History 201 Proposed Research Question Assignment
10 points (one of five Blackboard Discussion Group Assignments)

Each student is required to write a 12-15 page term paper for this course.  Assignments throughout the semester build to this final paper. Therefore, picking a proposed topic NOW is essential to your success in this course.

You should select a research question reflecting a topic in the AMERICAN past that relates to something in your family, community, or some other personal level of history that you have always wanted to know more about. In other words, if you have always wondered "when the Methodist Church on the corner opened its doors?", "what did my parents/grandparents do during the war?", "how did Baltimore react to prohibition?", "were there race riots in Baltimore during the 1960s?, "how were the Japanese depicted in newspapers and magazine popular in Baltimore during World War II?", "what it was like to grow up in the 1930s?", etc., etc.---now is the time to find out. All topics must be approved by me.

Stay away from broad national topics. For example, you should not plan to write a paper examining the causes of the American Revolution. Or one outlining the entire history of the battle of Gettysburg. However, it would be acceptable for you to examine a specific individual's participation in the revolution, or the Battle of Gettysburg---or to analyze how the conflict/battle was covered in newspapers (such as comparing a colonial newspaper and coverage in a British newspaper or the similarities and differences in a southern and northern newspaper).

For the Proposed Research Question Assignment you are to post your research question to your assigned Blackboard Discussion Group. Your assigned discussion board group is based on the first letter of your last name.

When posting be sure to:
1) Ask a question. Do not post a topic Just like the game show Jeopardy, you need to respond with a question.
2) Also include in your posting a general list of the kind of sources you believe will help to answer your research question.  Be as specific as you can be at this stage of the game. In other words, simply saying that you are going to find "books" on the subject is not acceptable. Instead, think about possible government documents, newspaper or magazine sources, archival materials, translated and published primary sources, etc.  Subject encyclopedias located in the library's reference section are the best place to start. For more information about Subject Encyclopedias see question #2 on the Library Research Trail Assignment.

Post your proposed research question  to your assigned Blackboard Discussion Group. It is essential to submit something! You cannot complete any of the next assignments without submitting a proposed research question.