HUM101 Research Project Final Draft

Humanities 101

General Description of the Research Project Assignment

The topic of your project should be concerned with the relationship between your life and one single aspect of early Western culture. I realize that this description is incredibly broad, but part of your job will be to narrow this down. Choose a topic that you can research thorough in the time we have, but that is likely to produce an interesting conclusion.

All projects must includethe following:

•             A formal topic proposal, following the guidelines I will give. This part will be due early in the semester.

•             Submitted close to the end of the semester, an organized, coherent presentation of your research results (a paper, PowerPoint, video, website, etc.)

•             Submitted with the presentation, a bibliography including at least 5 legitimate secondary sources of acceptable quality (no personal blogs, no complete dependence on our required course texts, and no Wikipedia!),and meeting proper MLA standards for presentationand citation of sources. Please see the “Research Paper Requirements” and MLA form guide on Blackboard.

•             Most important, your project must make some arguable point (thesis) about the relationships between some early aspect of Western culture and the world we live in.

Here’s what I don’twant in the final projects:

•             No projects comparing the value of the past to the present. You just can’t defend a values argument with research.

•             No projects just giving facts about the past. There are two reasons this won’t work: First, you wouldn’t be connecting the past and the present; and second, because you’ll have no thesis, just information.

•             No broad projects, like trying to examine the influence of early Christianity on Western art. If you can’t answer the whole question you’re asking in the time we’ve got, then your topic is too broad. Narrow the question. Also, be realistic about what you can take on. I have no objection to a study of the influence of Geoffrey Chaucer on modern satire. As a matter of fact, that sounds really cool. But can you become an expert on Chaucer’s writings and modern satire in the time we’ve got? To do a proper job on that topic, you would have to.Stick to what’s possible.

Here are some suggestions that might work:

•             You could study the influence of ancient Greek wrestling on modern wrestling.

•             You could examine work of an ancient or medieval medical innovator, like Hippocrates, Galen, or Avicenna

•             You could look into ancient Egyptian uses of cosmetics.

•             If you’re studying political science, you might be interested in the Roman Augustus Caesar’s use of public art as political propaganda.

•             You could study the controversies between early Church writers to understand modern Catholic or Greek Orthodox teachings.

•             You could look at the influence of the ancient poetess Sappho on a modern singer-songwriter.

The possibilities are nearly infinite. Think about what you are interested in learning. What matters to you? If you have trouble finding a topic, talk to me. We’ll figure out some possibilities together.

The project can takeanyoneof the forms listed below. Choose the one that works best for your topic, thesis, intended audience, and your own tastes and abilities.

Form 1: “Oral” Report. Of course, since this is an online class, you won’t be able to physically present to the class. However, we can fake it, through a video or a PowerPoint with audio. Any orally presented project should be about 10 minutes long.Reports must be accompanied by a bibliography including at least 5 secondary sources.

                Form 2: Visual Arts Portfolio. This should be a folder of visual images, including a title page; a table of contents; a typed introduction; a set of relevant images along with captions, explanations, annotations; atyped conclusion, explaining and arguing for a thesis for which the presented images are evidence; and a bibliography. The entire folder should be 16 to 20 pages long, all text should be typed, and include MLA form in-text citations of all sources used, including images.       

                Form 3: Web Site. This should be designed as an in-depth study of one aspect of the past that we have studied, and its relationship to modern Western culture. The website should include a site map or navigation bar, and the site can offer, in addition to the bibliography, a recommended source list for further study, as well as links to other relevant sites.

                Form 4: Formal Research Paper. This should consist of 5 to 7 pages of text (typed, double-spaced), and a Works Cited list with a minimum of 5 secondary sources.

Relevant Dates:

1.            Be prepared to give me a rough idea of your general topic by February 5th. This does not need to be formal. Just tell me what topic you’re thinking about.

2.            Be ready turn in a formal Research Project Topic Proposal (see Topic Proposal Guide) by February 17th.

3.            I will ask for an informal update on your progress on April 9th.

4.            All completed projects will be dueMay 5th.