Writing Question

Learning Goal: I’m working on a writing multi-part question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Research Project

Goal:

One of the main reasons we study the past is because it helps us make sense of the world around us. Everything we do has a history, and we create new history every day. The goal of this assignment is to

• Think about how history affects our lives today.
• Practice curiosity. What interests you?
• Practice research and communication skills.

Ground Rules:

• Pick one prompt (I already chose Amelia Earhart)
• Since this is a U.S. history class, all topics must have a U.S. connection
• Projects must fit the time frame of the class – roughly 1870-2000
• You can do an essay or creative project (more on that below)
• All projects must use at least five credible, scholarly sources.

Step 1:

Choose one of the following prompts.

• Option A – Holiday – pick a historic person or event that you think is underrated. Make the case for why this person/event deserves its own holiday (no presidents – they already have a day).
  • For this option, you will write a 4-6 page essay on your topic.

I am choosing to do Option A and create a holiday. I think that Amelia Earhart deserves her own holiday because she was the first ever female pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. I am also choosing to do a creative project for the Amelia Earhart holiday to celebrate all the accomplishments woman have made and to continue to strive towards.

Amelia Earhart was born July 24^th, 1897 and was assumed dead on January 5^th 1939. This is the time that we have been learning about in class and it is insane to think that there were planes but also that women were allowed to fly.

Step 2:

Choose the type of project. *Note* Both projects require bibliographies with at least five credible, scholarly sources

Essay

Now that you have chosen your topic, you need to find sources. For this assignment, you need to find at least five credible scholarly sources. What do I mean?

• A credible scholarly source is a source written by an expert in their field. Scholarly sources should have

Your bibliography should include at least

• one scholarly journal article
• one scholarly book

HOW DO I FIND SOURCES?

• Do some exploratory reading. You need to know a little bit about your topic so that you can search effectively. Wikipedia is a good place to start.

Encyclopedias are great places to start your research (just don’t stop there. Don’t use encyclopedias in your final project). They will give you basic information that you can use to search the library databases. Most Wikipedia articles also include citations, bibliographies, and/or reading lists. Use those to guide you to appropriate scholarly sources.

• Use what you learned on Wikipedia to brainstorm search terms.