Guidelines for the Research Paper for Civil War & Reconstruction (112)

 

 

In this course all students are required to write and turn-in a critical term paper, 10-12 pages in length, based upon your use of primary and secondary sources on any topic in the Antebellum, Civil War, & Reconstruction eras—a specific event i.e. battle or movement i.e. abolitionism, specific men or women, issues of race, soldiering, medicine, religion i.e. company chaplains, law, politics etc.   The possibilities are endless.  It is worth 1 / 3 of the total course grade. 

 

Please include the following to get full credit:

-Title

-Student Name and Course crn #

-Page #s

-Good grammar and complete sentences—Spell-check to avoid a deduction of points!

-1-inch margins

-double-spaced, 12-point font

-Endnotes/Footnotes (your choice of citation)

-Introductory paragraph and a clear argument or thesis statement

-a separate Works-Cited page

-and, it must be typed-up

 

 

Points of Style:

 

Quotes:

-Avoid long quotes and block quotes that go on for more than 4 lines.

-Otherwise, the best use of quotes is to describe something, or to add the perspective of someone from that time period.

-You can always just pick out a section of a statement, use quotation marks, and then finish in your own words.

-Remember that paraphrasing (or putting something in your own words) works best most of the time.  Don’t over-quote.

 

Don’t Plagiarize—attribute your sources accurately

-It goes without saying that I expect that the work that you turn in is your own, and not someone else’s.

 

Works Cited page:

 

For this simply list your sources on a separate page at the end of the paper.

 

Last name, First name.  Title (underlined) (Publisher city: Publisher Comp., Year).

 

for ex.

Aley, Ginette.  The American South (Atlanta: University of Georgia Press, 2002).

 

If it is a web address that you are citing, place these at the bottom of your list, and insert the web address, followed by the actual name of the site.

 

Please contact me if you have further questions.  I look forward to reading your work.