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American History 1302

Spring 2010

Research Project

Students will write a 1000-1200 word doubled-spaced research paper on some aspect of U.S.-Mexico Border history. The instructor will provide a list of possible sources that students may

consult to both create a topic and research for the project. Students shall submit topics to the

instructor no later than September 30, 2010 .The margins on the paper will be 1 inch and the font

will be Times New Roman. All students will type their papers and the paper will be due on

March 30, 2011. The layout of the paper will consist of the following essential elements:

Thesis Statement: is a sentence that describes the main idea of the paper. The thesis sentence

will describe to the reader specifically what it is the student is going to discuss. For example, if astudent is writing on the effects of drugs on U.S.-Mexico Border history a thesis statement might

read as follows: The shipment of illegal drugs across the U.S.-Mexico Border in Texas has

dramatically affected the U.S. in the areas of law enforcement, crime, and family violence. The

thesis statement must be underlined. Students who do not underline the thesis statement

will receive a five percent reduction in the overall grade of the paper.

Body of the Paper: will describe the major points mentioned in the thesis statement. In the

example mentioned above, students should have a one paragraph about each of the following: theaffects of illegal drugs on law enforcement, crime, and family violence. Students will also need

at least one paragraph describing the nature of shipping illegal drugs in so that the reader has

adequate background knowledge to understand the remainder of the paper.

Concluding Paragraph: will summarize the paper. In this paragraph, students will sum up themajor points described in the body of the paper. Students should restate the thesis statement in

this paragraph without using the same format in which it was originally stated.

Bibliography: is a source page. Students will use a minimum of five sources and sources should

be citied through the Chicago Manual of Style. Students may use the free citation tool listedunder guides on the Librarys homepage. At least two of the sources must include books. E-

books will meet this requirement. If students use internet sources, Wikipedia or any other form

of this website will not meet the requirement and students will receive a severe reduction in theoverall grade (10%). The instructor will not accept papers without a bibliography. Studentswill also submit the paper to Turnitin.com.

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Quoted Material:No more than two sentences may be quoted by students in the paper. Students

who choose to use quotations in the paper must follow the quotation with the authors last name

and the page number from which the quoted material was taken.

Example: The one-room cabin now sheltered eight people to feed and clothe. At bedtime themen and boys undressed first, the women and girls following, and by the code of decent folk no

one was abashed (Sanburg12).

Student grades will be determined by the following:

Effective thesis statement:--25%

Body of the paper30%

Concluding paragraph15%

Bibiliography20%

Grammar10%

Possible Topics:

Drug Trafficking along the U.S.-Mexico Border

Some aspect of immigration (should focus on how immigration affects the border or how

the border has changed immigration)

Border Patrol Operations

Drug Cartels

Some cultural aspect of U.S. Mexico Border life