Assignment: Final Project

Assuming that you choose a person as the subject of your report, give a biography of that person, focusing on the most productive years of that person’s life. Alternatively, with permission of your instructor, you might choose an event, concept, or other topic as the subject of your report, and focus on a "moment in time" and the wider context in which your topic exists/existed.

• Sources of historical information

Biographies (see the tab following the Home tab in this Guide), histories, textbooks, festschrifts, memoirs, journal articles, news magazines, trade magazines, newspapers, general and special encyclopedias

• Finding different kinds of sources

• Articles, books & more: begin a search in all of the GV Libraries databases and print collections:

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• History-related articles: use history databases, e.g. Historical Abstracts and America: History & Life; find these and others on the 'Library Databases' tab of the History subject  guide
• Articles on many topics: use general databases, e.g. Academic Search Premier; find a selection of general databases on the 'Articles/Databases' tab of the Writing 150 subject guide
• Background, getting started: use encyclopedias and other reference sources; try out some you can access from the 'Dictionaries & Encyclopedias' tab of the Writing 150 subject guide

... and the bibliography (pp. 317-326) in David Salsburg's The Lady Tasting Tea

... and of course, websites, including Google and Wikipedia

• Sorting out the good information

An assignment from your instructor may require you to use "credible", "reliable", or "reputable" sources. This means you need to evaluate what you've found, and apply some criteria for deciding if a source is actually worthwhile for making your point, defending your argument.

• Visit the Evaluating Resources subject guide for tips and guides on picking out "the good stuff."
• Apply the 'CRAAP Test'

NOTE: There can be a place for information from a source that is biased -- just give some thought to how you are using it, and identify it up front as representing a particular agenda or perspective.

• Giving proper credit

In formal academic writing it is almost always considered appropriate and necessary to indicate clearly when you are using facts, information, ideas, images and words that are not your own -- i.e. someone else's "intellectual property." In the body of your text you use quotation marks to set off actual text borrowed from someone else, and you use some style of citation to indicate the source of borrowed material, whether paraphrased in your own words or quoted directly. For borrowed images, include a 'Source: ...' label below the image, and provide a full citation in an "Image Credits" section of your References or Works Cited list.

There are two main purposes for citing your sources, and doing it accurately:

1. Giving credit to the author(s) or creator(s) of material you've borrowed, and so avoiding plagiarism
2. Providing a path for readers to follow back to the sources you've used, and so enhancing the credibility of your work
   • Tip: get help from the 'Citing Sources' subject guide -- it has information about APA, MLA, and other commonly used styles