this a history course..its a research paper,, all the instruction and question are given on attah file

Assignment 5

Research Paper No. 1

This paper is to be submitted in WORD format.

You have now had some experience with the most important tasks of historical research and writing. You have read and analyzed both primary and secondary documents; you are aware of historical debates and can search for them within the scholarly literature; and you have some experience writing and thinking historically.

Assignment Objectives: In this assignment you will combine all the skills that you have developed thus far to answer one of the following questions in a research paper. A research paper requires you to search for materials that will help you to answer a relatively focused question in some detail. Although you will have to rely on the previous work of other historians, the way that you bring together, organize, and analyze what they have said in answer to your research question will constitute an original piece of work. Allow at least 5 hours of library research time for this component of your essay, and be sure to make use of the Distance and Online Education Librarian. Consult your Tool Box package for help in outlining, forming an argument, and writing a research paper. Students who leave the research to the last week invariably produce poor quality essays—a fact that is reflected in the grade.

Refer to the relevant chapters in your Storey and Jones book. Review and study the documents in your Tool Box package especially: “Sample of an Outline”, “How to Write your History Paper”, “Resources for Avoiding Plagiarism”, and “Organizing an Argument”.

Since you have roughly 5 weeks to complete this assignment, you should budget your time accordingly. Applying the same methods used in Assignment 2, here is a suggested time line:

Week 1 Select topic and begin preliminary reading/research—spend 2 hours in Dafoe or online with One Stop Search doing this. Skim your course textbook for suggested readings, starting points, etc. but do not include it in your final bibliography.

Week 2 Make a long list of 12–14 possible books. Now, using the research techniques developed in the library assignment, find the 6 best books on your topic and read them carefully, taking notes to answer your research question. Pick the ones that will help provide the best answers to your question. Scan through these books for discussions of primary sources that might be relevant to your essay. Look for academic appropriate journal articles as you did in Assignment 2.

Week 3 Continue to watch for references to other secondary works that you might have missed in your initial search and order those that look helpful. Late in Week 3, write a very rough draft with huge gaps in the argument. Search out other books or articles on your topic as necessary.

Week 4 Incorporate fresh material into your rough first draft. Revise into a second draft. Keep adding primary and secondary material as necessary. Be sure to cite all your sources to avoid plagiarism.

Week 5 Revise your new draft adding more material if necessary. Proofread for clarity, argument, and double check that footnotes and bibliography follow the Chicago Manual style set out in your Storey and Jones book.

Directions

The essay should be 2,250–2,500 words minimum, or roughly 9–10 double-spaced, typed pages (one side of the page only), but no more than 11 full pages of text. Note: Cover page and Bibliography pages are extra. Your bibliography should have about 10 sources in CMS format like the one you produced for Assignment 2.

Formal university papers must:

have a separate title page: see Rampolla p. 151 for the proper format;
be typed or computer generated in WORD on one side of 8½ x 11” paper; and
be written in clear, formal prose.

Please do not use encyclopedias, the web, or cite web sites for this assignment. You will need to base your essay on research into secondary sources carried out in the library. You are encouraged to apply the techniques developed in the library research assignment directly to this assignment. You may consult the course text The West: Encounters and Transformations by Levack for background information, but do not cite from it as a source.

Please indicate on your title page a title and the text of the question you are answering.
An excellent on-line resource for ancient to modern periods compiled by Dr. Halsall from Fordham University is: (http://legacy.fordham.edu/Halsall/index.asp)
Run through the checklist for assignments.
If you have any questions, please contact the course instructor as soon as possible.

Due date: Consult the table “Assignments due dates” in the course syllabus.

Essay questions

Ancient civilizations

Compare and contrast the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt with regard to religion, social organization, and politics.
What were the causes and what was the progress of the Great Peloponnesian War? What was the impact of this conflict upon the Greeks?
Augustus was concerned about the erosion of traditional Roman values and sought their restoration. What were some of these values? Was Augustus right in trying to reintroduce these values?
To what extent can the emergence of Christianity be seen as a cause for the decline of the Roman Empire? In you answer, explain the social and political consequences of Christianity on the Roman Empire.

Medieval World

Discuss the political organization of the empire created by Charlemagne. What techniques did he use to maintain his rule and why could the empire not survive following his death?
What were the most significant institutional developments within the medieval Catholic Church during the High Middle Ages? What impact did those developments have on the Church’s popular appeal?
“Feudalism was the perfect political system for the Middle Ages.” Write an essay that describes feudalism completely and either defends or refutes this statement.
What impact did the emergence of the city have on medieval society?
What was the role of women in the early Christian church?

Renaissance and reformation Europe

What was the main cause of the Black Death or Plague? What were the three types of this disease and what were the short- and long-term social and economic consequences of the Plague for Europe?
What does the word ‘humanism’ mean? What does it mean in the context of the Italian Renaissance? Who were the Christian humanists? What would you say were their main goals? Did they achieve them?
Why did the Renaissance begin in Italy? What factors were present there that led to its beginnings that were not present elsewhere in Europe?
Outline the major characteristics of the Renaissance papacy. What impact did the policies of the Renaissance popes have on the Catholic Church?
Compare and contrast the chief ideas of Calvinism, Anabaptism, and Lutheranism. What did they have in common? How were they different?

Early modern Europe

Was religion the only issue at play in the French Wars of Religion? Why or why not?
How did the English Reformation differ from the reformation in other countries? What was the specific role of Henry VIII and the English Parliament in the challenge to the Catholic Church?
What correlations can be made between overseas expansion or the ‘discovery’ of the New World, and the social, economic, and political development of western Europe?
What was meant by the ‘body politic’ in sixteenth-century Europe? How was the metaphor of the body used to differentiate between peasants, artisans, clergymen, and nobles? In other words, what roles did contemporaries assign to those groups?
The Thirty Years’ War has been described by some as “the last of the religious wars” and by others as the “first modern war.” Which do you see as the more accurate assessment? Why?