History Research Papers are based on historical documents that include primary documents (newspapers, government records, letters, diaries etc.) that are produced by eyewitnesses or contemporaries of the times being written about. Primary documents are significant because they give "first hand accounts" of significant events, yet, depending of world view and social positionality, they often produce different perspectives of the same event. Still, primary documents are significant because they form thee first layer of historical knowledge. For this course, primary documents are exemplified in Rodolfo Acuña and Guadalupe Compeán, Voices of the US Latino Experience. You are to draw primary sources from that text.
Other sources include secondary sources (academic journals, scholarly books, etc.) that are usually written by scholars and published through a vetting process that includes peer reviews. Secondary sources usually provide larger contextual analysis of the events and time periods they write about. These sources complement primary sources by looking at larger timelines, comparative analysis, and various perspectives in an effort to provide some form of historical proof. Secondary sources require you to conduct library research. DO NOT use Google or other internet searches as these do not guarantee scholarly sources. The purpose here is to introduce students the way in which historians conduct research and analysis of complex themes.
On this form, which is a doc file please fill out the following items. Thus, please fill out the following pages and submit the same. This assignment requires you to identify a topic for your research project, and to refine your research topic by conducting a preliminary reading of primary and secondary sources in order to help narrow the scope of your project.Thus, after selecting your general topic, primary sources, and secondary sources, type in your responses in the spaces below. Successful completion of this assignment will lessen your workload later dramatically.
I. Paper Topic Selected: Select a theme from section titles in Rodolfo Acuña and Guadalupe Compeán, Voices of the US Latino Experience.
II. Select five primary sources (can be taken from Voices of the US Latino Experience by Rodolfo Acuña and Guadalupe Compeán as demonstrated in class).
For each primary source, address:
a. The meaning or definition of the source:
b. How you intend to use the source in relation to your topic:
c. Why the source is significant to your topic and project:
III. Select Five Secondary Sources (This requires library research, NOT a google search. These must include academic articles from academic journals and/or scholarly books that directly relate to your topic and primary sources. For reasons of validity and cogency, please do not include blogs, or other self authored, un-vetted internet sources.)
For each secondary source, address:
a. The main arguments presented in the source:
b. How you intend to use the source in relation to your topic:
c. Why the source is significant to your topic and project:
IV. Provide a Bibliography of your sources use. In order to receive full credit for this portion of the assignment, for each source, you must identify 1) Name of Author; 2) Title of Source; 3) Publication Source; 4) Date; 5) Page Numbers (where appropriate).