Each student in this honors class must complete a term research project.  In US History II: America and the World, students will complete a Country Report that will include analysis of specific nation's:  history, economy, demographics, religion, education, & political structure.  The Country Report will conclude with a threat assessment of a their chosen country as a source of terrorist activity.  The country will be chosen in consultation with the instructor.  Students will then submit a Country Page (3 points), wherein they must explain the:  current economic, religious, and political climate, and the significance of the country to national security.  Then, students will assemble an Annotated Bibliography (7 Points) of primary and secondary readings for the project where they will describe the utility of each source.  Next, students will prepare a detailed Outline (10 points) of their final Country Report that will conform to the specific guidelines on the Outline page.  Finally, students will prepare a Final Draft (20 points) of their research in a paper. Combined, the Country Report project will be worth a total of 40 points.

All written work submitted for the Country Report must conform to the Format and Documentation Requirements listed below and be submitted by the deadlines listed in the Course Schedule.   Please see the Course Schedule for the dates by which you must:  submit your Country Page, complete your Annotated Bibliography, complete your Outline, and turn in your Final Draft.  The Country Report will require a sustained effort over the entire semester.  Be sure to consult regularly with your instructor for details on how to complete the Country Report.

Selecting a Country

To assist students in preparing the Final Draft of the Country Reportt, students will be required, first, to select a country.  Students will choose from a number of nation's to determine whether that country represents a national security threat to the United States.  The geographic area to concentration for this project will be Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia.  In particular, students will assess the threat of radical Islamic fundamentalism to national, regional, United States, and world security.  The country will be chosen in consultation with the instructor.

Submitting a Country Page (3 points)

Once students have selected a country, they must then justify why that country merits consideration in a one paragraph assignment called the Country Page.  The Country Page will identify the country at the top of the page.  Below the Country, students will provide one paragraph that explains where the country is located, the relative significance of the country to regional and world politics, and concludes with why the country represents a potential or actual threat tot he national security of the United States.  The Country paragraph will have a length of 100-125 words.  The Country Page will conform to the Format and Documentation Requirements specified below.  Students must submit the Country Page in class by the deadline listed in the Course Schedule.

• ONLY students who submit an "Acceptable" Country Page in class by the deadline listed in the Course Schedule will be permitted to submit a Final Draft.

Next, students will assemble an Annotated Bibliography of primary and secondary readings for the project.  A primary source is something written by an individual who lived at the time and took part in the event that he or she is describing.  Primary sources usually take the form of letters, diaries, journals, newspapers, government documents, and autobiographies.  Secondary sources are books and articles written at a later time, usually by historians who were not participants in the event.  Students can use the ACC Library to find scholarly works that investigate some aspect of slavery in the United States.  Encyclopedias and general information web sites, e.g., The History Channel, Wikipedia, History.com, etc., are not considered scholarly works and will not be accepted as secondary sources.   No Country Report will be accepted unless it contains the requisite number of primary and secondary sources.  If you have any questions about a source, ask the instructor.

Submitting an Annotated Bibliography (7 points)

The Country Report must use at least FOUR PRIMARY sources and FOUR SECONDARY sources.  Students will list each of their projected primary and secondary sources in bibliographic form and then annotate each citation.  The purpose of annotating your bibliography is to explain not only the contents of the source but also its value to you in preparing the paper.  Be specific in your description and provide at least three sentences in each description.  Use quotes from the sources to demonstrate the author's ideas.  The Annotated Bibliography must conform to the Format and Documentation Requirements specified below.  Students must submit an Annotated Bibliography by the deadline listed in the Course Schedule.

• ONLY students who submit an "Acceptable" Annotated Bibliography in class by the deadline listed in the Course Schedule will be permitted to submit a Final Draft.

ACC Library

List of Resources A-Z

Two very good British links are:  The Economist Country Briefings and BBC Country Profiles

For analysis see:  Council on Foreign Relations,   Heritage Foundation,  The Brookings Institution, &  Woodrow Wilson Center

A New Link!!!  Middle East Media Research Institute

Submitting an Outline (10 points)

The purpose of the Outline is to give students an opportunity to organize their research in a useful manner and to provide the blueprint for the Final Draft.  See the directions on the Outline page to complete this stage of the Country Report.  The Outline must conform to the Format and Documentation Requirements specified below.  Students must submit an Outline by the deadline listed in the Course Schedule.

