History Project

The student will be responsible for choosing an event in American History and create an argument on its significance using historical evidence of at least one primary and one secondary source. The student will also analyze and interpret the primary and secondary sources by explaining how the material impacted the chosen event. (Learning Objectives 2 and 3) 

The everyday history project is an opportunity for you to explore a topic, group, event, or time period that interests you the most. It can be something we talked about in class, something from your readings, or a topic you knew about previously (so long as it is historically-related). Below are the instructions for our project. If you have any questions, please let me know. Please follow these steps to complete the project. 

1. Choose a topic to conduct your research on - keep in mind that it needs to be American History focused and must be within the time frame (1450 - 1877) of this course. 

2. Watch the videos in this YouTube playlist on the types of sources, how to conduct historical research, and how to analyze documents. These videos should guide you through the process of locating academically credible documents and sources. 

3. Conduct the research - you locate at least one primary and one secondary source directly related to your topic. You must ensure that your sources meet the criteria for primary\secondary sources and that they pass the C.R.A.A.P. test (see YouTube playlist). 

4. Analyze your chosen documents using the skills highlighted in the Historical Thinking, Sourcing, and Historical Context videos from the playlist. 

5. Write up your project according to the following criteria: 

• • Write a 500 -1000 word synthesis of your topic and sources.
  • Your analysis should begin with a brief overview or summarization of your chosen topic.
  • Next, you will provide a description and analysis of each of your sources.
  • Lastly, you'll need to corroborate all of your chosen sources and discuss how they relate or add information\perspective to your topic.

You will be submitting your project through SafeAssign. As usual, I expect formal, academic writing free from grammatical and spelling errors. You will also need to formally cite the sources you use at the end of your project through a Bibliography\Works Cited.