Final Check List Vote 2008

HIST 290: Special Topics--2008 US Presidential Election

Fall 2008

Prof Tom Heed & Prof Jenn Mazza

Each student shall author a multi-disciplinary, multi-media research project on the 2008 election. The project will pursue one of three themes--campaign strategy, role of media, or tranformtioanl politics in Vote 2008--and utilize at least three media in explicating their thesis. The media may included YouTube, TV, film, blogs, political cartoons, viral videos, and any other source found relevant for this election.. The media, whenever possible, is to be integrated into the text of the project as an integral component of the narrative. All students MUST have a conference with the instructor and contract the projects topic and potential thesis before Oct. 10 . If the paper lacks either a multi-disciplinary structure or fails to incorporate a multi-media presentation it will receive an automatic F.

Name______________________________________ Final Term Paper Check List

1. Title page: I apologize for stating the obvious but in recent semesters many students did not use a title page and several failed to even print their name on their paper so I will make explicit what I want on your title page.

____a. Title of paper: (The title must state the thesis of your paper and the subject of the paper.)

In one phrase state the topic of the paper; in a second phrase state your thesis.

State your Tentative title and thesis

____________________________________________________________________________________

___b. Student name

____c. Class title: HIST 290: Special Topics--2008 US Presidential Election

____d. Class section: Wed 8AM
____e. Instructor's name: Professor Tom Heed & Prof Jenn Mazza
f. Date:

_____ 2. Table of Content-detail sections of project as well as all media included-list page number of each section & media

3. Body of Paper

____a. pages numbered ( If you do not know how to do this with your computer program ask.)

____b. Standard margins and font size
_____c. assume 250 words per page; four pages equals about 1000 words or 12 to 16 pages.
_____d. paper divided into sections: an Introduction, at least four to five major sections in the body of the paper and a conclusion;
title each section as to how it develops the thesis.

4. The paper will have a bibliography and footnotes. All media used in the paper must be listed in the bibliography. Most word processing programs easily write footnotes or endnotes. If you do not know how to use your program to make notes let me know and I will help. You are to use Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers as your style sheet. For instance your Bibliography is:

____a. The bibliography will be in alphabetical order with the authors last name first.

journals:

_____b. The footnotes

Journals:

For inter-net citations include the URL or address of the internet site, the name of the site and the date you last used the site.

______6. In your paper you must distinguish between your subject and your thesis and a good paper will show obvious research on both points. So if your subject is the role of viral videos you need to not only research viral videos you must also look at history of media in campaigns and how media may be a positive force as well as a potential negative..

List some research done on your subject:

Subject 1_____________________________
Subject 2_____________________________
Subject 3_________________________________
And some research done on your thesis:
Thesis _______________________________

_____7. The paper must use at least two of the three modalities we will use thoroughout the course-ie. political cartoons, video, satarical comedy sites. Indicate your two selected forms.

1. images: Stills, video________________________________

2. Maps__________________________________
3. Data sets_______________________________

_____8. Your paper must have a thesis. Your task is to convince us of your argument. That is the primary purpose of your assignment

Write a paragraph describing in some detail how you researched your paper. What kind of sources did you examine first; what sources were most productive; which leads were least succcessful; and how and when did you come to your thesis.

_____9. . This year I have asked you to focus your research across four different types of sources; each type we have discussed and will discuss again:

1. Research in academic journals______________________________

2. Research in a broad survey account of your topic____________________________

3. Research in monographic accounts on your topic______________________________

4. Research the web--using all the caution and care we have discussed.____________________________

No work is acceptable if it focuses just on one of these types of sources; the more broadly based the research the better the thesis and argumentation.

Write a succinct paragraph narrating how you came to your thesis and how you organized your paper to develop the argumentation necessary to establish your main contention.

10. Plagiarism: If you copy text from another source--a paragraph, a sentence, a phrase--you must footnote the source and attribute and identify the real author. If you copy an idea from someone else you must identify that author. If you closely paraphrase the words or ideas of someone else you must identify that author in your footnotes.

If you fail to attribute material to its author you are guilty of plagiarism. That theft of words and ideas is the antithesis of all we are about at College. Our goal is to lead students to think, analyze and assess. Stealing someone else's intellectual property is a destruction of all we most value. If I catch you plagiarizing you will fail the paper and the course.