Rockridge Social Studies

Goal: To become familiar with: 

 

• writing a research essay with a focussed thesis;

• the University of Chicago style of footnoting;

• an annotated bibliography.

 

This assignment will help students write history essays by teaching them the mechanics of a research paper. This activity requires you to visit a library (maybe two) and you will need an internet connection at home and a word processor, such as Microsoft Word, Pages, etc. 

 

Value: 50 marks.

 

Instructions: There are 3 parts to this assignment. Please follow the instructions carefully and thoroughly. Any missing steps could result in missing elements of your assignment and therefore a reduced mark. 

 

 

 

STEP ONE: BECOMING FAMILIAR WITH A RESEARCH ESSAY 

 

 

1. Go to the Social Studies Writing Manual home page and read the page How to Write a Research Paper under the table of contents. This should take around 10 minutes.

2. Next, read the page Tips When Doing Your Research. This should take around 10 minutes.

3. Finally, read the page What Kind of Sources Should I Have page. This should also take around 10 minutes.

4. Now you have a rough idea of what is expected of you. Don't understand something? Speak to your teacher. 

 

 

STEP TWO: CHOOSING ESSAY TOPICS 

 

You need to choose one of the topics below. For term one you will not be writing a complete essay. Instead, you will demonstrate your research skills by producing footnotes and a bibliography. There will be two writing parts to your essay: 1) Focus your energies on writing an introduction that is powerful and engaging that includes a strong thesis. 2) You will provide point form notes of your research in the body of your essay. See the sample below for clarification.

 

Choose ONE of the following:

 

Caution: Be sure that you fully understand what the question is asking of you and that your thesis directly responds to the following topics. 

 

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STEP THREE: ASSIGNMENT DETAILS 

 

Once you have chosen your topic. Go to a library (or more than two) to collect your resources (using the tips you learned before).

 

 

YOUR ESSAY ASSIGNMENT REQUIRES THE FOLLOWING: 

 

 

INTRODUCTION: An Introduction paragraph that includes a thesis statement. For this assignment the thesis sentence has to be highlighted in bold (normally you do not). A good introduction paragraph engages the reader. It usually starts by introducing your topic with general background information, but then becomes more focussed in the last few sentences by including your supporting ideas, or main supporting points. Finally, your thesis statement should finish your introduction with a bang. Try to keep it to one sentence. If your thesis is well written and well defined, you will have captured the reader's attention. Remember, your thesis needs to have a compelling argument and not necessarily be a sentence that just highights the supporting ideas. For example, if you choose the first topic above, your thesis should not just tell me what the major causes of World War One were. A thesis for this topic would go further and argue that perhaps one of the causes was more important than another, or that one particuarly country should bear the responsibility for causing World War One. For an assignment of this size, anywhere from 8 to 12 sentences would be sufficient for an introduction paragraph. 

 

BODY: You will not need to write the body of your essay in the traditional form. Instead, you will demonstrate your research by providing evidence in point form. Click here to see the template as it should be followed. Your body paragraphs should include quotes, statistics, facts, etc. There is no hard and fast rule on the number of body paragraphs you should provide. However, less than three is too few and more than eight may be too overwhelming for the reader.

 

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: You will need to provide an annotated bibliography. This is different from a regular bibliography in that you will need to evaluate each of your sources. Annotated bibliographies are descriptive and critical summaries of your sources. Not only do they reveal the author's point of view, they also inform the reader of the material's relevancy, accuracy, and quality. Most students have no trouble finding information on a topic, but many don't consider the quality of their source material. For example, I have had students in the past write entire essays using a communist website. Never once did it occur to them that the information on that webpage came from a viewpoint that is considered extreme. When producing an annotated bibliography, you will be required to use the web-based program, NoodleBib. This is a very good online program that will save you both time and frustration when producing a bibliography. It will not only teach you how to create a properly formatted bibliography, it will also allow you to annotate and to create note cards when doing your research. You will need to set up an account. Speak to your school librarian about setting it up. Your bibliography should not have less than three sources, and more than eight could be overwhelming for you. Finally this assignment requires that you use only books (digital or printed); website are not acceptable. Books are still superior sources over websites because they provide the analysis and depth that websites often lack. A bibliography that has fewer than three sources will not receive a mark over 50%.

 

FOOTNOTES: When you write your body paragraphs, which attempt to support your thesis, you will need to provide evidence. Evidence can come in many forms: quotations, facts, statistics, etc. The more evidence you provide the more influential your essay will be. However, using these tools of evidence will require you to cite your written and digital material. To do this you will need to use footnotes. This assignment requires that you produce a minimum of 20 footnotes. Any fewer the essay will not pass. 

 

 

 

CLICK HERE FOR A TEMPLATE TO FOLLOW EXACTLY