Last updated March 4, 2004
For this project, you will compose a paper that tells readers what happened on the day that you were born, not just in your hometown, but also what happened in the local area, the state, the nation, and in the world.
One of the objectives of this assignment is to get you looking in places (in sources) that you’ve never looked before (like the sources mentioned above). Another objective is for you to make something that is important to you (events of your birth day) important to your readers (again, the primary audience for this paper is the typical second semester freshman at ECU who is taking English 1200 this semester).
The North Carolina Collection has microfilms of most of the newspapers in North Carolina and some that are located in our nation’s larger cities. The periodicals (news magazines, general magazines, etc.) are in the journals section of Joyner Library (on the 2nd floor).
Like the N C Collection paper, you will produce a research essay of about 6 pages (1,500 words) in which you contextualize and explain the significance of the events of your birth day. This paper will require 6-12 sources, of which, not less than 6 will be non-internet sources (e.g., newspapers, magazines, news magazines, journals, and, in some cases, personal interviews). A successful paper will showcase your ability to find, evaluate, and synthesize relevant sources. Completing this assignment will give you an opportunity to work in an archival collection and to learn something interesting about the day you were born; it will also give you an opportunity to learn research methodology in the humanities.
This paper is due March 8, 2004. Between then and now, we
will have a couple of workshops (one to talk about our research on Feb. 26, and
on March 3, we will have our 1st draft workshop).
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Created Feb. 20, 2004 Last updated March 4, 2004 |