Bay Path College The Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima Annotated Bibliography
Research Essay Assignment
Your final paper should be five to six pages in length. Your paper should be double-spaced with standard 12 point font and one-inch margins. Your paper should include a title page as well as a bibliography; neither the title page nor the bibliography should be counted towards fulfilling the length requirement. Your paper should include in-text citations in either the MLA or APA format. ou may choose any topic related to American history in the period from 1945 to the present. You may select a topic that we cover in the course or a topic that we do not address. It is very important for you to choose a topic that is contentious or open to debate. For the assignment, you will be asked to consider multiple viewpoints.
Your essay should include a thesis statement and evidence to support your thesis statement. A thesis statement is an assertion that you are seeking to prove. A thesis statement must be open to debate and not a simple statement of fact.
Example of a Thesis Statement: The United States’ use of atomic weapons against Japan in 1945 was unjust and immoral. (This is a valid thesis statement because it is contentious and open to debate. Some scholars argue that the use of atomic weapons was justified, asserting that it was the only way to bring an end to the war without a costly invasion of the Japanese home islands.)
You are required to use source material to defend your argument or thesis. I would like you to find a minimum of 5 sources related to your topic. These sources should include both primary sources and secondary sources. A primary source is a document written by someone who actually participated in the historic event being discussed. A secondary source is a document written by a scholar or historian with no direct experience of the event discussed. Your sources may be books, articles, or online materials.
Also, I ask that you use one source related to your topic from a discipline outside of history. For example, you could use an article from a political science journal, a sociology journal, an economics journal, etc. Many scholars outside of the field of history have valuable insight to offer on historical events. JSTOR, a collection of journal articles available online through Hatch Library, is a very valuable tool for locating sources from a variety of disciplines.
For this assignment, it is crucial that you evaluate sources that offer multiple and varied perspectives on your topic. In order to develop a full and well-rounded understanding of any topic, it is crucial to examine varied perspectives. For example, if you were to argue that the Constitution represented a positive and progressive revision of the United States government, it is important to include some evaluation of the opposing viewpoint. You would need to include an analysis of the arguments that were made against the ratification of the Constitution.
Your essay should be well written and free of grammatical and spelling errors. Please proofread your essay before submitting it for a grade.
I would encourage you to review the rubric for a more detailed explanation of how your final paper will be evaluated.
Worked Cited Page and Title page
