Introductory Paragraph
You should clearly identify the group you are researching, the time period, and the two themes of the paper: marginalization and cultural contributions. Remember, even if you don’t use the sample thesis statement attached to the paper topic assignment, you should be able to plug your topic into that sentence.
OVERALL PAPER INSTRUCTIONS
For your final project, you are to imagine a dialogue between yourself and a family member or friend who doesn’t understand why you are studying a particular religious group in college, and produce a script of a conversation in which you persuade that person (I’ll call him Uncle Bob; you can use any name you like) that your time and tuition money were well spent in learning about that group.
You can choose any religious group that has been minoritized (marginalized, persecuted, treated as outsiders) on the American religious landscape, with the exception of those that we have studied together in class. You must be specific about the time period (and, in many cases, geographical location) in which you are studying the group. Uncle Bob probably doesn’t know much about the group in question, so your dialogue should include enough background information to enable him to understand your argument. For example, if you’re going to be talking about why a certain leadership style was perceived as strange, you will need to describe that leadership style and how it differed from the “norm,” which you can do in the context of the script rather than presenting it all at once at the beginning. That said, background information should not make up the bulk of your paper. In other words, you’re not just giving a report on the Shakers/the Church of Scientology/the Moorish Science Temple of America/etc. Rather, you’re persuading Uncle Bob that the group merits scholarly attention.
Your argument should have two components: the group’s minoritization, and its cultural contribution(s). Who, specifically, minoritized the group? Why (i.e., what practices/beliefs/values/social structures/etc. are seen as odd/dangerous/incompatible/etc.)? How (i.e., how is disapproval of the group in question shown: through physical violence? legal restrictions? hostile rhetoric? etc.)? At the same time, how did the group in question contribute to American religious culture and/or American culture writ large?
Remember, this will take the form of a dialogue, but you still need to have a strong, easy-to-find thesis statement that sums up your argument. It might (but need not) read something like this, and it can be more than one sentence:
During [time period], [religious group] was minoritized by [segment of the population], who thought they were [negative attributes] and as a result [negative treatment]. At the same time, [religious group] contributed to American culture by [contribution] and [contribution].
Also, you must engage in the research process as though you were writing a standard research paper, and you must use sources and document them appropriately. You can use any documentation system you prefer, as long as you do use a system, and use it consistently and correctly. You must have at least five scholarly sources/primary sources. At least two of these must be books. If you have any questions about what constitutes a valid scholarly or primary source, or what a documentation system is, visit the Writing Center, make an appointment with the TRS librarian (Nevin Mayer, *************), or talk to me.
Your paper should be 8-10 double-spaced pages or 4-5 single-spaced pages, not including your bibliography page. (I find single-spacing easier to read, but you can go with whichever you prefer.) You can format it either as a script or a narrative.
Annotated Bibliography Entries (INFO IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE SOURCES)
*Note for writer: You do not need to use the sources I provided in my annotated bibliography if they don’t work. I attached my bibliography in the files, but if you are going to change sources make sure you use at least 3 secondary sources) thank you!
You should choose five sources based on the following guidelines. You can exclusively use secondary sources or a mix of secondary and primary sources (with at least 3 secondary sources). First, list the source, using proper formatting according to a documentation style (when in doubt, Chicago Manual of Style is the way to go, but if you prefer another style/system like MLA or APA, that’s fine). When appropriate, remember to use the citation format for a source that you accessed online. Next provide a short paragraph (5-6 sentences) evaluating the source. For secondary sources, your annotation paragraph must summarize the main thesis of the author. For primary sources, the annotation paragraph must summarize the content of the documents. In addition, you need to justify the use of each source. If you want to use non-scholarly, non-primary sources like newspapers or films, etc, these will be in addition to your five scholarly/primary sources.
Justification should be based on the following criteria:
Secondary Sources:
There are two criteria for determining a book or article’s importance: its scholarly “weight” and its relevance to your topic. In your bibliography you should provide a paragraph beneath your entry which justifies your choice on these two grounds.
Relevance:
At this stage in your project you should be narrowing your focus to a manageable research topic. Certain books will serve to set up background, that is, a wider context, for your study. Others will be important because they bear most directly on your topic. Both kinds of sources are important. You need to determine which books will most fully satisfy one or both of these needs.
Scholarly Merit:
Not all monographs (scholarly research books) are equal. A useful, if not wholly reliable index to a book’s merit is its publisher. Major research universities (University of Chicago, University of North Carolina, Cambridge University, etc.) and major publishing houses (Knopf, Harper and Row, Random House, Hill and Wang, etc.) will not publish a work unless it has been highly estimated by other scholars in the field who reviewed the book when it was submitted for publication. For articles, the library’s databases include journals that utilize appropriate peer review processes, as does the website JSTOR.org. Note that these two resources don’t always play well together, so it’s worth your time to search both JSTOR and Grasselli.
You may use both books and articles, making sure to use at least two books. (Remember that you can find lots of books online through JSTOR and elsewhere.)
Primary Sources:
You might choose to use primary sources as a way to access perspective and voices from your group’s history, or as windows into legal precedent. The key with these is their proximity to your chosen topic of study. Describe what questions you wish to ask of these documents. How will they help you assess the values of your target group or the attitudes of the wider host society?
