Welcome to Part IV of the Research Assignment for HIST 105. In Part IV, you will locate one additional book to investigate the historical roots of your contemporary issue, continue to refine your thesis statement, create a bibliography for your essay, learn the difference between bibliographic and footnote citations, and draft an outline of your essay. After you've completed Part IV, your instructor or your teaching assistant will offer comments on your work and perhaps assign a rough draft of your essay/paper.
Library Help
Each database search in the assignment (e.g., Lexis-Nexis) is demonstrated for you in a short video tutorial on the Roots of Contemporary Issues Libguide. Review the tutorials before trying your search. If you have still have questions, or need help, contact a librarian.
1.One Additional Monograph
Find one additional book (monograph) for your research.
Perform a search in Search It (WSU's central book database) from the Libraries' Homepage. Type in your keyword(s) or phrase(s) in the search box. Refine your results to "Books" (see left side limiters). If you are retrieving too many irrelevant books, change your search from "Any" to "in the title" in the advanced search interface. IMPORTANT: Your book must centrally address pre-1970 history related to your topic / research question(s).
Search It contains 100s of millions of records. It labels a large amount of its holdings as "books" even though many are not technically books. Books, as appropriate for this assignment, include (but are not limited to) items published by popular or university presses. Avoid items published by government agencies (considered primary sources), unpublished dissertations, materials available on microform, and material labeled "continually updated sources."
In the box below, provide the correct Chicago-style bibliographic citation for your book. Note differences between single- and multi-authored books.
2.Footnotes and Bibliographic Citations: What's the Difference?
Within the body of your essay, you will need to provide footnote citations for your sources. A footnote is a numerical reference embedded in the narrative itself and has a corresponding number at the bottom of the page with the source's citation. Different word processing programs have different toolbar commands for footnoting (sometimes called reference in MS Word), so you'll need to familiarize yourself with how yours works (note that footnotes are not the same as a footer).
This question and the next question test your knowledge of the difference between bibliographic citations, footnotes, and abbreviated footnotes (which you use after the first citation of a particular source). The major difference is that bibliographic citations cite the source as a whole, while footnotes (full or abbreviated) hone in on specific pages. There are other important differences as well, including the order of an author's name (first last vs. last, first) and punctuation.
Consult the Chicago-style page for a refresher on the differences between bibliographic and footnote citations (you may remember this from Part I). Hint: the footnote examples are numbered, the bibliographic citation is the one without a number and is listed last for each source type. In the space below, cut and paste the full bibliographic citation from one of the sources in your bibliography and then enter the correct fullfootnote citation of that same source. You can use (a) page number(s) that correspond with an example that you will use in your essay.
3.Abbreviated Footnotes
For any single source, you should abbreviate all subsequent footnotes after the first one. Using the Chicago-style examples as references,cut and paste the full footnote entry you used from the previous question and then add the abbreviated footnote below it. You can use (a) page number(s) that corresponds with an example that you will use in your essay.
4.Crafting an Outline
This is a multi-part question that you will complete in a Word document. You will upload the document to this question in the space below AND also turn in a hardcopy in class. The points will be recorded here, but comments will be written on the hardcopy and returned in class. Please upload your outline as a word-processed (e.g., MS Word) document.
Part I: Final (or Near Final) Thesis Statement
In light of your expanding set of sources and multiple instances of comments from your instructor and/or TAs, craft what you would classify as your final(or near final) thesis statement for your essay. IMPORTANT: For information on how to write a thesis and key examples, refer to the "Tips & Examples for Writing a Thesis" Word document in the Angel Library Research Assignments folder.
Thesis Statement
Considering free speech, corrections and punishment system, and women and crime as the factors to define democracy, the democracy in India is intriguing as the country battles not only issues of cultural and religious diversity but also that of poverty. The treatment of women in the Indian community, especially with the male chauvinism in education and employments reveal that the country is still a long way from democracy.
Part II: Crafting an Outline
Creating a quality outline is a key step in nearly all research writing. Although your instructor/TAs will give specifics concerning the structure of the outlines needed for your class, there are number of basic requirements for the final essay which will likely inform your outline work:
- The introduction introduces your topic (featuring a topical hook) and includes your thesis and structure for your arguments.
- The body of the paper may either work forward or backwards in time, or perhaps be organized by geography or sub-topics. Regardless of your structural approach, it is paramount that you maintain a consistent historical orientation throughout.
- The conclusion should summarize your main points and explain how a historical understanding of your issue is critical to understanding it in the present. The Purdue OWL also offers quality instruction on how to develop an outline.
Part III: Creating a Bibliography
As you now know, scholars like yourselves must provide proper citation for the sources that they use. In Parts I-IV, you used proper Chicago-style bibliographic citations for each of your primary and secondary sources. Create a bibliography for your final essay. The bibliography should include at least 6 items, many of these will be from previous parts of this research project, but some may be different as your topic has evolved and you've collected other supplemental resources. See a Sample Bibliography (do not worry about spacing/indentation issues here in Angel, but do create space between each citation for readability). Note in the sample bibliography that all sources appear alphabetically by author last name. If a source (likely primary) does not have an author, then use the publication title (not article title) as the source for creating alphabetical order.
Note that this bibliography will be close, but not perhaps identical to the one you turn in as part of your final essay. In the bibliography for your final essay you should only include sources you cited in the essay itself.
5.Library Help
Did you contact library reference staff for any of your work in any part of this research assignment (Parts I - IV)? If so, what kind of help did you get? If you did not seek assistance, explain why and how you think assistance might have been useful.
