History 2P91: Final Assignment Declaration and Topic

Date: 3/3/2008

You MUST declare your intention to the instructor as to which option you are choosing.  All assignment topics must be discussed with the instructor via email if not in person.  This is for YOUR benefit, not mine as some topics are simply too much for term assignments.  Both your declaration and your topic must reach me no later than 3 March 2008.  Failure to do so will result in a deduction of 5% from your final assignment mark.

When choosing a topic the key is to be more specific that you might think - for instance, doing a 3000 word paper on 'Luther' would be more challenging than doing a 3000 word paper on Luther's views on images or his relationship with Karlstadt or Melanchthon.  The more specific you can be about your research topic, the easier it will probably be to research, and definitely be easier to write.  You'll have less 'stuff' to cram into the word space you have for the assignment.  In addition, for those of you who choose Option B - the Wikipedia Article - I'd suggest being even MORE specific than you normally would for a paper - so in that case writing about Luther's relationship with Karlstadt from 1520-1522 would be better than his relationship as a whole.

Above all you need to THINK about what it is you want to write about.  Envisage it as a problem or a question you want to answer, resolve or explore (sometimes it can't BE answered, and that in itself is an 'answer' for the paper) - not a 'subject', but a question, that sets up your paper nicely for analysis.  Writing on a subject makes a paper like a book or school report - that is NOT the objective here, writing to resolve or explore a an historical problem means you can analyse the topic, thereby writing a university level history paper.