Assignment 1

Due Date September 14

Choosing the Topic

Attached are some of the topics you may choose from for your term paper. They have been chosen because there is material in the VMI/W&L libraries that will enable you to do the appropriate research. Please consult the bibliography listed on my webpage for this course. This list is by no means comprehensive. You may choose another topic which does not appear on the list, but you must have it approved by the professor before you begin work on it. If you are having trouble choosing, please make an appointment to see me and we can discuss possible term paper projects.

As the first assignment, you must hand in a one-page summary of the question you wish to investigate along with an explanation as to why you chose this topic. It will be helpful if you include the beginning and ending dates you wish to cover if they are not immediately apparent.

The topic must be in the form of a question. The assignment must be typed. It is your responsibility to determine whether there are sufficient sources for you to research a topic. Some topics are very interesting, but if we don’t have the appropriate sources in our libraries, it will be next to impossible for you to complete the assignment.

The assignment is due on September 14th at class time. You may hand it in any time before that date if you know what topic you want and wish to get started early. There will, however, be a late penalty assessed for papers being handed in after the September 14th class.

At any time during the semester, you can rewrite the proposal, and edit the topic in any way (i.e. narrow or expand the scope, etc.)

Remember, this is a Writing Intensive Course, and the final paper will count for 25% of your grade. All sections of this paper may be re-written once for a better grade.

You may wish to browse the following useful references works for topics not listed on this assignment sheet.