This document provides instructions for a research paper assignment. Students must write a 4-5 page paper developing an argument on one of five topics provided. They must use one primary source to introduce their topic in the introduction. The body of the paper requires at least three secondary sources to support and expand on the thesis. Topics range from individual liberty versus social equality to types of political activism to the myth of the "vanishing Indian."

1. Research Paper Assignment Sheet
For your third paper assignment, you will use a primary source
in an introductory paragraph to introduce your topic and
develop a thesis. Then, you will support and develop your thesis
claim by using outside research (secondary sources) to expand,
illustrate, and/or supplement that claim. Like the other two
papers that you've written this semester, your research essay
must be an academic paper that provides an analysis of texts
and develops an argument regarding an assigned topic. You are
not writing an informative report but must instead develop an
argument to support your thesis.
In your research paper, you will need to discuss one of the
topics that you'll find in the file that is attached below. The
topics are taken from
Topics for Discussion: Unit 4
, so you should begin your exploration of them as you post
responses for those discussion topics.
Follow the Paper Plan & Development Strategy from Writing
Your Research Paper to develop and organize your essay into an
introduction (one introductory paragraph), body (multiple body
paragraphs), and conclusion (one concluding paragraph).
This essay should be 4-5 pages, not counting the Works Cited
page (one-inch margins, typed and double-spaced). You will
need to use MLA documentation (see MLA Documentation for
Research Papers). Be sure to cite all quotations, paraphrases,
and references to outside sources in proper MLA style. Include
a Works Cited page as the final page of your paper (see pages
356-398 in your grammar handbook for tips and reminders).

2. You must use 3 secondary sources (found through your
research) along with one primary source (from the assigned
topics). Secondary sources can be found using TTC's online
databases (Infotrac, Biography Resource Center, Literature
Resource Center, etc.).
Topics
The following topics will give you ideas for getting started, but
you will need to narrow them to develop your thesis because the
topics are broad. You will need to decide what you think about
the topic you choose and then develop an argument. Personal
experience is not acceptable as evidence in this assignment.
Topic I
Individual Liberty VS Social Equality
What is the relationship between individual liberty and social
equality? When-if ever-should one person's individual rights be
denied for the social good? In your introductory paragraph, you
should discuss
Democracy in America
to set up this topic. In the body of your paper, you will need to
examine a current issue-smoker's rights, gun control, drug
testing, or affirmative action, for example-to discuss this issue.
Make sure, however, that your paper is not about that issue but
instead relates that issue to the topic concerning individual
rights and social equality.
Topic II
The Ideal America Vs the Real America
Discuss the relationship between the

3. ideal America
and the
real
America
. First, in your introductory paragraph, you should write about
the
Declaration of Independence
to explain the ideals that are described in that text. Then, you
should find texts through research (secondary sources) that
describe the ways in which access to those ideals has been
denied a certain group of people. For example, you may
develop an argument in the body of the paper that explains the
struggle by black people in this country-from slavery to the
civil rights movement to today-as a struggle to gain access to
the ideals promised in the
Declaration
, or you might write about the struggles another group (women,
homosexuals, etc.) have faced in an effort to gain equality and
liberty.
Topic III
Thomas Jefferson's Life Vs His Idealism
Examine Jefferson's life and times to discuss the conflict
between the ideals he described in writing and the life he lived.
In his lifetime, equal rights were legally guaranteed to no one
but white, male, landowners, and Jefferson not only owned
slaves but also referred to Native Peoples as "merciless Indian
savages" instead of people with unalienable rights. How can an
examination of Jefferson's life and other writings help us learn
something about him as well as about American ideology? For
this topic, use the
Declaration of Independence
in the introductory paragraph to define the ideals that Jefferson

4. prescribed in that document. The body paragraphs will contain
research that shows both his violation of those ideals, as well as
other writers' perspectives concerning the conflict between
Jefferson's actions and his ideals.
Topic IV
Types of Political Activism: Separatism VS Assimilation
In the
Declaration of Independence
, Jefferson argues that the people have the right and the duty to
"alter or abolish" a government that does not insure the rights of
its citizens. Discuss that part of the
Declaration
in an introductory paragraph as a way of explaining these two
methods of political activism. In general, political activism, no
matter what the agenda, can be divided into these two camps
(those who wish to abolish existing governments and those who
wish to alter it). How does the history of African American
activism in this country reflect these two forms of political
activism? For example, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
represent these two options, as do Louis Farrahkan and Jesse
Jackson. Through research, examine either these two strains of
activism in the black community, or you can choose another
political movement (feminism, (Native American activism, gay
rights activism, etc.). Explain the way in which the political
movement you choose to write about represents the two strains
of political activism that are described in the
Declaration
.
Topic V
The Myth of the "Vanishing Indian"

5. In "Wounded Knee," Black Elk suggests that, after the Wounded
Knee Massacre, Native American nations were "broken and
scattered." Certainly, the U.S. government worked hard to wipe
out the Native Peoples in America, but these people have not
disappeared. Provide a discussion of "Wounded Knee" in your
introductory paragraph to set up this topic. Then, through
research, examine both the attempts by the U.S. government to
wipe out native ways of life in this country and the responses of
Native Peoples to the activities of the Federal government.