Thesis: The Treaty of New Echota, signed in 1835, epitomizes the profound injustices suffered by the Cherokee Nation, as it led to their forced removal and the devastating Trail of Tears trek from their land. The circumstances surrounding the treaty’s signing highlight the harsh realities of American expansionist policies, including coercion, manipulation, and the disregard for Native American sovereignty and rights.
Be sure to use Times New Roman 12 pt., double space, number your pages, adhere to the Chicago Style Guide, and run a Grammar/Spell check before submitting. Note, the title page does not receive a page number. Be sure to include the subject headings listed in the HIST300 Research Proposal Guidelines. The suggested length for each section is included in the descriptions.
The proposal will contain the following elements:
TITLE PAGE
SECTION 1
WORKING TITLE
INTRODUCTION
WORKING THESIS STATEMENT
SECTION 2
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
SECTION 3
RESEARCH METHODS
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
SECTION 4
WORKING ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
TITLE PAGE
Each proposal should have a title page that is formatted as per the “Turabian Student Paper-Formatting Tip Sheets” https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/turabian/Student-Tip-Sheets.html
An example can be found at https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/dam/jcr:b7955915-8c3c-499f-a250-a6f03114c98c/Turabian-Tip-Sheet-2.pdf .
The first section should be no longer than 2 pages double-spaced.
WORKING TITLE
What is your current working title for the project? The title should be specific and clear. Ideally, it should summarize the research problem with efficiency and style. Avoid titles that are pretentious, vague, or wordy. Expressions such as “An Investigation of” are redundant and should be omitted. Titles of just one or two words, on the other hand, are too brief to indicate the scope of the research problem.
Here are some examples of poorly worded titles that were effectively revised:
Original: “An Investigation of the Possibility of improving the Tax Method of Many Massachusetts Cities and Towns for Raising Revenue to Cover Rising Expenses for Public School Education in Those Same Cities and Towns” (Too wordy)
Revised: “Improving Education Funding through Local Tax Revenues in Five Massachusetts Municipalities”
Original: “The Need for World Order” (Too vague)
Revised: “The Peace-Keeping Role of the United Nations in Lebanon since 1980”
INTRODUCTION
Include a brief overview of your topic. Build on your contributions from the Week 2 discussion and your submission about your research topic made during Week 3. By now, you should have refined and clarified your topic several times and should be able to provide a clear and concise overview.
WORKING THESIS STATEMENT
SECTION 2
The second section should be no longer than 2 pages double-spaced.
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Explain why your topic is worth researching. Discuss the historiography – What are the important articles and books on your topic? How will your work challenge or complement those works? What subdisciplines of history does your topic connect to? Think of our Week 2 discussion of subdisciplines, and our Week 3 and Week 6 discussions about historiography.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
List at least 3-5 research questions that you want to explore. If you have more, that is fine. Be as specific as possible.
SECTION 3
The third section will likely be only one page double spaced. It should be no longer than 2 pages double-spaced.
RESEARCH METHODS
What is your plan for conducting the research? Beyond your discussion of the historiography, what other key secondary sources have you identified? Why are they important to your topic? What archives will you conduct research in? What types of primary sources will you use? During our Week 3 discussion, we identified and discussed potential archives. By now you should have a clear idea of the archives that you want to use. Include a discussion of at least 3potential archives and how you will access the material located there.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
Plan ahead for potential obstacles in your research. Will you need to order books or journal articles? Are there secondary sources that you need to have the library acquire for you? Are you able to access all the journal articles that you want to use? Are there primary sources that you need to order from archives? Will you need to visit any archives in person?
SECTION 4
After the Week 3 and Week 4 assignments, you should have a good sense of how long your annotations should be as well as how to properly format the annotated bibliography, as per the Chicago Style Guide.
WORKING ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
You should include at least 20 sources with annotations (7 primary sources and 13 secondary sources). Chicago style. Notes bibliography standard only!
