Students will design and implement research projects in collaboration with peers and the professor. Familiarity with scholarship includes among others, the ability to review and critique the existing literature in the field. The project will adhere to the characteristics of standard research and will be judged based on the research design criteria:
NOTE:
For the designing of Research projects, from identifying a topic to finding sources, making an outline and an annotated Bibliography, students will create a Google Doc to be shared with me and the peers, allowing us to edit. It will give everyone a chance to review and share feedback at the same time.
Your research should combine both primary sources and secondary literature. Also, always give credit to your sources using one of the chosen formats, MLA, APA formats, or the Chicago Manual style.
If possible the complete research project will be showcased online (student Esri StoryMaps) as part of the Open Education Resource (OER) site, drawing on personal experience, interviews, and examination of extant literature.
Check out Course Relevant Links and Resources while working on your research project.
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:
Center for Learning holds online tutoring sessions, including to help your writing.
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.
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.
Barry, Maureen. (Oct. 2021) "HIST 4000: Resistance to the Nazis: Secondary Sources [explained]" BGSU Bowling Green State University.Often secondary and primary sources are relative concepts. Typical secondary sources may be primary sources depending on the research topic.
Ho, Clement. (Jul 18, 2019). "Primary vs. Secondary Sources: Primary vs. Secondary Sources." American University