropriate and/or most effective? Why?