Bridge Day Assignment

As explained in class, today you will be completing an assignment that will allow us to take a short look at a number of issues facing the United States at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries as it was also beginning to play a role in world affairs.
Here is a link to the bridge day assignment.
Here is the link to your assigned terms and documents.
Also, here is the assignment sheet for this unit which is also in the tab above.

Research Paper-Turning it in!

After finishing the final draft of your paper, making sure that it's proofread carefully, ensuring that all requirements have been met, please submit the following to turnitin.com.
1) All charts from the articles.
2) All charts from the historical references.
3) Your outline.
4) The final version of your paper.

Looking forward to reading them.  Congratulations on finishing this project!

Research Project - Peer Feedback and Revision

For today you completed a rough draft of your essay - congratulations!

During our time together today you will read and respond to two different essays. This will happen anonymously.
Here's what you will do:

1. When you receive an essay, take the time to read it thoroughly before you do anything else.
2. Open this peer feedback form and make a copy of it to use.
3. Be sure to give it a name - use the 4 digits of the ID of the writer.
4. Take your time to give thoughtful and thorough feedback.  Note that for some questions you just need to give a rating, but for others you need to type out your response.
5. When you are finished, print out your feedback.
6. Keep in mind you are reading another student's work for the purpose of giving them constructive criticism about how to improve it. Don't just praise it to make the person feel better! At the same time, be respectful in your comments.
7. You will repeat this process a second time.
8. Both of these readings will happen during 3rd period.  For 4th period, you will receive your essay and both sets of feedback. You will then have the rest of the time to work independently.

Research Paper - The Essay

Yesterday (Wednesday) we provided this handout - an overview of the assignment.  Make sure you refer to it as you move from your outline to your essay.

We also taught the use of footnotes - refer to this handout and the library website for details.

• Here is a link to the Chicago Manual of Style

Lastly, to clarify, here is the schedule for the next three days:

• Thursday 2/19 - Computer lab - writing day
• Friday 2/20 - Computer lab - writing day
• Monday 2/23 - Complete draft due / peer editing / revising
• Tuesday 2/24 - Final version of research essay due
• This includes all charts, the outline, and the rough draft

For convenience, here are some key points to keep in mind as you write:

Requirements:

• Your essay will have 1 inch margins and use Times New Roman 12 point font.
• Instead of a page count (since footnotes can alter the amount of writing on a page) your essay needs to be between 1250-1750 words.  This is the equivalent of a 5-7 page essay.
• You will cite all sources with footnotes.
• Your essay will include a Bibliography, including the historical sources you researched, articles you read, and the sources we provided to you.
• Your essay will be thoroughly proofread, with special attention paid to the “inexcusables.”
• **On Monday, February 23rd, you will have a complete rough draft. You need to bring in a printed copy of your essay.  Please do not have your name on it - you will be anonymously reading on commenting on each other’s work.

Structure:

1. Introductory Paragraph
1. Name your topic and specific question
2. Provide a “road map” to your paper - preview your argument
1. What are the different points you’ll make
2. How do they fit into your argument
3. State your thesis - the answer to your question
2. Body paragraphs
1. Each body paragraph focuses on a topic - a component of your argument
2. Begin with a clear topic sentence, asserting a component of your thesis
3. Include evidence from whatever combination of historical details and points from your articles necessary to make your point
4. Be sure all quotations are properly introduced, cited, and analyzed in terms of how they support the point of the paragraph
5. Organize the sequence of your paragraphs in a way that best supports and illustrates your point.  You will be organizing the body of your essay around a series of assertions or points, not people or examples.  
3. Conclusion
1. Recaps argument, suggests broader implications

Research project - thesis and outline

Here is a link to the handout we'll use in class today.

Here is a look at how Coates presents his "thesis":

Perhaps no number can fully capture the multi-century plunder of black people in America. Perhaps the number is so large that it can’t be imagined, let alone calculated and dispensed. But I believe that wrestling publicly with these questions matters as much as—if not more than—the specific answers that might be produced. An America that asks what it owes its most vulnerable citizens is improved and humane. An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future. More important than any single check cut to any African American, the payment of reparations would represent America’s maturation out of the childhood myth of its innocence into a wisdom worthy of its founders.

Research Project - Homework for Friday

This has been a busy week of research, reading, and writing.  On Friday we will start to bring it all together as we move towards the essay.

In preparation for that, here is your homework for Friday:

• Complete your research
• Two (or more) articles
• Historical / background information
• Complete the charts
• Articles
• Historical information
• Print out and bring in copies of the charts for Friday

You will not have time to go print them out once class starts on Friday.  Please be prepared!

See you then!

Tuesday, Feb. 10 - Registration

Greetings!

During 3rd period today, please go to these locations to register for next year's classes, and then return to the G102/G104 computer lab:

Beaumont- CCRC

Doktor- CCRC

Hirsch- Counseling Center

Kellogg- CCRC

Lee- Counseling Center

Moore- E116

Romero Williams- E116

Research project - start of week 2

Last week you started your look into your research topic by reading one of the "base articles" we selected. On Friday and then over the weekend, you not only read the other base article, but also the "base historical articles" we provided.  At this point you should have a good working knowledge of the different issues, the assertions made by the different authors, and some of the ways in which knowing the background information enhances your understanding.

Over the next several days (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) you will complete the following tasks.  Here is a link to the library website with shortcuts to the databases you'll use.

• Establish a research question. 
• Some of your articles name these explicitly, others include a variety of perspectives, and others provide a depth of information.  Your task is to sort through these and determine what question you want to explore.
• For example, for the Coates article we considered the question "Should the United States government pay reparations for slavery?"
• Research and read two additional articles.
• This will involve using the different databases, like we did with the Coates article, to find other articles exploring and taking a position on your question. 
• Your articles need to be substantive - a brief editorial or letter will not suffice. It needs to also make an assertion and build a case through analysis of evidence and different factors. The length should be similar to the other articles you read.
• Complete a chart for each of these articles.
• This goes in the same Google Document as your other chart.  Be sure to make a separate chart for each article.
• You will be submitting these articles with your completed project, and received credit for them.
• Here is a link to the blank version of that chart.
• Determine what other historical / background information you need to look up.
• These terms / people / historical events / etc. will help you to better understand the arguments being made.  
• Add these terms to the historical events / details chart. 
• Here is a link to the blank version of that chart.
• Keep track of the information about your sources.  
• You will include a bibliography with your final project.
• Here is a link to the library's web site with detailed information about citing sources.

Getting into your topic and question

For today you read the base article for your research project.  Today you will take a second look at as you start to pull apart and understand the points it makes.

1. Complete this chart for your base article

Then you will start the historical research, discovering and reading the background information to help give you a fuller understanding of the issues.

1. Read the base historical article(s) for your topic

• Women:
• Article 1
• Article 2
• Article 3
• Gay Rights:
• Article 1
• Native Americans (start in the section on the 1800’s)
• Article 1
• Immigrants/Latino Rights
• Article 1
• Article 2

      2.  Identify which sections of this article are relevant to your understanding of your topic.
           Add that information to this chart of your historical research

** By the start of class Monday, you need to have completed these tasks:

• Read the "base articles" for your topic
• Complete a chart for each of the "base articles"
• Read the "historical base article" for your topic
• Complete the historical research chart for your article, adding relevant information

Starting your research

In class today you selected a topic you'll follow in our brief research unit.

This handout has the directions and the links to the "base articles."

Introduction to Research

Today we will start in the classroom with an introduction to research databases.

Once we get to the computer lab we will follow these directions.