OVERVIEW: For this assignment you will write a 10-page paper (based mainly on original research into primary sources. The aim of the paper is simple: to tell the reader, in detail and with examples, what Georgia’s citizens were thinking about an event, trend or person our state/nation’s history between 1880 and 1945. You will choose from topic from the list provided at the end of this handout. But whatever topic you choose, your goal is to “recover the voices” of Georgians from that period.
SPECIFICS: Your paper will consist of approximately 10 pages of main text (i.e. not including title or bibliography pages), double-spaced, with 12pt font and 1" margins. You will need a bibliography, as well, which will not count as a part of the 10-page requirement. Chicago/Turabian-style footnotes are required, as well (see below).
PRIMARY SOURCES: For the purposes of this paper, you can find and develop a topic using several sources and approaches. In our first class session you will have a chance to explore messages and speeches of Georgia's governors (available online in the Digital Library of Georgia or in Special Collections) and selected historical digitized newspapers to get a chronological sense of issues of interest in the state from 1875-1945. This exploration should help you start to choose a topic. Finally, do some secondary reading about the period and topic you plan to study. This frame of reference will help you understand the context of the primary sources you encounter, which may seem fragmented and disjointed otherwise.
Once you have a topic idea, explore how it was discussed in newspapers. The Atlanta Constitution has been digitized and is available for the entire time frame for this paper assignment. For issues from before 1925, you can also explore the issue in other Georgia newspapers via the Georgia Historical Newspapers database in the Digital Library of Georgia. To learn more about accessing pre-1925 digitized newspapers and the Atlanta Constitution Historical database, see the Georgia Newspapers tab on this resource.
Finally, you should look for more primary sources related to your topic/issue in the special collections here at UGA. The topics outlined on the list below each have some materials in special collections. If you need some additional primary sources, you may also consult the Digital Library of Georgia and/or the Digital Public Library of America, but these online resources should NOT comprise the bulk of your sources. The number of primary sources you use in your paper will vary based on the nature of your topic, but should include at least 10 distinct sources from the sources outlined above. If you have trouble locating evidence, contact Jill Severn for assistance (jsevern@uga.edu).
SECONDARY SOURCES
Placing the evidence you harvest from your primary sources in context is essential. Figuring out how the ideas/perspectives expressed fit or don't fit into broader attitudes gives meaning and depth to your paper's point of view. Reading what other historians have written about the issues or events you are exploring in the letters will also give you a framework to consider your specific primary evidence. You might find you disagree with historians' takes on your topic, or you may find that their work doesn't apply. No worries, as this disagreement and reassessing is part of the critical dialogue that historians and other scholars have with each other over time.
For this project, please utilize at least two academic (2) “outside secondary” readings (e.g. readings not on the 3072 syllabus) – academic articles, books, etc. related to the topic which you choose to write on - which will serve as supporting literature. The UGA library has many books available in full text as PDFs and they will also copy chapters out of print books and print journals and email them to you. Online databases like JSTOR and America: History and Life are your best sources for scholarly articles. These will go in your bibliography
TIPS FOR DOING WELL: There are a number of them below. Learn them, love them, live them…
- Context, context, context: In the process of “recovering voices,” your paper should make explicit connections to the themes and ideas we’ve discussed in class. Give us some background for the letters - ideally, what you’ll find in the archives are examples of the real-world “playing out” of things we’ve seen more abstractly in books, readings, films and lectures. Keep an eye out, therefore, for items in the archives that resonate and link up with what you have learned in class. Your “secondary readings” will offer you context, as well, and a good paper will also “link up” the letters with the outside articles/books. Finally, “Georgians” describes a very large group of people – it is a very good idea to ask “which Georgians?” Be keenly aware of race, class, gender, political ideology, and so forth, as you read the primary sources. Think deeply about their points of view; what agendas do they have? What do they emphasize? What do they leave out?
- Organize, organize, organize: You don’t need to stick relentlessly to the classic “intro, five-paragraph body, conclusion” structure, but all good papers are ORGANIZED from top to bottom. They begin with a clear statement of the topic or question they are going to address, and then they address it directly and precisely. Each paragraph leads logically to the next as the argument unfolds; the paper doesn’t meander, go off on tangents, or repeat itself over and over.
- Edit, edit, edit: Clear thinking is inseparable from clear writing - if your grammar is bad, your sentence structure sloppy, your choice of words inappropriate, or your spelling atrocious, it gives the reader the impression that you are not sure what you are talking about. Do your paragraphs bounce from point to point, non sequitur style, without transition? Do they run on forever? Are your phrases vague, muddled, or cliché? All of this suggests that you are struggling with the material and are having trouble organizing it in your mind. So use that spell-checker and thesaurus, as READ your paper over, especially out loud to someone else! If it doesn’t make obvious sense, rewrite until it does.
- “Am I staying on topic?” This sounds like a dumb question, but often writers will stray from the issue at hand and waste time and space on things not relevant to it. So always ask, for every sentence and every paragraph, “am I staying on track? Does this sentence/paragraph help me do that? Does it need to be here, on not?” If not, edit until you can say yes – or cut it out and rewrite.
- Evidence, evidence, evidence: Don’t just TELL the reader something - SHOW them! Your arguments will be far more convincing if you offer the reader direct evidence from your sources to back them up. Indeed, for this paper, with its focus on primary sources, we require it. Be sensitive – and be looking for – a diversity of opinions, and also of the nuances within the arguments of one “side” of the issue or another.
On Footnotes: (thanks to Dr. Shane Hamilton for most of the following section)
There are two purposes of a footnote: to document the facts presented in your essay and to democratize the process of doing history. As to the first purpose, you do not have to footnote every single statement of fact in your essay. Certain well-known or easily discovered facts do not need to be footnoted (i.e., Lyndon Johnson became president upon the death of John F. Kennedy in 1963; Abbie Hoffman tried to levitate the Pentagon in 1967). Nonetheless, you should always footnote direct quotations. You should also cite any important and non-obvious information that is critical to your argument. As to the second purpose of a footnote, you should cite anything that you think the reader might want to know more about upon reading your essay. This allows the reader to check your facts, contest or verify your interpretation, and / or find out more about the topic at hand. Thus, any statement that is surprising, particularly interesting, or potentially open to dispute should be footnoted.
Example Footnotes: All footnotes should indicate the author (where known), title, date of publication, and page numbers.
Book/Article
- Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction (New York: Broadway Books, 1998), 23.
- Brian Drake, “Groovy: A History of Sixties Pop Music on Vinyl,” Journal of Rock and Roll 17 (November 2010): 1-15.
Archival Document
5. Herman E. Talmadge to Lyndon B. Johnson, Mar. 15, 1967, Richard B. Russell Library, Athens, GA, Box 12, Folder 2, p. 3.
Oral History
18. Dean Rusk, oral history interview by Dennis Farney and David Ignatius, Oct. 3, 1971.
For more examples see Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
