History 600

The Creation of a Research Paper

• The research and writing component of this course:
  • This course is designed to provide you with the skills necessary to engage in independent historical research, practice in presenting your research-in-progress, and the production of a first (clear and concise) draft of a 15-20 page original, potentially publishable research paper.  All assignments are to be typed, double spaced, 11-12 pitch, standard seriffed font, with 1” margins.  Please note the following definitions of the terms mentioned above:
    
  • “Original”: Students' papers should represent an original look at the historical question upon which the paper focuses. Original work may comprise a review of the arguments of previous historians on a particular subject that raises new, original questions that have not been covered or answered by the previous interpretations. It may approach the subject from a different or fresh perspective as yet to be confronted by previous historians. It may offer a completely new interpretation of the evidence that no other historian has offered. It may even present a narrative of some event that is different is some important respect from other historians' narratives, and has an effect upon the outcome or the traditional interpretations. Above all, students’ papers should not just be a rehash of an earlier historian’s work.
  • “Potentially publishable research paper”:  Students are required to select a manageable topic to research, one that is significant given the current status of the historiography and historical controversies of the period, place, and topic under consideration. Quite a few students have begun with the paper that they produced in History 600 and, after more work and the submission of expanded versions of the original paper in other classes, have produced articles and theses based upon their original drafts presented in this class.
  • “Research”: Students must confront the relevant existing secondary literature and be prepared to appreciate into which interpretative tradition relevant books and articles fit.  Research should include, not only the study of the relevant secondary sources, but reasonably extensive primary research as well. Students should be prepared to spend time in libraries and archives that contain original source documents on their subject. In addition, they need to develop an appreciation of how their selected primary source material enables them to comment on the secondary literature, resolving interpretative controversies, or suggest how a new interpretation might supersede earlier ones.
  • “Presenting work-in-progress”: Effective presentations are required of scholars when they are on the job market and at professional conferences; therefore, students will be provided with an opportunity to present their work to their follow students.  It is anticipated that all students in this seminar will provide constructive criticism of the content and style of presentations.
  • “A first (clear and concise) draft”:  Your final contribution to this seminar will be clear and concise and it will be of sufficient quality that you can, without embarrassment, circulate it among your fellow students enrolled in this seminar.  Nevertheless, your final paper will be a draft of a longer, more extensively argued, better documented. and more sophisticated paper that you might (or might not) finish at some time in the future. It is anticipated that considerable further research and revision will enable you to submit this work to a scholarly journal and expect to receive a “revise and resubmit” response to your work. Please note, I do not expect a polished, perfectly prepared, historical paper, suitable for submission to a journal for publication. This semester is, presumably, your first in the graduate program, and so the purpose of this course is to prepare you for subsequent semesters.  I do expect that the work you turn in during this course will be a well argued, comprehensible, grammatically correct, well written, and free of spelling errors. The paper (and, for that matter, the reviews) that you produce in this class, along with the steps that get you to it, are meant to prepare you to produce better prose, do better research and write better papers in your ensuing graduate courses and in your career in history, or whatever other future avocation you may choose to follow. In short, the basic object of the course is to make you a better historical writer.
    
    

Tasks:

• The specific tasks necessary for the successful completion of the research portion of this course include the following steps:
• A Prospectus:  This report is the first version of your research paper that is due at the end of the semester.  It should include:
  • A first formulation and discussion of your thesis (i.e., your argument, central idea, key hypothesis).
  • A very brief, and, probably at this point somewhat incomplete, review of the primary resources (literary—newspapers, diaries, diplomatic correspondence, transcribed policy debates, etc.; or quantitative—data sets; or cartographic materials), where those resources are to be found, how much they might cost, and the expected relevance of these resources to your thesis.  Keep in mind that it is your responsibility to adjust your thesis if the resources you would like to use tend to refute your original thesis, are not readily available, cannot be secured quickly or cheaply, or—dare we consider the possibility—do not exist. Additionally, you should mention and review briefly  any secondary resources with which you are already familiar.
  • Your prospectus should have a working title and a descriptive subtitle.  The title may be metaphorical in nature; the subtitle must be descriptive of the theme, period and place under consideration.  
  • Please Note: I recommend that you pick a topic for research based on previous or concurrent course work or some interest that you have already researched to some extent.  Unless you can’t avoid it, do not begin this assignment from scratch.  Prior knowledge of the relevant narrative of some period, and perhaps some, if not all, of the pertinent literature, will turn out to be extremely beneficial to you as you begin your in-depth research.
• Annotated Bibliography:  An annotated bibliography should list alphabetically several books and articles (between 10 and 15) that are pertinent to your paper.  It should begin with  an introductory paragraph in which you state your topic and thesis. Each item in the bibliography should be identified by providing the author(s), title, place of publication, publisher, date, volume number, series name, pages, etc. Use the Chicago Manual of Style for your formatting.  Each of the references must be accompanied by:
  • A detailed paragraph or two in which you state the theme of the book or article.
  • The interpretive school (i.e. Marxist, Whig, Progressive, etc.) of the author.  Often this information is stated explicitly in the preface of a book or can be inferred from the scholars on whose work the current study is based. You should also give the reader some idea of why and how you arrived at this particular categorization of the author's interpretative position.  You should also display some understanding of any potential biases inherent in the secondary texts. If you can’t determine the school, you should avoid guessing.
  • An indication of how this study is relevant to your understanding of the themes, period, and place you intend to discuss in your research paper. In other words, what effect does the work in question have on the thesis and arguments the you intend to present in your paper?
  • In addition, there should be a brief discussion of the primary source material you are considering using in making your contribution to our historical understanding.  That discussion should also include an appreciation of why the primary source material is relevant to your study.
  • This document should be some 8 to 12 pages in length.  If necessary, you should update your thesis statement as it may have changed as you have researched the various sources and since the writing of your prospectus.
• Historiography Review: This assignment is designed to compel you to think clearly about your contribution to the historiography of the themes, period and place under consideration in relation to works that have already been written on the subject. In essence, you will use this document to illustrate how your chosen sources will fit into an historiographical continuum, and either support your thesis or elucidate a critical response in your paper.
• Consider the themes you intend to discuss, given the primary sources that you have investigated.  What have the authors in your annotated bibliography argued about those themes?  Array the authors according to the arguments they present for each theme or interpretation in a separate paragraph, and footnote the various elements of the paragraph so as to guide the reader to the secondary literature.  How do the arguments and interpretations of the various authors differ? How are they similar? How do they contribute to your own thesis and arguments. 
• After stating your thesis, provide an overview of the secondary source material.
  • Introduce the author or authors or compilers.
  • Name the authors in the body of your work, but not the works that you have introduced. You will label the pertinent works in footnote citations.
  • Present the authors’ theses and important evidentiary arguments within the context of the various historiographical positions on the subject.
  • Note the biases found in the documents or evidence selection process.
  • Note how your own thesis and ideas fit within the historiography.
• Annotated Outline — Voluntary!  I will be happy to look at it and comment on it if you decide to write one. I make this a voluntary assignment because different people choose to organize their papers in different ways. That said, this assignment is intended to help you organize your thoughts and materials into a coherent paper.  If you have difficulty organizing your argument, you should do this. Write an annotated outline of your argument that includes your thesis statement, and a step-by-step unfolding of your arguments, including elements from your discussion of the primary source material: that is, the main ideas, substantiating points, and and finishes with your concluding material.   Each step will begin with headings and subheadings and must be accompanied by an annotation, several sentences long, which clearly states:
  
