1. Your essay should be a minimum of 1000 words. This word count does not include any cover sheet wording, your footnotes/endnotes, or your works cited/bibliography page.
2. Your essay must be formatted using 1 margins for all margins (top, bottom, left and right).
3. Your essay should be typed using 12pt. Times New Roman font.
4. Your essay needs to be double-spaced.
5. Please do not include any headers (your name, course, date, paper title) on any written pages of your essay.
6. Your research essay should be accompanied by a cover sheet that states your paper title, your name, your course, and date.
7. All of your sources should be cited using the Chicago/Turabian method. MLA will not be accepted!
8. You must cite your sources using either footnotes or endnotes formatted in the Chicago/Turabian citation method. Please select either footnotes or endnotes based upon personal preference, just remember to be consistent throughout your essay with your citation method. Parenthetical reference is not permitted.
9. If possible, you will want to try to incorporate your image into your essay by embedding it into the text. Otherwise, placing the image at the end of your document is acceptable (after the conclusion and before your Works Cited/Bibliography page).
10. Your image should include a caption that describes the image and its relevance to your topic, this caption to your image should be at least 150 words. This word count does not count toward the overall word count of your essay.
11. You must include a Works Cited/Bibliography page at the end of the document. Be sure you are documenting all sources used for your research paper, including your image source in this section. There should be agreement between the sources you document in this section and the sources you cite in your footnotes/endnotes.
Grading Rubric:
Formatting 0-20 points: Paper is formatted correctly, does not include headers in written text, nor utilizes excessively large margins, paper is double-spaced and demonstrates clear organization in the form of paragraph breaks.
Image 0-5 points: Paper includes at least one appropriate image relevant to the research topic, and the image is properly captioned explaining its relevance to the essay.
Academic Honesty & Integrity 0-25 points: Paper is properly cited using either footnotes or endnotes. Includes a properly formatted Works Cited/Bibliography. Demonstrates agreement between documented sources and citations in the essay text.
Essay Content 0-50 points: Paper content is well-written, organized, has a strong introduction with a clear thesis statement, and is concluded with a summarization of research findings. Paper shows editing, lacking excessive spelling and grammatical errors.
Sources (Types and Recommendations):
Primary Sources: Written materials, images, and artifacts that produced and are contemporary to the time-period of your subject matter. (examples: a cave drawing produced by an indigenous person, a speech given by an individual, a painting of a street scene).
Secondary Sources: Generally, written materials, images, and artifacts that are produced by individuals after the time-period of your research. Most secondary sources are based upon primary sources.
Internet Sources: Any use of internet sources, should be pre-approved by your instructor before using them in your research. If selecting option #4, internet news sources are appropriate, however try to select articles from mainstream sources. In all other essay options, select internet sources that come from government entities, library archives, universities, and other online primary source repositories.
Internet Sources to avoid:
o History.com
o Wikipedia.com
o Khanacademy.com
o Britannia.com
