Your initial proposal should have a title, a 25-50 word abstract, and a list of around 5 sources to be used.  This will be marked up and returned to you for revision and resubmission.  Usually, students have to resubmit at least once.   ("R&R" written on proposal indicates revise and resubmit; "OK" indicates you may proceed with the topic as proposed and with attention to the written comments).

Be sure to follow the Department of History Style Sheet for proposals and for the final paper.  Use the Student's Guide to History, part of your course pack, for guidelines on researching and writing a short paper.  Most students have some trouble with grammar and style, and the UMBC Writing Center offers help in drafting and redrafting written materials.  It is usual for historians and other writers to revise any piece of prose several times, often with help from friendly readers.

Paper Topic Proposal
Joseph N. Tatarewicz
History 102 Section 0301
February 2, 2001

TITLE:  This should be a catchy main title followed by a more detailed subtitle.  It must tell the reader instantly what to expect in the paper.

Comrades in Space: U.S. and Russian Joint Space Missions During and After the Cold War.

ABSTRACT:  25-words or more in the initial proposal, usually expanded to 75-100 words in the revised proposal.  This should be an expanded version of the title that provides the reader with more detail on the topic and the specific approach to be used.

During the cold war the United States and the Soviet Union cooperated in space by docking an Apollo and a Soyuz spacecraft in 1974.  Twenty-five years later the two former rivals embarked on an ambitious cooperative effort to build a large space station in cooperation with other nations.  This paper will compare and contrast these two attempts at political and technical cooperation.

SOURCES:  The final proposal should have five available sources, most of which are books or articles written by historians.  Web Sites may be used, but they must be reliable and cannot comprise more than 25 percent of the sources.  The Department of History Style Sheet has a special link for electronic sources.

Ezell, Edward Clinton, and Linda Neuman Ezell.  The Partnership a History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.  Washington, DC:  NASA SP-4209, 1978.

Kay, W. D. "Democracy and Super Technologies the Politics of the Space Shuttle and the Space Station Freedom," Science, Technology, & Human Values 19, no. 2 (1994): 131-51.

Linenger, Jerry M., Off the Planet Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.

McCurdy, Howard E., The Space Station Decision Incremental Politics and Technological Choice.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  Shuttle-Mir [web site]:  <http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/shuttle-mir/> [October 6, 2000].