  • The argument of that section of the paper.
  • The relationship of that section to the entire paper.
  • Why that section is where it is in relation to the previous and subsequent section.
  • A brief explanation of the evidence or examples you plan to use to develop that aspect of your argument.
  • The date of completion of the research for that section.  Note: if you have completed the research for that section, do not be bashful.  Indicate precisely which sections are done and which ones need further work.  Note that it is at this point that you may discover that your "plate is too full." In conversation with the instructor, it may become apparent that you need to narrow your topic further in order to complete this assignment.  Therefore you must be absolutely honest regarding how far along you are.
  • The more detailed your outline, the more helpful your instructor can be.  If you cannot justify the inclusion or location of a subsection in the annotated outline, consider reformulating the thesis, relocating the subsection, or dropping the subsection from the paper.  This assignment should be seven to ten pages in length.  Note: For those who need a model of an annotated outline, this document is an annotated outline!
• Presentation of Work In Progress:  You will be expected to present (formally) a 15-20 minute discussion of your paper.  Clearly state your thesis at the beginning of your presentation.  Clearly restate the key elements of the literature review and indicate why your work is significant (i.e., what problem you intend to address).  Summarize your findings, proceeding through the subsections and emphasizing one subsection in particular.  Do not attempt to provide details for all the subsections as you will not have time to do so.  It is essential that you practice your presentation in advance of the seminar meeting.  Do not come into class underprepared, without notes on what you want to say or an outline to distribute.  Be as professional as you can be: start with the title, do not joke around as a warm up, indicate at the end what you expect your audience to have learned from your research and presentation. If the use of a visual presentation is appropriate, and you are familiar with Powerpoint or Keynote, you may employ one of these computer applications in your presentation.
• Final Paper — due the first day of final exams.  Your paper should be at least 15 pages of text plus footnotes/endnotes, maps and other supporting material, and a bibliography.  
  
  

Course Policies for Written Work

• Late Paper Policy — The due date for the research paper is the first day of final examinations. This date gives you all of the possible time to finish the assignment, but, unfortunately it also gives you very little wiggle room to turn in the assignment late.  Late papers will be excused only in cases of verifiable emergency (to oneself or immediate family).  Unexcused late papers will be penalized one letter grade for each day it is overdue, including weekends.  No incompletes will be granted for unexcused late papers. The paper will be submitted via email in Pages, Word, or PDF format. I will print and grade your papers, then return them via email in PDF format.
• Due dates for presentations and written assignments — Please note all due dates for written assignments. I am prepared to allow some degree of latitude (say one week) for all of the work except for the final paper due date. Bear in mind, however, that, because of the nature of this project, extra time taken to complete any one task will essentially be subtracted from your other tasks. It is, thus, important to complete assignments in a timely fashion in order to maintain the overall project schedule. There is a great deal of written work to be done in this course, but the reading load is light by comparison to most graduate courses. The chief focus of the course is to prepare you to turn in written work of a quality appropriate to your role as a graduate student in the discipline of history.
• Resubmissions — One of the most important elements of this course is writing. Writing is the bread and butter of the historical profession. As a result, all papers EXCEPT the final research paper may, at the requirement of the instructor, be returned to a student without a grade for rewriting and resubmission. The resubmitted work must be returned by the next class meeting and will be graded. My rule of thumb for resubmissions is simple: If I would give the original paper a grade lower than a B-, it must be rewritten.
• Note: there are several software packages which may help make these tasks easier, such as “Endnote” [www.endnote.com].  Should you elect to compile your citations in such a software package from the beginning of your career, it will enable you to switch from one style (for the American Historical Review) to another (for Comparative Studies in Society and History) with relative ease.
• Further thoughts on how to become an academic may be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Guide-Your-Academic-Career/dp/0226301508/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1317334352&sr=8-8.