• ONLY students who submit an "Acceptable" Outline by the deadline listed in the Course Schedule will be permitted to submit a Final Draft.

Writing the Country Report Final Draft (20 points).

This is a term project that demonstrates a student's ability to write clearly, use good grammar and punctuation, analyze the material in a concise manner, and offer their thoughts on the primary and secondary sources.  The Country Report will require a sustained effort over the entire semester.  Be sure to consult regularly with your instructor for details on how to complete the Country Report.

There are a few important things to consider when you write the Final Draft.  To begin with you must:

NEVER ASSUME.

When you write the Final Draft, DO NOT ASSUME that you can leave out critical information because you know that I am familiar with the subject.

Instead, you must tell me the:

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION

so that I will clearly understand your analysis of the primary and secondary sources.

DO NOT REWRITE THE SOURCES.

Your task in this assignment is to show that you can digest several different secondary sources, and then distill them down to a their essence, and then apply selected nuggets from a variety of primary sources into a coherent argument.  You simply do not have the space to repeat everything.  So, do not waste time and effort trying to rewrite the sources.

Students are expected to accomplish five (5) tasks in the Country Report:

• draw on the Country Page to state your thesis
• use the Annotated Bibliography set the historical context;
• analyze the primary evidence in several paragraphs;
• offer a National Security Action Plan to counter the current or potential terrorist threat;
• provide a thoughtful summary and conclusion

Remember:  ONLY students who submit the Country Page, Annotated Bibliography, and Outline, by the deadline listed in the Course Schedule will be permitted to submit a Final Draft.

A typical Country Report would be organized as follows.

I. Introduction

Here students will rely on the Country Page to frame the research paper.  The introduction will explain where the country is located and the relative significance of the country to regional and world politics.  Students will revise the Country Page as necessary and conclude with a dynamic thesis statement that states why the country represents a potential or actual threat to the national security of the United States.

A. Historical Context

Here students will use the secondary sources from the Annotated Bibliography to place the research in historical context.  Students will focus on the themes stated in the introduction and show how the secondary sources treat with the same themes.  The purpose of this paragraph is to give the reader a sense of what was happening and what other historians have said about the topic.

B. Analysis

In the next several paragraphs, students will examine the themes discussed in the introduction by offering evidence drawn from the primary sources.  These paragraphs give the student a chance to show the reader the evidence they have collected and how that evidence supports their contention in the thesis statement.

C. Analysis

See B. Above

D. Analysis

See B. Above

E. Analysis

See B. Above

F. Analysis

See B. Above

G. Analysis

See B. Above

H. Threat Assessment

See B. Above

Action Plan Rationale

See B. Above

Economic Action Plan

See B. Above

Political Action Plan

See B. Above

Security Action Plan

See B. Above

In this paragraph you must summarize your findings.  Briefly restate your purpose, summarize your main points, and offer some final thoughts.

Each paragraph should be at least thirteen (13), but NOT more than twenty (20), lines long -- NOT sentences, but lines on the page.  Each paragraph is a mini-paper.  Make the first sentence of each paragraph an introduction to that paragraph.  Tell your reader what to expect in the paragraph.  This is called the topic sentence.  Summarize your point at the end of the paragraph, like the conclusion of a paper.  In between, give lots of evidence to prove your point.

Make your sentences active.  Fill your Final Draft with verbs that move the reader along from point to point.  Writing that relies on the verb "to be" -- is, was, are, etc. -- quickly becomes repetitious and will NOT convince your reader.  I do not expect you to eliminate the verb "to be" entirely, but come very close.

Quotes help spice up a paper by giving the reader the flavor of the book.  So, include quotations where appropriate to illustrate your points.  Using quotes helps to establish your understanding of the key themes, events, person, etc., in your paper.  Hence, the use of quotes constitutes a substantial portion of your Final Draft grade.

