For this section of the assignment, you will be reviewing ONE of the secondary sources you found.

Due date: March 11th at midnight to Moodle

Please include footnotes formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style when you summarize or quote directly from your article as well as for information that is not generally known.

For a google doc version of the below questions:

Research Trail 2B questions

  1. What is your topic?
  2. Who is the author and what are their credentials? You will likely need to google the author’s name if this is not indicated in the source.
  3. Give a full bibliographic entry of your source according to the Chicago manual of style.
  4. Are there any subheadings in your article? if so, what are these?
  5. Look through the citations (footnotes or endnotes). Are they based on primary sources or secondary sources or both? Name one primary source the author refers to and one secondary sources the author refers to in the article. Do you think either of these sources would help your own research? If so, why?
  6. What is the author’s main argument or thesis statement? Provide a quotation of it AND summarize it in your own words.
  7. How does the author develop their argument? What main points do they use to help prove their argument?
  8. Does the author discuss how other historians have approached this topic? If so, who do they discuss (give 2 examples)? Make sure to indicate the name of books/articles the author refers to, including full publication information.
  9. Does the author base their argument on a primary source or a set of primary sources? What are these? If so, how does the author use these sources as evidence?
  10. Are you convinced by the author’s argument and the evidence they present to support it? If yes, why? If no, why not? Remember that you don’t have to agree with or believe the author just because they are an academic scholar. History is all about presenting our interpretations, backed up by evidence. Often scholars have very different interpretations of the same evidence.
  11. How might this article help your own research? State three specific ideas.
  12. What questions do you have about this topic after reading this source? Name at least one.
  13. Although you are only required to answer the above questions for ONE secondary source, you must read TWO for this question. Now that you’ve read two primary sources and two secondary sources, you should have a general idea of the direction your project could take. It’s time to formulate a research question to guide the rest of your project. What is your research question?

A good research question should have the following qualities:

  • It is argumentative (can lead to different interpretations based on the evidence).
  • It is open-ended (but not too broad–in other words, there should be no simple answer to your question)
  • It should focus on a significant problem, issue, controversy, or contradiction related to your topic
  • it should be specific but substantive
  • ask questions such as who, what, where, when, and why about your topic, based on your reading of primary and secondary sources to help you develop a single research question.
  • We will go over good examples in class.