{"id":66,"date":"2026-08-30T20:43:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T20:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/?page_id=66"},"modified":"2026-08-30T20:43:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T20:43:28","slug":"research-journal","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/assignments\/research-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Due by Monday, November 30, 2026 via POST<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p>By <strong>Monday, November 30,<\/strong> students will submit an online research journal entry of 2- to 4-pages long (about 500 to 1,000 words), posted PRIVATE at the course website that will details their initial research efforts for their final papers.&nbsp; Students should narrate their efforts to identify at least three (3) relevant primary sources and at least three (3) relevant academic secondary sources for their final paper topics.&nbsp; Journal entries do not require footnotes, but they should include Chicago-style bibliographies and 2 to 3 images, properly captioned and credited.&nbsp; &nbsp;Entries will be graded on research effort, depth of analysis and quality of prose. Late entries will be penalized up to 5 points each day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Posting at Course Site<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Students will be registered at this course WordPress site and will create one POST that will be published as PRIVATE.&nbsp; For complete posting instructions at WordPress, seen <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-282pinsker\/files\/2011\/08\/Handout-Blog-Posting-Instructions-1.pdf\">this handout<\/a>&nbsp;and view&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle\/2023-wordpress-instructions\/\">this instructional page.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Additional Guidelines<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Try to settle your topic BEFORE you start researching.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-282pinsker\/assignments\/profiles-in-diplomacy\/\">This page contains a list of possibilities&nbsp;<\/a>but also consult with Prof. Pinsker by email.&nbsp; You can change topics after starting (or even posting) your research journal entries, but it\u2019s smarter to try to have everything work together.<\/li>\n<li>To get started on your research, look at the course\u2019s site&nbsp;web guide, but also remember that often it is easiest to find primary sources only AFTER reviewing some basic secondary (and especially reference) sources.&nbsp;&nbsp;You can find high quality academic sources via our&nbsp;<strong>online library catalog<\/strong>&nbsp;or through database resources such as&nbsp;<strong>JSTOR<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>America: History &amp; Life<\/strong>.&nbsp; Take advantage of&nbsp;<strong>Google Books<\/strong>&nbsp;as well for its full text search capability and extensive snippet view. The most important reference source starting point, however, is&nbsp;<strong>American National Biography Online<\/strong>&nbsp;(available through the library database finder.&nbsp; Also make sure to consult the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.dickinson.edu\/history\">History research guide<\/a>&nbsp;from the library.<\/li>\n<li>See also this post about&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/2015\/11\/05\/evaluating-sources\/\">Evaluating Sources<\/a>&nbsp;from the Methods Center for advice about how to prioritize primary and secondary sources<\/li>\n<li>Here are two models for research journal posts, though note that these examples (from Jack Spaar, \u201927) were from a different class.\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211constitution\/2025\/12\/09\/research-journal-2-draft-spaar\/\">PRIMARY SOURCES: NLRB v. Jones &amp; Laughlin<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-211constitution\/2025\/12\/02\/from-print-to-digital-using-traditional-scholarship-and-modern-technology-in-constitutional-research-spaar-research-journal-1-draft\/\">SECONDARY SOURES: NLRB v. Jones &amp; Laughlin<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You can find additional models for research journal posts at the Methods Center and Student Hall of Fame.<\/li>\n<li>Journal posts should always try to open with an engaging detail, then provide a brief description of the research topic and types of sources pursued before pivoting to a thesis statement that highlights the main lesson or lessons learned during the research experience.&nbsp; &nbsp;These \u201clessons\u201d should focus on the nature of research and how to improve your method \u2013not about your final essay topic.<\/li>\n<li>These posts can be written in the first person (\u201cI\u201d pronouns) and should try to narrate or describe the research process in a roughly chronological way.&nbsp; No footnotes are typically required.<\/li>\n<li>The main goal of this assignment is to help future students demystify the research process.&nbsp; Try to make it easier for them to succeed by learning from your experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>At the end of the narrative section of the post (about 500 to 1,000 words), please add a bibliography of at least six sources in alphabetical order (by author last name) and in proper Chicago style that you discovered from the appropriate category (either primary or secondary).&nbsp; Please consult as needed with the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagomanualofstyle.org\/tools_citationguide\/citation-guide-1.html\">library\u2019s Chicago-style guide<\/a>, but make sure to use sample BIBLIOGRAPHY models for formatting and NOT footnote examples. Do NOT include reference (or tertiary) sources unless you have no other option.&nbsp; All of your primary sources can be (and likely will be) published or digitized and available in the main library or online.&nbsp; You are NOT required to find archival manuscript sources for this assignment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>SAMPLE FORMAT FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRIES&nbsp;<\/strong><em>(adapted from Chicago Manual of Style)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Secondary Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hirsch, Edward.&nbsp;<em>The Heart of American Poetry.&nbsp;<\/em>New York: Library of America, 2022. [PRINT]<\/p>\n<p>Lepore, Jill.&nbsp; \u201c\u2018Paul Revere\u2019s Ride\u2019: Awakening Abolitionists.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>American Educator&nbsp;<\/em>35, no. 2&nbsp; (2011): 28-31. [<a href=\"https:\/\/eric.ed.gov\/?id=EJ931213\">WEB<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Primary Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Harjo, Joy.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>Crazy Brave: A Memoir.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em>New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/books\/edition\/Crazy_Brave\/kXGPbWA1J64C?hl=en&amp;gbpv=0\">GOOGLE BOOKS<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>[Wilkeson, Samuel]. \u201cDetails from Our Special Correspondent.\u201d&nbsp;<em>New York Times.&nbsp;<\/em>July 6, 1863. [<a href=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle\/files\/2022\/07\/Handout-Wilkeson-.pdf\">HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Due by Monday, November 30, 2026 via POST By Monday, November 30, students will submit an online research journal entry of 2- to 4-pages long (about 500 to 1,000 words), posted PRIVATE at the course website that will details their initial research efforts for their final papers.&nbsp; Students should narrate their efforts to identify at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":0,"parent":39,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-66","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66\/revisions\/67"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}