Week 1: You have already read the novel Compulsion, which is a lightly fictionalized account of the Leopold and Loeb case. Please locate three primary sources about that case–keep in mind that primary sources are things written at the time about the thing that interests you, such as newspaper articles, radio broadcasts, or magazine articles. Compulsion itself does not count as one of your primary sources. These four sources will form the evidence on which you base your paper’s argument. What do these sources make you think about definitions of in/sanity, legal defenses using psychology,or ideas of juvenile crime during this period? Write a thesis statement that explains what you intend to argueusing these sources and a paragraph or more for each source–including quotes from the source–that indicateshow you will use it. Provide full citations for each source.
• Week 2: locate two secondary sources–also known as historiography—about this case. Secondary sources are articles or books written by historians that have undergone peer review. You can find these using the library website, as we will have discussed in class. Make sure to click “peer reviewed’ when you do your search. Write a short review of each article or book in which you identify the argument, the evidence each author uses to support the conclusions, and how this source can be used to provide intellectual context for your own work. provide full citations for each source.
• Week 3: in a paper of 2400-3000 words (not counting title page or bibliography), put together the work you have done over the last few weeks. Your paper must include a clearly written introduction with a thesis statement that identifies your primary sources, a review of existing history scholarship about this case and where your argument fits into that scholarship and how you can contribute with this paper, and a clear, evidence-driven discussion of how the sources relate to your thesis statement. Your paper should end with a clear conclusion. All citations throughout the paper must be in MLA or APA format and you should also include a fulllist of Works Cited at the end of the paper. You must rely on Compulsion for your paper.
