Frederick Douglass’ book

 Frederick Douglass’ book

1. Students are required to produce one typed term paper on a question, approved by this professor, on one of the four versions of Frederick Douglass’ autobiography. The term paper is to be at least five pages in length (and no more than ten), plus a cover page, plus a bibliography page. If you are using MLA style you do not need an endnotes page, but if you are using AP style you do (unless you use footnotes). Any of the three styles of citation is acceptable. What is most important is that there are citations, and many of them! The term paper must be double spaced in 12 size font.

2. Your assignment is to read the book in its entirety, choose an essay question to answer about the book (the question is given below in this assignment), take notes from the book pertaining to the question you are trying to answer, and incorporate the relevant information you obtain from your notes into your essay in a logical answer to the essay question, while also using citations (in either MLA parentheses, endnotes or footnotes) to show from where the relevant information (the facts or evidence from the book) came.[unique_solution]

3. You are not required, nor encouraged, to use any other additional literature other than Frederick Douglass’ book! While you can employ what you learn from the textbook, class lectures and discussions, this assignment is intended to be strictly focused on analyzing what this primary source itself reveals to you, not on opinions derived from secondary sources.  Do not look to others for the answers; listen to what Douglass says and writes, as you would have if you had lived in the nineteenth century. Place yourself in that time and that place, and let yourself feel what he felt in his life and times, and share his experiences and his understanding of the world in your essay.

4. Your essay must present a clearly defined essay thesis or argument that will answer a specific question about your topic. You should discuss your essay topic and thesis, as well as the sources chosen, with your instructor. Do not wait until November to obtain and start reading your book!

5. Your term paper will use as its source the autobiography of Frederick Douglass.  Douglass (b. 1818, d. 1895) was the most famous and influential African American of the 19^th century. He published four versions of his autobiography, which are listed below. You will read and use any one of the following four books for your assignment, any of which is acceptable:

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, 1845.

Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, 1855.

Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 1881.

Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Revised Edition, 1892.

6. Allow me to re-emphasize that when writing this term paper, you must remember to include quotes from the source you are using, and to cite the pages on which those quotes appear, in one of three standard formats: footnotes, endnotes, or notes within the text (MLA). A term paper submitted without proper citations is an automatic F.

7. YOUR TERM PAPER EASSAY QUESTION :  Basing your answer solely on the book you read (one of the versions of Frederick Douglass’ Autobiography), and using three or four examples from the book, explain what you consider to be the cruelest and saddest parts of his life under slavery, and why they are a violation of human rights.

8. You may submit a first draft for my editorial recommendations no later than December 6, 2018.  The final draft of the term paper is due on the day of the final exam (December 13^th). If you have any questions about this assignment, please submit them to me by email.

Professor Lituchy’s Term Paper Toolbox

Some basic tips on how to do a term paper.

1.  Beginning Your Term Paper. The first step is to choose a subject and define the question you wish to answer about it – this is the purpose of your essay. What subject interests you? What would you like to know about that subject? What questions would you like to ask about that subject? Among these questions, which question is the most important question that you want to focus on answering in your term paper? And as you begin to figure out how to answer it, this question also will provide you with your essay’s hypothesis or thesis about the answer.
2.  A Preliminary Evaluation of the Sources You Will Be Using. Are the sources available that you will need for your term paper? Can you get them? Will you be using primary sources, secondary sources, or both? Primary sources are always best unless you are writing a historiographical essay. In this course you will only need primary sources and they will be limited in length. You will need to read and evaluate these sources carefully. As you read them, you will find new questions and new aspects to the questions you have already asked. You will also want to think about using the sources as a storehouse of quotations and information (data) that you will use to cite in your paper. Often you already can think of the kinds of data that would be most useful to your term paper and that you will be looking for even before you have read the sources.
3.  Reading and Taking Notes on the Sources. When you write a term paper it is important that you fully master the sources that you are using. This means that first you will need to set aside time to read and understand what the sources are saying. Rushing through it will not do. Secondly, it will mean taking notes on the sources that you are using. Taking notes serves two purposes in this process. First, it helps you to master the sources you are reading. Once you have finished reading a source you will also have an outline of that source that you can refer to as needed without necessarily re-reading the text. Secondly, you will be collecting the quotes and pieces of data from the source that you need to include in your paper. Working in this comprehensive way may leave you with enough notes for more than one term paper. Try not to take too many notes. Set a time limit for your reading and note taking. Be sure to quote the sources properly and to include the correct page numbers and publication information for your citations and bibliography. Try to get your citations right the first time in your notes. Notes can be taken in a regular notebook, or on index cards, or on a yellow legal pad, or they can be typed into your laptop. Every person is different in this regard and you should work in the manner most comfortable to you.
4.  Organizing and outlining your notes.  You have your subject, you have your main question about that subject, and you have read and taken notes on the sources related to your subject. Now you need to organize and outline your answer to your question based on the notes you have taken. A history term paper is a formal essay which means that it has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. But it also means that it takes the form of a scientific experiment in which a logical argument is made about the facts. The facts are the quotes and data you collected in your notes. Now they must be utilized to answer the main essay question in a logical and scientific manner. Which pieces of your data and quotes do you wish to place first, second, third, fourth and fifth? They are the building blocks of your essay’s argument. Sometimes it does not matter what order they are in because they all point to the same conclusion. Other times it matters a lot how you weave your argument together. Each piece of data or quotation should be analyzed by you. You will explain in your essay why it is important to your main argument or thesis. Think of them as evidence in a trial. You are both the prosecution and the defense in explaining the evidence. Does it prove your case? Have you organized your answer in such a way that you have presented a sufficient body of data and quotes to answer your main question that offers a logical argument and explanation that will lead to a clear conclusion?
5. Before you write your first draft you may want to prepare a bibliography, your citations, and your introduction. Each of these are necessary components of your term paper. Each of them may need revising later, but it helps to have it prepared in advance. The introduction is the component that will need the most revising because you will only know how to present your essay after you know how it ends. Only after completing it will you know for sure how to introduce your subject, question, thesis, and main evidences.
6.  Set aside time to revise your first draft. After you complete your first draft you may show it to your instructor. But you will also need to revise and rewrite. Wait a day before doing this. Look at it fresh and ask yourself if your writing is logical and forceful in its presentation of evidence. Does your introduction state your goals in writing this essay? It should. Does the body present sufficient and appropriate data for answering your questions? Always remember that the sooner you finish the first draft, the sooner you can write that great, final draft you always intended. Your dedicated professor is also there to answer questions.