PAPER WORKSHEET    HISTORY 499: ROYAL BRITAIN    SUMMER 2006


Each student is required to write an 8-10 page analytical paper on some aspect of the British monarchy.  Papers should be double-spaced, typed in 12-point font, and employ at least three primary and five secondary sources.  You will probably want to incorporate oral and/or material evidence (the former can include oral traditions such as myths or ballads; the latter, artifacts such as portraits, furnishings, household possessions, architectural styles, etc.) as well as written sources.

In selecting a topic, you might want to expand upon issues raised in class discussions, field trips, and journal entries (e.g., the use of symbolism in the portraits of Elizabeth I) or to choose one of the course themes (e.g., church and state conflict) and apply it to a particular monarch (e.g., Henry II) or dynasty (the Angevins). Topics should be submitted to the instructor on or before 27 July 2006.  Obviously, the sooner you choose a topic, the sooner you can begin your research.

State your thesis (the point/points you wish to prove about your topic) and the arguments you will employ to develop it in your introductory paragraph. Give examples from both primary and secondary sources to illustrate your points but confine direct (verbatim) quotations to primary materials.  Arguments from secondary materials, especially textbooks, should generally be paraphrased (put in your own words).  Summarize your conclusions in a final paragraph.

Acknowledge all your sources, whether quoted or paraphrased.  When in doubt, CITE!  Use endnotes in the humanities format to cite your sources.  Endnotes involve consecutive numbers at the end of the sentence or paragraph which you have quoted or paraphrased. The actual note giving author, title, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, and pages consulted will appear consecutively numbered at the end of the paper.  Here's an example of an endnote page:

Notes

    1.  Frederick R. Stevenson and Carl Feiss, "Charleston and Savannah," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 10 (December 1951): 3-9.
    2.  John W. Reps, The Making of Urban America: A History of City Planning in the United States (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), 157-159.
    3.  A Plan of Charles Town from a Survey by Edward Crisp in 1704, Map Collection, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC.
    4.  Reps, The Making of Urban America, 158. [N.B.  A shortened form should be used for second and subsequent references; usually an author's last name and shortened title will suffice]
    5.  Edmund N. Bacon, Design of Cities, revised edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1976), 92-105.

Papers will be graded on both content and style.  Thus, it is important that you proofread carefully for spelling and grammatical errors.  Make sure that your thesis is clearly stated and that it is adequately supported by the evidence.  Each paragraph should deal with only one main idea, and paragraphs should follow logically from one another.  Use transition sentences, not separate headings, to move from topic to topic.  Papers should be mailed to my office (Department of History, College of Charleston, 66 George Street, Charleston, SC 29424) or sent as a Microsoft Word attachment (mccandlessa@cofc.edu) by 23 September 2006.
 

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