Writing Assignments

These are writing assignments for the whole class. Individual students may have additional or alternate assignments, to be determined in conference.

Monday, September 8 (first class meeting)
Hand in the preliminary prospectus and bibliography for your thesis project. For most of you, the prospects/bibliography that you produced in Visions/Revisions will suffice. If you've changed your topic, however, you'll need something new.


Monday, September 22
Hand in a one-page (double-spaced) summary of the core questions(s) your thesis will seek to answer, or will at least explore (since clear answers may never materialize). Don't hesitate to focus on the big issues that motivate your research as opposed to finely-honed questions about history or historiography. It's easier to craft a research project that sheds light on a big question than to start with a small question and then figure out why it matters.

Monday, October 6
Hand in an annotated bibliography of secondary sources-those you'll actually consult, not every relevant item you've identified. Or, to quote Pierre Bayard, zero in on the "collective library" most pertinent to your project.

Friday, October 10
Send in (via email to Priscilla) the historiographical portion of your introduction to the thesis. This portion should be 4 or 5 pages long, and it must situate your research historiographically -i.e., describe and assess the "collective library" relevant to your project and explain what your work will add to this literature.

Monday, October 27
Hand in the final draft of your prospectus and an un-annotated bibliography of both primary and secondary sources. This is the formal prospectus you will file at the Graduate Studies Office, so be sure to copyedit and proofread, and make sure that your bibliographic entries adhere to the rules (which you will find in Mary Lynn Rampolla's Pocket Guide to Writing in History).

Friday, October 31
Send in (via email to Priscilla) the introduction to your thesis. The introduction should be about 10 pages long. In addition to whatever else you wish to it to accomplish, it should (not necessarily in this order) define your topic, lay out your core questions, explain their significance, assess the relevant historiography and make clear what you will add to it, describe your primary sources and research methods, and expound on their value in this context. This is a first draft, but please edit, proofread, and follow formal rules of documentation.

Friday, November 14
Send in (via email to Priscilla) a five-page analysis of the primary document you distributed to the class on November 10.

December 8
Hand in the preliminary outline of the thesis. The task here is to tackle big organizational questions, such as: How many chapters will the thesis have? For each chapter, what are the main topic(s), the empirical base, the core analytic theme(s), and the most important contribution to the thesis's overall argument? What, if any, appendices are required, and why are they important?

January 23 (first Friday of the spring term)
Hand in a detailed outline, via email with copies to the whole class. This may be your most challenging assignment of the year-yes, even more challenging than the final draft. The detailed outline should organize your thesis paragraph by paragraph. Note the main argument each paragraph will make and the evidence it will present in support of that argument. Use the outlining process to work through conceptual issues and organizational problems. Don't stint on this part of the project. If you do the job right, outlining your thesis may require almost as much time as writing it, and your outline may be almost as long as your final draft.

At some junctures, you will doubtless find that you're not ready to outline because of insufficient research. That's okay. Determine what research remains to be done and get to work on it as soon as you can.  

Be sure to document the outline. Note the source(s) of evidence that each paragraph will present. Append a bibliography that covers all of your sources, published or archival.