WGST 4410W Women’s and Gender Studies Research Seminar (Banerjee): Project, Final and Presentation

1. Brainstorming a paper topic and sharing with the class
2. Exploring a research topic/question; methodology; bibliography.
3. Final Paper Outline with Bibliography.
4. Final Paper.

1. A Title
2. A Thesis Statement within the first two paragraphs
3. Strong Introduction and Conclusion
4. Topic sentences for each paragraph
5. Sub-sections with Headings
6. A coherent argument backed by suitable examples should be sustained throughout the paper
7. Citations of sources following MLA, APA, or Chicago Manual of Style.

You do NOT need separate pages for the title and the bibliography.            

This research will be reported both in class as a work in progress and as a final product at a semester-end Woman’s Studies Program Brown Bag Luncheon as an Oral Presentation.

Prepare PowerPoint slides to screen share during your presentation. You will have 20 minutes to present your findings on the final project with the rest of the hour devoted to Q&A.

Students must address the following points in their presentations:

1. Introduce the Research topic, explaining its relevance and significance (place, location, context, time period, etc.)
2. Sources used (primary and secondary).
3. Methodology.
4. Review of the existing literature and its connection to your work: how does your work fit in?
5. Your central argument or findings.
6. Conclusion, summing up your argument and contribution.
7. Complete Bibliographic Information of sources at the end. Full bibliographic citation includes author, title, place of publication, publisher, date of publication.

Center for Learning holds online tutoring sessions, including to help your writing.

• Be CAUTIOUS with your selection of sources, both primary and secondary.
• Do NOT rely on internet sources ending in .com or partisan, religious, government websites, and Wikipedia.
• Plenty of archival sources such as New York Times database, Brooklyn Eagle, or US Censuses are available on the web that you can use as primary source.
• Look for scholarly sources from academic presses published after 1980 and Brooklyn College Library databases, such as JSTOR  or Academic Search Complete. (The OneSearch option for BC Library is very good).
• You are more than welcome to consult the sources we used for the class and those listed on the syllabus.
• In addition to the required readings, I will keep adding new source materials as they come my way along the semester.

Primary sources are materials that are eyewitness accounts or as close to the original source as possible. Secondary sources are interpretations and analyses based on primary sources.

Often secondary and primary sources are relative concepts.  Typical secondary sources may be primary sources depending on the research topic.

Primary sources are the "materials on a topic upon which subsequent interpretations or studies are based, anything from firsthand documents such as poems, diaries, court records, and interviews to research results generated by experiments, surveys, ethnographies, and so on."*

Primary sources are records of events as they are first described, usually by witnesses or by people who were involved in the event. Many primary sources were created at the time of the event, but can also include memoirs, oral interviews, or accounts that were recorded later.  Visual materials, such as photos, original artwork, posters, and films are important primary sources, not only for the factual information they contain, but also for the insight they may provide into how people view their world.  Primary sources may also include sets of data, such as census statistics, which have been tabulated, but not interpreted.

*From Hairston, Maxine and John J. Ruszkiewicz. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers. 4th ed. New York : HarperCollins College Publishers, 1996, pg. 547.

Examples of Primary Sources

• Diaries
• Oral Interviews
• Letters
• Speeches
• Clothing
• Photographs
• Audio files
• Video files
• Eyewitness accounts
• Manuscript census records
• Artifacts 

Secondary sources offer an analysis or a restatement of primary sources. They often attempt to describe or explain primary sources. Some secondary sources not only analyze primary sources, but use them to argue a contention or to persuade the reader to hold a certain opinion.  Examples of secondary sources include dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, and books and articles that interpret or review research works.

Examples of Secondary Sources

• Textbook
• Encyclopedia
• Dictionary
• Bibliography
• Scholarly journal article
• Scholarly book
• Almanac

Often secondary and primary sources are relative concepts.  Typical secondary sources may be primary sources depending on the research topic.

1. Intellectual history topics.
   For example, although scholarly journal articles are usually considered secondary sources, if one's topic is the history of human rights, then journal articles on human rights will be primary sources in this instance.  Similarly, research on the thinking of a scholar will include her published journal articles as primary sources.
2. Historical topics.
   Magazine articles are secondary sources, but for someone researching the view of judicial punishment in the 1920s, magazines from that time period are primary sources.  Indeed, any older publication, such as those prior to the 20th century, is very often automatically considered a primary source.
3. Newspapers may be either primary or secondary.
   Most articles in newspapers are secondary, but reporters may be considered as witnesses to an event.  Any topic on the media coverage of an event or phenomenon would treat newspapers as a primary source.  There are so many articles and types of articles in newspapers that newspapers can often be considered either primary or secondary.

Ho, Clement. (Jul 18, 2019). "Primary vs. Secondary Sources: Primary vs. Secondary Sources." American University