Discussion: Battle of Somme History Question

 

 

 

 

Research Paper Proposal Format-Due Week 3

 

Name:  Your name

 

Class:  Your class

 

Title:  Title of your paper

 

Subject:  Subject of your paper

 

Thesis Statement:  Thesis statement (i.e.  The sentence or two that will sum up what your paper is about)

 

Outline:  Main points you will discuss in your paper. Delete any portions of the outline you do not plan to use. Paragraph 3 is the most important.

 

Suggested Format for Modified Battle Analysis Paper

 

1. REVIEW THE SETTING (SET THE STAGE):

 

1.           Strategic/Operational Overview

 

1.           Compare the principle antagonists (Operational/Tactical).

(1)          size and composition.

(2)          technology.

(3)          doctrine and training.

(4)          leadership.

1. State the mission and describe initial disposition of the opposing forces.

 

2. DESCRIBE THE ACTION:

 

1.           Describe the opening moves of the battle.
2.           Detail the major phases/key events.
3.            State the outcome.

 

3. ASSESS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ACTION:

 

1.           Relate causes to effects.
2.           Establish military “lessons learned.”
3.            Provide your analysis in terms of the principles, tenets, and doctrine you surveyed in the first paper and/or as outlined above.

 

Sources (you need at least 5):  What books, journal articles, etc will you use? See page below on acceptable sources and format. Chicago style citations and bibliography are required. You must use at least one journal source found in the APUS library from EBSCO or ProQuest.

 

Acceptable Academic Research Sources

 

There have been many questions on what sources are acceptable for academic referencing. Below is something I copied from the APUS library. How and where you access the source is not important; its academic validity is. Your best bets are books and journal articles. You can never cite wikipedia or encyclopedias of any type.

 

 

1. Peer-Reviewed/Refereed/Scholarly Journals

 

Whenever you receive a research assignment in college, instructors normally assume that you will avoid citing “popular” web sites, magazines and newspapers. While useful for context and anecdotes, such resources often lack the rigor needed for university studies. Similarly, you are advised to avoid citing Wikipedia. It can be an excellent launching pad; but, as an encyclopedia, is considered common knowledge and not to be formally cited.

 

Instead, your professors expect you to reference and be party to an established professional

literature. This typically includes monographic book-length studies, but especially focuses on

articles from peer-reviewed or refereed scholarly journals.

 

What does “scholarly,” “refereed,” or “peer-reviewed” really mean?  Essentially, it implies

academic “quality control”–articles by scholars that meet the publications standards as vetted by

other scholars in the field. The submission has been inspected by a publication panel or individual reviewers, who are experts on the topic (that is, the author’s professional peers; hence,

“peer-reviewed”).  Reviewers or “referees” look for proper use of research methods, significance of the article’s contribution to the existing literature, and appropriate scholarly style.  As

signified by their publication in a peer-reviewed journal, accepted materials have earned the

expert stamp of approval.

 

Online Library Research: But, with so many articles out there, how do you know if an article has

been peer-reviewed?  The Online Library’s article databases can help. The main suites, Ebsco and ProQuest, give you the option of limiting your searches to articles from scholarly journals  Find and check this option below the search box, and your results will be only expert-approved articles.

 

(See: Ebsco example).

 

Other databases, like PsycARTICLES and Sage Criminology, automatically search only peer-reviewed journals.  A simple click filters out popular sources that you can’t use from the appropriate literature.  Can’t find the article databases…or don’t know which are the best to search for yourtopic? Of course, if you’ve already found an article that you’d like to use in a research paper but you’re not sure if it’s popular or scholarly, there are ways to tell.  The table below lists some of the most obvious clues (but your librarians will be happy to help you figure it out as well–e-mail librarian@apus.edu!).

 

SCHOLARLY

 

Authors’ names, credentials and even addresses are almost always included (so that interested

researchers can correspond).  Authors will be experts in their fields. Articles are written for experts (or college students!) in the field (lots of technical language and/or discipline specific jargon, statistical analyses, written in a formal tone).

