Thesis Paper Project

US History II Thesis Paper

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS:
1. An approved topic
2. The BODY of the paper should be 6- double-spaced, typed pages using font size 12 and Times New Roman script. Your paper should have one-inch margins on each side.
3. Parenthetical notation is required as is a work cited page. They do not count as pages. Follow the format found in the MLA HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS OF RESEARCH PAPERS. The library has several copies. You can also visit the MLA web site for help: www.mla.org.
4. Minimum of 6 sources, including at least two books one internet source and one primary source document.
5. Items to be turned in for teacher grading”
a. Thesis/Position statement and a Topic outline
b. List of 3 sources, properly formatted in MLA style. TYPED, photocopies of these sources, notes taken from these sources
c. Final copy of paper
I will sign each of these items. Keep all items with my handwriting on them.
6. The final paper is worth 100 points and will be counted as 25% of the 4th marking period grade
7. As with any assignment, you will lose points if the final paper is late. You will be given 3 days to turn in your paper and will receive 3 extra percentage points if the paper is turned in on the first day of the “turn-in period.” If you do not turn in the paper by the third day and are absent that third day, you must get a parent or friend to deliver your assignment to me by the end of the school day.

DUE DATE CHECKLIST
April 13h, 2011 Topic selection

May 2nd, 2011 Thesis/Position statement and Topic outline

May 19th, 2011 List of 3 sources, properly formatted in MLA style, photocopies, and notes taken from these sources

June 3rd, June 6th and June 7th, 20011 Final Draft

Research Dates
April 6th Internet Lab
April 15th Library
April 29th, 2011 - Internet lab
May 13th, 2011- Library/ Internet
May 31st, 2011– Library/internet

INTRODUCTION
A position/thesis paper presents an arguable opinion about an issue. The goal of the paper is to convince an audience that your opinion is valid and worth listening to. Ideas that you are considering need to be carefully examined in choosing a topic, developing your argument, and organizing your paper. It is very important to ensure that you are addressing all sides of the issue and presenting it in a manner that is easy for your audience to understand. Your job is to take one side of the argument and persuade your audience that you have well-founded knowledge of the topic being presented. It is important to support your argument with evidence to ensure the validity of your claims, as well as to address the counterclaims to show that you are well informed about both sides.

STEP ONE
You must choose and have approved one of the following topics:

1 Potsdam Conference
2 Firing of Douglas Macarthur
3 House Un-American activities Committee
4 Rosenberg Trial
5 Bay of Pigs invasion
6 Cuban Missile crisis
7 Assassination of JFK
8 School Desegregation
9 Gulf of Tonkin incident
10 Secret bombing of Cambodia
11Pentagon papers
12 Kent State
13 Equal Rights Amendment
14 Pardon of Richard Nixon
15 The Panama Canal
16 Iran hostage crisis
17 Reaganomics
18 Nuclear power
19 Iran Contra affair
20 Impeachment of Bill Clinton
21 Election of 2000
22 Illegal immigration
22 Abu Graib Prison scandal
23 Pueblo incident
24 US Patriot Act
25 US invasion of Iraq
26 North Korea nuclear program
27 Stem cell research
28 Strategic Defense initiative
29 Government wiretapping
30 Iranian nuclear program
31 US Dependence on Oil
32 Obama’s Healthcare plan
33 Obama’s Stimulus package

Topic Selection
My Topic is _________________________________

STEP TWO
Research your topic. All of the approved topics have plenty of information about them available. Find and read the information and discover what the controversies over the topics are all about.

STEP THREE
Write a thesis statement. Take a position. After gathering sources and previewing some of the information, you should have a better idea about your topic. Now it is time to develop that idea into a sentence referred to as the THESIS or POSITION sentence. State your idea, which must include a subject and an opinion, in a single sentence. In addition, the thesis must be specifically referenced to a specific event. The thesis statement has two important tasks:
1. It states the main point of the paper.
2. It suggests the path that your paper will follow
REMINDERS:
** Thesis statements are debatable
** One sentence **No first or second person
** No run-on sentences **No “In this paper, it will be shown…” (weak!)

STEP FOUR
Prepare a topic outline. A topic outline is a preliminary outline that will guide you in your reading and note-taking. Once you have an overview of your topic, you are ready to decide what aspects of the topic you want to cover in your paper and how you want to organize them. Preparing a topic outline helps guide your note-taking. As you take notes and highlight your sources, you will revise your topic outline by adding subheadings, changing your major headings, or even dropping some headings entirely. This is simply a listing of the topics and sub-topics for your paper that will help guide your note taking.

STEP FIVE
Research and gather sources
Gather more sources than you think you will need for the paper. When you first read a source, do not try to absorb all the information presented. Instead, skim the pages in search of material that is relevant to the headings on your working outline. For full-length books, study the tables of contents and indexes to find the sections that apply to your outline.
Photocopy the pages of sources you find helpful. Also Xerox the title and copyright pages of any books you use. It helps in writing the source list later.
When you find information that you think will be useful, highlight that information. Then, take notes on your sources, either on note cards or on notebook paper. Paraphrase, summarize, or use direct quotes.
1. paraphrasing: restating the author’s ideas in your own words
2. summarizing: restating only the main points and important supporting details
3. direct quotation: presents the exact words from a source
Use direct quotes SPARINGLY in a paper and only when quoting a primary source (a famous person’s actual words, an eye witness, words from a novel). Do not quote an author who is explaining someone else’s work (example: an encyclopedia). These are called secondary sources.
Turn in list of 3 sources, properly formatted in MLA style , photocopies of these sources, and notes taken from these sources

STEP SIX
(Suggested but not required)
Prepare a sentence outline
Before you took notes, you wrote down ideas and subtopics for your subject. This rough listing of ideas is referred to as a topic outline. As you took notes, you referred back to this working outline for guidance in the kinds of information to gather.
Since taking notes, you know more about your topic. Now you can write a sentence outline. Your rough draft will grow out of your sentence outline. Now you can determine which subtopics may be disregarded and which may be kept and further developed.

