To develop yourpapers, you will first research the primary and secondary sourcesavailable on this topic. It is stronglyrecommended that you take advantage of the resources in the ShapiroLibrary to ensure that your references areappropriate. Secondary sources may befound using JSTOR and the “peer-reviewed” articles you can findin the “America: History and Life” database, which you can accessvia the Shapiro Library. When searching “America: History andLife,” be sure that the checkbox for “peer-reviewed” ischecked, as there are articles inthat database that do not qualify as secondary sources.As usual, if you have questions about a secondary source, please donot hesitate to ask your instructor before you use it.

Once you haveread a number of primary and secondary sources, it should causesomething to occur in your mind called “critical mass” (a termborrowed the “hard sciences”). You reach “critical mass” inhistory when you have researched sufficiently in the sources to letthe documents suggest a thesis for your paper. Historians do notfirst come up with a thesis and then search for documents to supporttheir argument. Historians immerse themselves in the sources and letthese suggest the thesis. That is the track that knowledgetakes—accumulating sufficient data to produce information and thentaking that information and transforming it into knowledge.

Prompt: Onceyou have researched your topic, you will submit yourthesis and corollaries (i.e.,overall claim and claims specific to the cultural, economic,political, and religious contexts). You will also include a basicsketch of your supporting evidence and a list of the resources andscholarly references you plan to use in your paper. Again, itis strongly recommended that you take advantage of the resources inthe Shapiro Library toensure that your references are appropriate. You may use the tablebelow to structure your submission if you choose, but even if you donot, your submission should include the basic elements representedbelow.