Format Requirements

ALL ASSIGNMENTS -- COUNTRY PAGE, ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, OUTLINE, AND FINAL DRAFT -- MUST CONFORM TO THE FORMAT SPECIFICATIONS BELOW.  ANY COUNTRY PAGE, ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, OUTLINE, OR FINAL DRAFT THAT DOES NOT CONFORM TO THE FORMAT SPECIFICATIONS BELOW WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

The format requirements for the completed Country Page, Annotated Bibliography, Outline, and Final Draft are:

• Staple -- upper left corner;
• Page numbers -- top right;
• Title -- Top, center, page 1;
• Name -- Center; below title with appropriate spacing (see below);
• Text -- Begins right below the name on page 1, with appropriate spacing (see below):
• Spacing -- TRIPLE spaced, typed or from a printer;
• Margins -- one (1) inch from the edge of the page on the:  top, left, right, and bottom;
• Pitch -- 12;
• Font --  Times Roman preferred;
• Length -- 15 pp;  [There is no length requirement for the COUNTRY PAGE, ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, or Outline; the FINAL DRAFT must be 15 pp.]
• End notes -- place at the end of your document;  [Not counted in the length.  See Documentation below.]
• Bibliography -- on a separate page.  [Not counted in the length.  See Documentation below.]

Please:

DO NOT BOLDFACE; or
DO NOT ITALICIZE; or
DO    NOT         JUSTIFY

your text.

The above particulars are designed to ensure that all students complete works of similar length.

Please:

Do NOT use folders or other such binders; and
You do NOT need a cover sheet.

Documentation

ALL ASSIGNMENTS -- COUNTRY PAGE, ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, OUTLINE, AND FINAL DRAFT -- MUST CONFORM TO THE DOCUMENTATION SPECIFICATIONS BELOW.  ANY COUNTRY PAGE, ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, OUTLINE, OR FINAL DRAFT THAT DOES NOT CONFORM TO THE DOCUMENTATION SPECIFICATIONS BELOW WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

The documentation requirements for the completed Country Page, Annotated Bibliography, Outline, and Final Draft are:

• endnotes; and
• bibliography

To ensure that you give credit where credit is due, please refer to the source from which you extracted information.  Please use end notes to document your sources using the appropriate formatting (see above).  For the correct style, see John Grossman, ed., The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005). You can also use an abbreviated version by Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). The ACC Library has a link to Turabian.  The ACC link is useful but at times limited. Here is another very useful Turabian link with exmaples of how to do government documents. Both guides can be found at the ACC Library.  Include a Bibliography on a separate page (with no page number), at the end of your Topic Page, Outline, and Final Draft.  Here you provide a complete citation for each work cited.  Please use the appropriate formatting (see above).  And, please, do NOT ask if you can use MLA.  Use the Chicago Manual of Style or Turabian.

Grading Policy

The Country Page will receive a maximum of 3 points.  Recognize that a Country Page rife with misspellings and grammatical errors will NOT be considered acceptable.  Any Country Page that does NOT conform to the Format and Documentation specifications above will NOT be accepted.  If you submit your Country Page before the deadline date in the Course Schedule and it is graded "NOT ACCEPTED" you may revise it and resubmit it prior to the deadline date.  Any Country Page that is NOT submitted by the deadline listed in the Course Schedule will NOT be accepted.

• If the Country Page receives a final grade of "NOT ACCEPTED" then the student will NOT be permitted to submit a Final Draft.

• If the Annotated Bibliography receives a final grade of "NOT ACCEPTED" then the student will NOT be permitted to submit a Final Draft.

• If the Outline receives a final grade of "NOT ACCEPTED" then the student will NOT be permitted to submit a Final Draft.

Deadlines

STUDENTS WHO DO NOT SUBMIT A COUNTRY PAGE BY THE DEADLINE LISTED IN THE COURSE SCHEDULE WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO SUBMIT A FINAL DRAFT;

and

STUDENTS WHO DO NOT SUBMIT AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY BY THE DEADLINE LISTED IN THE COURSE SCHEDULE WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO SUBMIT A FINAL DRAFT;

and

STUDENTS WHO DO NOT SUBMIT AN OUTLINE BY THE DEADLINE LISTED IN THE COURSE SCHEDULE WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO SUBMIT A FINAL DRAFT;

and

ANY FINAL DRAFT THAT IS NOT SUBMITTED AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS ON THE DEADLINE LISTED IN THE COURSE SCHEDULE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

The Country Report has several components.   Please see the Course Schedule for the dates by which you must:  select your Book, submit your Topic Page, complete your Annotated Bibliography, complete your Outline, and turn in your Final Draft.

C:\ACC\WebPages\1302\1302CountryReportGuidelines.html
© David Marcus Lauderback, 2010