African American History since 1877

African-American
History since 1877

Written
Assignment 2

Title	Written Assignment 2
Student	Shirley Hunter
Submitted Date
Grade	0 (max 100.0)

Instructions

A Short Paper Assignment allows you, early in the course, to demonstrate your
research skills to your instructor and to receive feedback that will benefit
you when you write your research paper. With this assignment, you will learn
how to do proper and adequate research and write a short paper and prepare you
for writing the research paper. 

This short paper is at least three double-spaced pages of text (Times New
Roman, font size 12) and you must consult a minimum of two academically
credible sources. Bibliographies and citations will be in the Chicago Manual of
Style format or APA or MLA.

The short paper needs to be turned in through the assignment section for
grading. If you use any of the information from your sources word-for-word, you
must cite the source by using endnotes or footnotes. If you read the
information and write it in your own words and it is not common knowledge, then
you must cite the source because you are paraphrasing someone’s
information. 

The short paper must include a cover page with your name, course number and
course title, instructor’s name, and date. You must also include a bibliography
at the end of your paper. While composing your paper, use proper English. Do
not use abbreviations, contractions, passive voice, or first/ second person (I,
you, we, our, etc). Before submitting your paper, check your grammar and use
spell check. Remember, the way you talk is not the way you write a paper.

Remember that: the more specific your topic, the better the paper. In other
words, a paper focused on World War II in general will be a less scholarly
paper than a paper focused on Army battles in Europe in WWII, for example. My
topics below are a little vague on purpose, you will need to refine them. You
will need at least 3 sources, one of which must be a primary source. The
primary source could be the first-hand account of an eyewitness to an event, a
biography written by a historical figure, or a novel that is considered
essential to understanding an event, for example. Secondary sources are
textbooks and books or articles written by scholars studying an event. 

If you don’t know what to write on, start out by reading your textbook to get a
basic understanding of the different paper topics. The aim of the paper is NOT
to repeat the basic elements of the topic that you find in textbooks. The aim
is to read about your subject and become somewhat of an expert on it (hence the
need to narrow it down) and both lay out the basic ideas and elements of it AND
analyze it. 

So, for example: if you wrote a paper on the Iraq War, (which obviously would
not really apply to this class), you would start by laying out some of the most
pertinent elements of the facts of the war. But, the “meat” of the paper would
be your analysis. What thinkers or politicians believe that we should stay in
the war, what thinkers or politicians want to withdraw our troops? What is the
background for these beliefs? You would state your case (backed up by the
entire paper’s facts and analysis) – or your argument. This is a much different
paper than simply stating statistics and a list of “who’s who”. Finally, once
you decide on a topic listed here, but don’t know what some of the deeper
questions regarding it are, just ask me. 

The African American Topic I choose to write on is listed below:

What
was the UNIA and how did it help or harm the black community? 

Papers must be on an African
American history topic covered in the time period of this course. No
biographies, please.

• Students need to cite at least
once every paragraph, to acknowledge an author’s ideas. This is done even if
there are no quotes, see Chicago guides for more information. If more than one
author’s ideas are used in a paragraph, then more than one citation needs to be
used. 

• Any quote needs a citation at the end of it. 

• Use both footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography. 

• Papers need an intro (with a thesis statement) and a conclusion. 

• Papers need a title page. 

• Papers should be free of writing errors, there is help available at APUS for
writing if you need it. Watch for grammar, typos, etc. 

* Don’t forget that we use Turnitin to check student papers for plagiarism.
Paraphrase correctly or if you use exact words: use quotation marks and cite.

These forums are separate projects.

Forum #5;

Was there
discrimination in the military during the WWII era? How many black soldiers
served? Did any protest discrimination?  Post of at least 300 words with
in-text citing and reference at the end.

Forum # 6; What was the contribution of Malcolm X to
the civil rights cause? What was his connection with the Nation of Islam, and
did that organization achieve its goals? Post of at least 300 words with in-text
citing and reference at the end.

Forum #7; What occurred during the presidential
campaign of Jesse Jackson? What other black political leaders were important
prior to Barack Obama’s entrance onto the national stage?  Post of at least 300 words with in-text
citing and reference at the end.