Term Paper
The term paper is a major part of your grade because the term paper represents what historians do. A musician doesn't just study music, a musician eventually must perform music. Similarly a historian doesn't just study history, a historian must write history. This is your chance to demonstrate how well you practice this particular craft.
I cannot grade what you have learned from your study. I can, however, grade how well you communicate what you have learned. Your discussion grade is part of that, but the communication there is more casual and the standards less rigorous. The term paper is the formal demonstration, as the recital is for the musician.
Choice of Topic
I have pre-selected the term paper topics. I have done this for a practical and for a pedagogical reason. The practical reason is that we have limited resources in our library and it cannot support five or six students all going after the same topic area. The pedagogical reason is that, inevitably (and this comes from years of observation) students tend to choose topics from the first half of the course. This is due in part because of the abundance of materials on the First Crusade but also because it's difficult to get interested in, say, the politics of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the later 1200s when we don't even get to that topic until the last three weeks of the course. I employ this device to spread out the research activities.
I have a web page that lists the topics and allows you to pick one. You should follow this link to review and to choose your topic. You should have your topic chosen by the third week of class. Post your selection in the Student Lounge. This is not only so I can have a record of what you chose and when you chose it, but also so other students can see if someone else has chosen a same or similar topic.
Length
4000 to 5000 words. Use your word processor to do a word count (does not include front or end matter, or footnotes).
Important: I'm very serious about the length limit. If your essay is shorter than 4000 words, you will get a D. If your essay is longer than 5000 words, you will get a D.
A vital part of learning to write is learning to write to a limit. You will find that in almost every writing task you will not be given a minimum length, you will be given a maximum length. The key skill here is to learn to edit your work, to take out the excess verbiage, the wandering remarks, and keep your writing focused.
Research
Minimum: two books and two journal articles, but I certainly expect more. There is no maximum, but I'm not looking for bulk. I am looking for evidence that you actually read the works you cite.
Encyclopedias do not count. Do not cite Mayer, unless directly discussing his interpretation of an event. Internet sources may be cited but do not count toward the minimum requirements.
Grading
The term paper assignment is broken into three stages: the Bibliography and Outline, the Draft, and the Final, for a total of 60% of your final grade. You won't receive a grade for the Bibliography and Outline, but you will for the Draft. The due dates for each step are in the Schedule.
Specifics
Topic and Bibliography
While I have pre-assigned the general topic areas, you will need to refine that to something more specific. You won't really know yet what you are going to say, but you should know as best you can what you're going to talk about. The nature and quantity of books and articles you are able to find will help you decide this.
The Bibliography is a list of the books and articles that you intend to read. You need not yet have read them, but it would help if you had at least given them a scan. You might choose a topic but be unable to find any books on the subject, so this part of the assignment is to do a sort of "reality check" on your proposed Topic. It also gives me a chance to spot any obvious problems in your program of reading.
Don't worry about the format of the Bibliography, but be sure to include author name, title of the work, and the year of publication. If it's a journal article, give the journal date and volume number. If it's an on-line source, give the URL. Additional information is optional.
Note well: general encyclopedias will not be accepted as a source. You're free to read them, as they can be helpful as a way to get started, but don't bother citing them in your bibliography. Also, note that I will be very skeptical of on-line sources.
Thesis and Outline
There's no requirement for this, but I offer it as an intermediary step that is recommended. If you can write a clear thesis statement and a good one-page outline, then you are well on your way. If you would like to write these and submit them for my review, I encourage you to do so. This is, however, entirely optional.
The Thesis is a statement of what you are going to prove or show. The Thesis should be a single, complete sentence. Think of it as the opening statement of a prosecuting attorney. The attorney does not say she is going to talk about the defendant. She says that she will show the defendant is guilty because of A, B and C. A thesis statement should be just as clear, unequivocal, and succinct.
The Outline is a development of the thesis. Here you can use phrases and sentence fragments, although complete sentences will force you to think things through more thoroughly. Don't worry about exact outlining format—that's not important. What's important is that you take your thesis and decide that there are, say, four main pieces of evidence that support it (or four main stages in the development of the phenomenon, or whatever). Point 1 in your outline is always the introduction or overview. That would be followed by your four items. Under each one would be some specific evidence relating to it. That makes five points. Point 6 is your conclusion.
This exercise will cause you to think your way through your whole paper fairly early in the semester. I know this probably isn't the way you are accustomed to working (it sure wasn't the way *I* worked as an undergraduate!), but it will help make your final paper better. Honest.
Draft
The Draft must be a complete work. I will not accept an incomplete paper as a Draft. The best course is to treat the Draft as the Final. Do your best work here. I will offer the best critique I can. You can then incorporate the criticisms into the Final.
If you don't do your best work in the Draft, then my comments won't be as helpful. If a professional artist offered to critique a painting of yours, would you want to just slap some paint on canvas? No, you would want comments regarding your best efforts. The same applies to this term paper.
Final
If you do the first three steps conscientiously, this last will be easy. If you get an A on your Draft, then you can waive the final altogether, or make merely cosmetic adjustments, although if you can take the time I strongly recommend that you do another revision anyway. Even if you have many changes to make, all your reading would be done by the Draft and you will have plenty of time to make considered improvements.