Excerpt from a Sentence Outline

IV. The working conditions for a teacher are tough, and the rewards do not come from a teacher’s paycheck.
A. The hours are long—teachers may spend 50 hours a week
working, grading papers, and preparing for class.
B. The job is stressful.
C. The salaries are low for a profession:
1. Starting salaries are around $24,000.
2. Average salaries are around $42,000.
3. Even after years of experience, salaries are low.

Here is that same information after it has been turned into a paragraph for a rough draft:

Someone who prepares for a teaching career must be prepared for the working conditions, and the fact that these conditions are not balanced with high salaries. Although the public thinks that teachers’ jobs are over at 3:20, most teachers work around fifty hours a week on grading papers and preparing for classes (Brown 421). Furthermore, teaching is a highly stressful job: dealing with teenagers can be very difficult (Mayer 26). These conditions seem to warrant high salaries, yet teachers’ salaries are low, starting at only $24,000 (Smith 54). The average salary is $42,000 (Smith 55). Even teachers with years of experience and master’s degrees do not earn as much as one might expect (Moss 69). Clearly, the working conditions for teachers are less than desirable, and the salary does not make up for these problems.

Notice that the topic sentence of the paragraph matches the sentence after the Roman numeral
Notice that I added a concluding sentence that was NOT IN THE SENTENCE OUTLINE
Notice that each of the other sentences matches a letter of the outline or a number under a letter.
Also, notice the material in parentheses. What does that come from? It comes from your highlighted sources.

STEP SEVEN
(Suggested but not required)
Write a rough Draft
ROUGH DRAFT REMINDERS
Your thesis sentence must be the last sentence in your introductory paragraph. Your introductory paragraph only needs to be 2-3 sentences long. All body paragraphs (does not include introductory and concluding paragraphs) should be 6-8 sentences long.
All paragraphs must have a topic sentence and a clincher sentence of your own. These two sentences need no parenthetical documentation.
NO use of the first or second person (no “I,” “we,” “us,” or “you”)

PARENTHETICAL NOTATION
Required
After you have made a statement, which you have borrowed from a particular source (any sentence that is not a topic or clincher sentence), you MUST tell me that you got it from a specific source. If you do not complete this step, or if you do this step incorrectly, it is considered plagiarism. You must use parenthetical notations whether you used exact words from the author or whether you put the information in your own words using only the main idea. If you used the author’s exact words, you must use quotation marks around the quote.
HOW TO USE PARENTHETICAL NOTES:
Example 1: William Golding uses symbolism to convey the true meaning of evil (Jones 33).
In this example, you put the information in your words. You used the information from page 33 of the book by Jones. This book contained information about the topic of your paper. Notice where the period is. If comes AFTER the parenthesis. For more information on this particular source that you used, one could simply refer to the works cited page and find the book by Jones.
Example 2: Julius Caesar was one of the “greatest leaders in the history of the world” (Smith 156).
In this example, the author’s exact words were used in the paper, so you must put the words in quotation marks when you use them in your paper. Notice where the quotation marks fall at the end of the quote. You use this form when the quotation is four typed lines or less. If the quotation is more than four lines, consult your grammar book for special instructions. In this research paper, you are restricted to using short quotations.
Example 3: According to Baker, the Middle Ages were a time of darkness, despair, and destruction (224).
Notice that since you already mentioned the author’s name (Baker) within the sentence, you only have to write with one page number after the sentence.

Works Cited Page
Required
The name for the page that lists all of your sources is no longer called the “bibliography” page. Bibliography refers to only information gathered from books. Today, your research may come from a variety of sources including books, periodicals, the Internet, computerized databases, CD-ROMs, personal interviews, and e-mail.
This page is now called the “Works Cited” page. On this page, you will list the sources you used in alphabetical order. If you have discarded some of the articles that you originally thought you would use, DO NOT include those on this list. I should be able to find ANY source listed on this page parenthetically documented somewhere within the body of your paper.
Remember to double space between your entries and within your entries
Use one inch margins on all sides
Be sure to number this page as next in line numerically after the last page of the paper’s body.
Sample from a Works Cited Page

Works Cited
Blake, James. Russian Life in the 1890s: Savage Raids Crush Jewish
Families. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000.

Gordon, John, and Jane Smith. “Changes in Russia.” Time 3 March 2001:16-20.

Walton, Susan. “Russia’s Games.” Newsweek. 5 January 2002: 6.

A Resource that can be helpful writing your parenthetical notes and your works cited page can be found at: www.citationmachine-east.net

STEP EIGHT
Write your final copy. Include the works cited page at the end. .Keep an extra copy of your research paper at home
• A Cover page is optional. Only a title and your name should be provided
• Make sure you have read and spell-checked the paper.
Numbering the Pages:
• Begin numbering on the second page of the body. Assuming the first page of the paper is page 1, the second page of the body is page 2. Your computer will automatically place your name and appropriate page numbers on your paper if you tell it to.

Grading
The Paper will be worth 25% of the 4th marking period grade. Thus, failure to turn in a paper will severely compromise your ability to pass the marking period.