The American Experience to 1877

Professor Edstrom

Journal Article Paper

Due October 7, 2008

The purpose of the first paper is to familiarize students with the original research done by professional historians. For your first assignment, choose a professional historical journal article from the library on any topic in U.S. history prior to the end of the Civil War. You will then write a short paper summarizing the main argument and research methods of the author. Find your article early! Don’t wait until the last minute to find your article. I am always willing to meet with you if you need assistance!

Technical Requirements:

1) The paper must be typed, double-spaced, and use a 12-point font.

2) The should be no less than one full page in length, but no more than two full pages long.

3) Have a cover page that contains a full citation of the article that you read (Author, title, journal name, publication date, page numbers) as well as your name and the course title and section number.

4) The paper must be written in fluent language. I strongly encourage you to make use of the Harper Writing Center for proofreading purposes. You can also access their web page for writing tips at (http://www.harpercollege.edu/writ_ctr/).

Your paper should include the following:

1) What is the main subject that the author is writing about?

2) Identify the author’s thesis. What is he/she trying to prove?

3) What methods does the author use to prove his/her thesis? What types of sources were used? What types of evidence were presented?

4) Do you think that the author was successful in proving the thesis? Why or why not?

5) What were the major strengths of the article? What were the weaknesses?

6) Did you like the article? Would you recommend it to someone who is interested in the topic? Why or why not?

For 1-10 Points Extra Credit

Research the author’s credentials and include a paragraph in which you explain why the author is qualified to write on the subject. Where did the author get his/her degrees? Where does he/she work? What other books and articles has he/she written? You can find information on the author’s other publications by using the FirstSearch database. See what you can find on the author. And by all means—make an appointment to see me if you need help!

Finding an Article

You are expected to find an article on any subject from American history prior to 1877 that interests you. The one caveat is that the article must be from an academic journal. Some examples of academic journals carried by Harper’s library are the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History, the Journal of Economic History, the Journal of Negro History, the Journal of Social History, and the William and Mary Quarterly. You can use “popular history” journals such as American Heritage or American History to find ideas for topics you’d like to investigate, but do not choose articles from those publications for review. An academic journal article will be approximately 12-30 pages long and have extensive citations (footnotes, end notes, etc.). Do not use book reviews. You could literally page through some past volumes of the above listed journals until you find an article or you can make use of the search databases in Harper’s library. The most useful database will probably be the EbscoHost database Academic Search Premier. There you can find many full text articles on thousands of historical topics through keyword searches. It only takes a few minutes to learn how to use EbscoHost. Reminder: Your article, even if found on-line, needs to come from a scholarly journal. If you have any questions about your article, ask me.

Using EbscoHost

1. Go to the Harper library’s home page on the computer (http://www.harpercollege.edu/library).

2. Click on Full-Text Articles, Databases

3. Click on Academic Search Premier

4. Click on the box marked “Full Text” under “Limit Your Results”

5. Enter the term/phrase you want to search for and click search

6. Choose an appropriate article from the options that appear

For more assistance while using the database, talk to me or one of the Library faculty.

Some General Topics to Consider

I’ve included a list of a few general topics that you might be interested in using in the EbscoHost searches. This is by no means a comprehensive list, so feel free to read about any topic that interests you. Browse through the Alan Brinkley textbook for more ideas. All of the searches included below will yield appropriate articles using the above methods, or you can choose another topic that interests you in U.S. history prior to 1877.

Andrew Jackson	Iroquois
Puritans	Slavery (or try slaves, slave trade, etc.)
American Revolution	Thomas Jefferson
Indentured (servants)	Alexander Hamilton
War of 1812	Abolitionists
Cherokee	Benjamin Franklin
French and Indian War	George Washington
Reconstruction	Frederick Douglass
Louisiana	Colonial America
Frontier	Colonial women

Is my article from a scholarly publication? You can ensure that an article is from a scholarly journal this way: when you go to Academic Search Premier, you will see tabs marked “Basic Search,” “Advanced Search,” and “Choose Databases.” Click on the “Advanced Search” tab. A little further down the screen you will see a box marked “Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals.” From this point on, any journal articles that come up will be “peer-reviewed”—that is to say, scholarly journals!

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Last updated August 22, 2008