Q Note that if you are interested in a more interactive approach to history, you can consider the Game Option for the Research Paper, where you obtain, install, and play a historic game set during the course period. Then you submit an After Action Report for the assignment: an AAR on the Tutorial scenario in place of the Proposal, and a longer AAR on a scenario of your choosing in place of the final Research Paper. There is a section in the Content area of the course, which provides game manuals, report format guides, and sample AARs. Feel free to examine this material. Please ask if you have any questions about this option, and let the instructor know if you wish to pursue it. Research Paper Proposal Instructions As part of the Research Paper assignment for this course, students will be required to compose and submit a Research Paper Proposal. This Proposal, in addition to a title page containing the student's name, course and section number, and date – and of course, a title for the project (you'd be surprised at how often I see title pages without any actual title), will consist of the following information: A brief description of the chosen paper topic – a thesis statement, in a brief paragraph. A short (minimum of 1 to 2 paragraphs, may be longer) description of how the student intends to structure the paper. A listing (in outline form) of the supporting arguments and sub-arguments (or areas for research) that are intended to support the thesis. A bibliography listing at least at least ten scholarly sources. These may be books, journal articles, primary sources or archives to be consulted. The final paper may use more, but ten serious scholarly sources is the bare minimum for a project like this. Note that this information does not need to be complete, or a "final version" for the proposal – a major reason for doing a project like this is to learn more about it as you work on it. But you do need to present me with sufficient material to show me you understand the topic and the sources available for it. The paper is a work in progress, so it is expected to evolve to some degree while being worked on. This proposal will be worth 100 points, and will be due at the end of the third week of the term. Note that it is possible to change topics after submitting the proposal, but if the topic change is a major one, you will need to submit another proposal for the new topic. This proposal should be considered a working document, and the final paper need not conform exactly to what was set forth in the proposal. If a student obtains additional information that requires modifying part of the thesis or supporting arguments, that process is part of the nature of academic writing. But don't push this concept too far – a paper that starts as a study of the Battle of Brooklyn Heights should not "evolve" into a biography of Ben Franklin. A modification of this degree would be considered a change of topic, and require a new proposal. I may, when grading your proposal, ask you to rework it in some way – the most likely reason for such a request is to narrow the focus of an overly broad topic, although it is sometimes also necessary if a student selects a topic that doesn't fit within the subject area / time frame of the course. If it is necessary for me to ask you to revise the proposal, I will say so in the Instructor Comments section of the Proposal Assignment, and give the proposal a temporary grade of 0 until the revised proposal has been received. When the revised proposal is submitted, within the deadline I set, I will grade the new proposal with no penalty for the late submission – as long as the revised proposal is submitted promptly. This process may be repeated a number of times if necessary. I want students to pick a relatively small, manageable topic – fifteen pages may seem like a long paper when thinking about it, but trying to write a comprehensive fifteen page account of the Revolutionary War is beyond even the best professional historian. If you have any questions about topics or the proposal, ask. In order to demonstrate what the instructor is looking for, a generic sample of a Research Paper Proposal is provided below. Your outline need not be as detailed as this, but the more detail you are able to put into the outline, the easier it will be to write the paper from it. Important note: A paper submitted without a previously approved and graded proposal will be given a grade of zero! This is a very important thing to keep in mind. The proposal itself is a fairly easy assignment, and is intended to get you thinking about the topic and beginning the research for it. It is also a device for me to make sure you haven't picked a topic that is far too broad, or way off the course subject matter – a paper on Alexander the Great or the Battle of Hastings, or the Warring States period in China would all be inappropriate for this course. So if you might feel tempted to skip the proposal, because you know what you are doing already – don't! Likewise, if I ask you to revise the proposal, don't wait until the week before the paper is due to submit the proposal – you may be in for a shock if the revised proposal is still not acceptable. Without an approved and graded proposal, you won't get any grade for your paper either, and the loss of those two assignments, combined, means a D (which is, of course, a failing grade at the graduate level) is the absolute best you can do for a course grade. If you have any questions about either the proposal or the paper itself, please ask – that is what I'm here for. A sample proposal is included in the document attached to this assignment.