British Empire Discussion
British Empire (1583-1914) Note: The dates listed above are approximate and do not take into consideration various historiographical interpretations. For instance, you may wish to argue that the British Empire ended in 1947 rather than 1914. For this assignment, you will be granted reasonable latitude as to the exact beginning and end date of the empire in question. The research paper will assess the students’ mastery of course outcome 2 (CO2) – Evaluate the factors which led to the rise and fall of vast historical empires Assignment Instructions: Compose a thesis statement. (see below for more information about thesis statements) You are to write an argumentative work that makes a claim about the primary cause of the empires fall (e.g. The Russian Empire fell because…) and is supported by the facts marshalled in your research. Conduct research with appropriate academic source material, and compile that information into an annotated bibliography. These sources are the foundation of your paper and part of your Proposal, Annotated Bibliography and Outline for Research Paper assignment. There is a section of the syllabus that details what sources you may use and what you may not use. Write an outline for your paper. This will serve as the structural guideline for the work, and be part of your Proposal, Annotated Bibliography and Outline for Research Paper assignment. Write a collegiate level research paper that addresses the assigned aspect of the empire you have chosen to write about. Do not simply recap the major events of the time period. Rather, it is your task to write critically about the subject as determined by your thesis statement. Accordingly, the vast majority of this work should be about the reasons for the chosen empire’s decline and fall, not it’s “rise” and fall. Discussion of its origins and heights should only be present to whatever limited degree is needed for background information. Review your work carefully, proofreading for grammatical and content errors. You may wish to use Grammarly which is available in the help tab at the top of the page. Your draft paper is due at the end of Week 6 and the final paper is due at the end of Week 8. Submit your approved bibliography with each version of the paper. Format Requirements Length: 12-14 pages (3000 to 3500 words). Your paper should be no less than 3000 words exclusive of title page, bibliography, etc. Upper word limit may be exceeded with the permission of the instructor. Use Common Era style abbreviations (BCE Before Common Era, CE Common Era). This is necessary only when referring to events of the ancient world (before or near the year 0). Examples: The assassination of Julius Caesar occurred in 44 BCE. The Great Fire of Rome occurred in 64 CE. Thesis Statement: Employ an argumentative thesis statement. An argumentative paper makes a claim about a topic and justifies this claim with specific evidence. The claim could be an opinion, an evaluation, a cause-and-effect statement, or an interpretation. The goal of the argumentative paper is to convince the audience that the claim is true based on the evidence provided. Note: Your thesis statement must have a debatable element. For instance, the statement The Middle East has been torn by conflict for decades is not debatable. On the other hand, the statement The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians exists primarily because of political rather than religious differences is a clearly debatable statement in which the opposite view could be plausibly argued. Structure: Consult the Writing Guides for APA (see below) to write a paper with a clear introduction, body and conclusion. Despite the use of APA, do not write an abstract. Include a title page. Use a 12 point conventional (Times New Roman, Calibri, etc.) font, double spaced with a 1 inch margin. Annotated Bibliography: Include an annotated bibliography with a minimum of five scholarly books and one scholarly journal article. (Note: The journal article may be substituted with a sixth book dependent on subject choice with your instructor’s permission). Construct your bibliography using research from legitimate, academic sources of history. Practically speaking, this means books and academic journals. Do not use materials from non-academic sources – history.com, online encyclopedias, etc. Research is a vital component of this assignment. Do not use any required readings for this course as source material for your paper. Suggested readings from the course may be used.
