Historical Inquiry Project Concept and Research Proposal Spring 2012 To begin your inquiry, you will discover

a source of historical inspiration for your project. In order to immerse yourself in the historical context which will inform your novel, movie, or video game, you will conduct research using a variety of sources and synthesize that data into a formal research piece. Through conducting research and developing the concept for your project with research in mind, you will show the implications for how context is informing your concept, and how you are attempting to authenticate your ideas through incorporating accurate cultural and historical data. Purposes: - to help you develop a concept for your semester-long inquiry project - to establish the historical foundation for your concept through conducting research - to ultimately authenticate the end narrative of your concept Objectives: - to engage in research for an extended period - to understand and apply the concepts of MLA format, citations, and paraphrasing - to synthesize sources into one complete idea - to employ brainstorming methods for concept development - to work toward an understanding of how to develop inquiry questions and breaking down a topic

Initial proposal: concept and research After exploring your concept in class and talking about research with your peers, you will write up a proposal of your ideas. This proposal should be 250 words, and should be very clear about the intentions you have thus far. You do not have to have the full plot figured out, but you should show the central focus of the story. Within this proposal, you must include: - a description of your concept what you have so far - the specific historical event, clearly stated and focused on a single event - points of inquiry of different topics you need to research within your historical event, with a quick phrase or sentence telling why you need to research those ideas In short, you will be presenting your initial thoughts about your concept and stating what you need to research in order to authenticate your narrative within the historical context. Please keep in mind that you will be sharing this with others. Your focus and concept should be respectful and should not be off-putting to others. You will need to post this proposal to Moodle by 5pm the night before your conference, but you will also need to bring a hard copy to your conference, so we can discuss it. Please post it with your name and assignment title in the filename, and save it as a .doc or .docx file.

Conference: All conferences will be held in my office, Fretwell 285D, unless otherwise indicated.

In class, you will sign up for a group conference, during which we will discuss your topic, concept, and research ideas. During the conference, you and the others in your group will take turns talking about your topics, but please do not expect me to do all of the talking. You should come to your conference with clear ideas of your own concepts and a willingness to talk about other peoples topics as well. Make sure to bring everything you have so far, including a hard copy of your proposal, your concept draft and any response to it, your photos and the write-ups, as well as anything you will use to take notes. Also write down and bring any questions you have about the project or your topic/concept/research. Your group conference will be 45 minutes long, but please remember to be on time. Attendance and participation during the conference is counted as class participation, and will be recorded. Please do not be late to your conference, as it will cut into your time, and will disrupt others as they speak about their topics. Plan to stay for the full 45 minutes. Conferences will not be rescheduled, but if there are unforeseen circumstances, please talk to me well before your conference. Annotated Bibliography and Research Throughout the course of this project, you will conduct research to create the historical foundation for your project. In order to understand and synthesize the information in the sources you find, you will create annotated bibliographies for 5 of those sources. These annotated bibliographies will consist of information from the sources, as well as how you intend to use that information in your project. We will discuss the annotated bibliographies more in class. Historical Inquiry Paper After you conduct your research and prove that you have a strong contextual base through which you can further develop your concept, for the final product, you will develop a multi-part paper that will convey the context you have discovered as well as how that context is working in conjunction with your concept. We will discuss the paper more in class. Please do not begin writing it before you get further instruction.

Note: Please stay on task and avoid working ahead.