AP US Research Paper 2011-2012
Each student is required to complete a research paper. Under no
circumstances is it possible to earn credit for this course without completing
the research paper. The written report will be 10-12 pages of text, plus
footnotes. Use Times New Roman font, double spaced, one inch margins. You must
have at least 10 sources with a minimum of three primary sources.
All topics must be approved. If you have a topic in mind for a
conventional research paper, you must receive approval from me to proceed. If
you are leaning toward an explication of a document, you must receive approval
from me to proceed. Papers submitted on topics that have not been approved
will not be accepted. This means no credit will be given for the paper and you
will not receive a passing grade for the course.
Research Paper Timeline
October 28 - Topic for research paper
December 1 - Annotated Bibliography, thesis statement
January 23 - Outline
March 2 - First Draft of research paper
April 16 - Second Draft of research paper
June 1st - FINAL VERSION OF RESEARCH PAPER
Each of these deadlines is worth three points toward the final paper grade. If
you miss the deadline, the points are gone. If you miss five deadlines, a
total of 15 points will be lost. If the final paper grade is a 90, the fifteen
lost points turn the paper into a 75.
Research Paper Guidelines/Tips
First - and perhaps most importantly - You must pick a topic that
interests you. You will be spending most of this school year with your topic.
If you are not genuinely interested in what you are researching, you will lose
interest and the final product will be lackluster. You should have selected a
topic and sent me an email with a short paragraph describing your topic and
why you want to write your paper on it. This is the first deadline (all
deadlines are by midnight on the last day of the month).
Second - your research needs to be solid. Primary and secondary sources
are
required. With the internet, our library and numerous universities at
your disposal, finding material should not be a problem. You can also use
Interlibrary loan through your public library (see your local librarian for
more info). If your research is superficial and shoddy, you will not be
familiar enough with the topic and the historical debates surrounding it.
Third - The great challenge in writing the narrative will be to move
beyond description and analyze the material - find a question about the topic
that your paper will answer. Compiling information and simply telling the
story are not enough for this assignment. You must construct a solid thesis
statement and every element of your narrative must be devoted to proving your
thesis.
Fourth - You must contextualize your topic. Why did the Salem witch
trials occcur? If you do not ask why and simply stop with the hanging of over
a dozen people, you miss the power of the story. Why were most of those hanged
women? Why were most of the accused from one area and their accusers from
another? What does this tell us about the health of Puritanism at the end of
the 17th century? This is the real meat of the historian's intellectual diet.
If you do not fix your topic in the proper historical context, it will be flat
and plausible conclusions will be most difficult to construct.
Sources: You must have at least 10 sources - three of which must be
primary sources.
Citations: Turabian will be used to construct your footnotes. See my
Links page for resources on proper construction of footnotes. We will also
discuss this in class.
Please contact me anytime with questions about the paper. Do not miss
these deadlines!
Paper Options
You have two options for this paper: a traditional research paper or an
explication of an important document.
You can choose a topic of interest about any aspect of American history.
It should be far enough removed from the present to allow historical analysis
to dominate the paper. Bringing the topic to the present is fine but that
cannot be the primary focus of the paper. More than likely your initial
selection will be far too big to handle in a paper of this size. That is fine.
I will be pushing you constantly to narrow your focus and go deeper into the
material. This can be a painful process but it will pay off in the end.
If you choose the document explication, you can select a document to
examine from every possible angle. The process for this option will be similar
to what you went through to complete the JPP. You can choose a document we
read in class, one from my collections or a selection you found online. All
document choices must be approved. A pre-approved list of documents can be
accessed on my website under Course Documents.