RESEARCH PAPER TOPIC AND THESIS

DIRECTIONS:

Select an area for your final research project.Skills Assessment

Post 3-4 sentences explaining the focus of your research project AND what you think the main point of your research paper will be, with the heading: RESEARCH TOPIC AND THESIS STATEMENT.

Your topic should introduce your research subject and the specific area you will address in your final paper and presentation. You must also write a thesis statement that will anchor your discussion of this subject. What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement:

Tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.

Is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.

Directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.

Makes a claim that others might dispute.

Is usually a single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation. (Source: writingcenter.unc.edu)

Here are the three broad areas from which you will pick a paper topic:

Compare and contrast an issue facing African-Americans in the past and the present condition of that issue. Examples: voting rights, equal employment/affirmative action, public education, economic justice, representations in the media, criminal justice system, etc. For instance, you might compare the deaths of Emmitt Till and Trayvon Martin to see what lessons can be/have been learned about the law’s treatment of young African American men. All papers should describe whether or not situations improved for African Americans and the forces that kept or eroded those improvements over time.

Take an icon of Black History and find out more about the person (or people) from primary documents or sources not usually used in standard histories. Part of your task will be to find out about their less well-known contributions to Civil Rights or African American history. For example: Phillis Wheatley, Maria Stewart, Richard Allen, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudolph, Marian Anderson, Lorraine Hansberry, Angela Davis, David Walker, Henry Highland Garnett, The Little Rock Nine, Bobby Seale, Ralph Bunche, Shirley Chisholm, Louis Armstrong, Benjamin Mays, Paul Robeson, Fannie Lou Hamer, Daisy Bates, Carl Stokes, Carl Rowan, or John Louis. You may suggest someone else, but you must get approval from me for the person you choose. Your paper will also offer an explanation on why the “official” version of this person differs from what you have uncovered.

Do primary research into your own family’s experiences of the Great Migration (This topic is only feasible if your relatives actually participated in the “Great Migration”.)

 

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