 

Articles typically report, in great detail, the authors’ own research findings (and include support

from other research)…these articles will be more than just 1 or 2 pages.

 

Authors always cite their sources throughout the article, normally in conformance with a Style

Manual, and include list of references at the end.

 

Articles seldom include photographs, but may include tables or graphs of data (may seem bland at a glance).

 

The journal has very specific guidelines for articles to be published (often this information can

be found on the journal’s web site), and a rigorous peer-review process (each article will list

when it was submitted to the reviewers, and when it was accepted for publication…often several

months apart!).

 

 

 

 

Chicago Style Format — Common Source Citations

 

B= Bibliography Format

N= Footnote (bottom of a page) / Endnote (end of the document) Format

S = Second Usage

 

Book (single author)

 

B Brown, Joseph L. The Third Wonder of the World. New York, NY: Vintage Press, 1999.

 

N 1 Joseph L. Brown, The Third Wonder of the World (New York, NY: Vintage Press, 1999), 210.

 

S 2 Brown, 153.

 

Book (two authors)

 

B Sampson, Larry M. and Timothy B. Landers. A Review of Modern Western Conflicts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

 

N 1 Larry M. Sampson and Timothy B. Landers, A Review of Modern Western Conflicts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 362.

 

S 2 Sampson and Landers, 410.

 

Book (multiple authors)

 

B Price, Nancy R., Stacey Sanders, Rice Moore, and Julie Finch. Studies of Women in Combat. Boston and New York: Pave Press, 1987.

 

N 1 Nancy R. Price, et al., Studies of Women in Combat (Boston and New York: Pave Press, 1987), 32.

S 2 Price, 188.

 

 

Article in a Scholarly Journal

 

B Johnson, Adam S. “The New Deal in Retrospect.” Political History 88, no.1 (Spring 1995): 58-70.

 

N 1 Adam S. Johnson, “The New Deal in Retrospect,” Political History 88, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 61.

 

S 2 Johnson, 70.

 

Article in a Popular Magazine

B Briggs, Andrew M. “The Roots of Transcendentalism and Walden Pond.” Transcendentalism Today, May 2003, 34-42.

N 1 Andrew M. Briggs, “The Roots of Transcendentalism and Walden Pond,” Transcendentalism Today, May 2003, 40.

S 2 Briggs, 37.

 

Article in a Newspaper

B Robbins, Carol L. “Time Stands Still: Revisiting Appomattox Court House.” Richmond Times, 3 June 2009, A8.

N 1 Carol L. Robbins, “Time Stands Still: Revisiting Appomattox Court House,” Richmond Times, 3 June 2009, A8.

S 2 Robbins.

 

Web Site

B Baring, Janey. “History and Eastern Asian History.” 5 February 2007. http://www.uoc.edu/Asia/culturalstudies.htm (accessed 3 March 2009).

N 1 Janey Baring, “History and Eastern Asian History” (5 February 2007) http://www.uoc.edu/Asia/culturalstudies.htm (accessed 3 March 2009).

S 2 Baring.

 

Web Site (no author)

B “Higgins Boats.” 3 November 1999. http://www.wwtwostudies.com/boats/higgins.htm (accessed 2 June 1001).

N 1 “Higgins Boats,” (3 November 1999) http://www.wwtwostudies.com/boats/higgins.htm (accessed 2 June 1001).

S 2 “Higgins Boats.”

 

Discussion Board Post

B Smith, Darryl. “End of the Cold War.” Thu Jun 10 01:49:50 2010.

N 1 Darryl Smith, “End of the Cold War,” Thu Jun 10 01:49:50 2010. MILH 355 Battle of Somme History Question

S 2 Smith.

 

 

THERE ARE MANY MORE EXAMPLES/DETAILS ABOUT THE CHICAGO STYLE UNDER COURSE MATERIALS, EXTERNAL LINKS AND THE APUS LIBRARY.