What sources in LRA 3 do you think are most useful to you?

Chicago Style

Welcome to LRA 3 In LRA 2 you used books and journal articles, two kinds of secondary sources to learn about the historical roots of your chosen contemporary issue.

In LRA 3, you will continue to search for topic-relevant sources to investigate the historical roots of your contemporary issue, but this time you will locate a primary source created before 1990. In addition, you will compile your sources in an annotated bibliography.

Submission and Evaluation

Respond to the questions outlined below in a separate Word document. Be sure to clearly label each part of this assignment “Question 1,” “Question 2,” etc.

After you’ve completed LRA 3, your instructor or your teaching assistant will reassess your topic in light of your selected materials and comment on your hypothesis / thesis statement (answer to your research question).

Library Research Assignment #3: Finding Historical Primary Sources and Creating an Annotated Bibliography

Question 1: Finding Primary Sources

While historians use secondary sources to learn about topics and ask new questions, they also use and interpret primary source material. Primary sources are original, first-hand accounts of an event or period of time created by people either during, or close to that time. They can be published, or unpublished and may be available in a variety of formats, such as texts (letters, diaries, government reports, newspaper accounts, autobiographies), images (photographs, paintings, advertisements, posters), artifacts (buildings, clothing, sculpture, coins) and audio/visual (songs, oral history interviews, documentaries).

Although there are many kinds of primary sources, newspapers and magazine articles produced during the historical period in question can be quite useful. They not only report on events, but offer a window into how people interpreted or discussed the event at the time. While we hope that primary sources are free of bias, prejudice, etc., they seldom are. Indeed, that can make them all the more interesting.

Libraries has a number of databases to help you find historical, full-text primary source newspapers. To begin, go to Historical/Older Newspapers (Links to an external site.) and select a database (left side box). Each database is different, so you’ll have to familiarize yourself with how to search. The Times of London (Links to an external site.) and the Historical New York Times (Links to an external site.) will likely be the most helpful.

Note that you are not limited to newspapers for your primary source! Diaries, letters, and speeches, are also options. You are also welcome to use audio/visual materials (historical footage, interviews, maps, photographs, and paintings) as primary sources, though you may only use them in addition to written or audio/visual primary sources for this assignment.

For database tutorials and links to various primary source collections, see the RCI LRA 3 Libguide, Finding Primary Sources Online (Links to an external site.).

TIP: Keep in mind that when searching for older material, words have changed. For example, if your topic is early nuclear bomb development, you are not going to find much on “nuclear bombs” from the 1940s and 1950s. However, you’ll find information on “atomic bombs,” because this was the more common descriptor of the time. Likewise, you may need to broaden the scope of your topic. For example, if you’re researching intellectual property on the Internet, you’re going to have to think about intellectual property law in the pre-Internet era. The point here is to be flexible with your search terms, and if one database does not yield fruitful results, try another one. Research is a trial and error process.

Using Purdue OWL Help Guide (Links to an external site.) and/or Chicago Style Help Guide (Links to an external site.) (notes/bibliography format), enter the full bibliographic Chicago citation for your pre-1990 primary source.

NOTE: Your citation will depend on what type of source you found. For example, if it is a book, then you would use the appropriate bibliographic citation for books. If you’re accessing your primary source online (and not in print), the citation should include a URL or name of the database where the material was retrieved (see the Chicago-style reference page).

Question 2: Creating an Annotated Bibliography

You have now collected six sources related to your topic: one contemporary newspaper article (LRA 1), two scholarly books (LRA 2), two scholarly journal articles (LRA2) and one primary source (here in LRA 3).

An annotated bibliography brings together your sources and provides information on each of them. It can help you see what materials you have, how you may use them and how they fit together, and whether there may be more information you need.

For Question 2, create an annotated bibliography with an entry for EACH of your sources including the following information:

The bibliographic (not footnote) Chicago citation for the source, and…
In paragraphs of no less than eight sentences, provide summaries of the main points relevant to your research question addressed in each source, and an explanation of how the source will aid you in answering your research question.
The entries should be in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names. (if any of your items do not have an author, use the title of the item to determine alphabetical order). Please consult the Sample Annotated Bibliography (Links to an external site.) library guide for more information.

Question 3: Self-Reflection – Reviewing Your Sources and Reflecting on Your Topic

Creating an annotated bibliography is a great opportunity for researchers to reflect on their projects, assess the information theyve gathered, and determine what materials or information they may still need to find. It also provides an opportunity to consider how their project has developed over time.

Go back to your LRA 2 Word document and copy and paste any comments from your instructor and/or teaching assistant about the sources you gathered under Question 3, so that you have them on hand. This reminds us of the suggestions we made about your sources, and reminds you of any advice for moving forward.

In a paragraph of no less than eight sentences, explain how the sources in your annotated bibliography fit together, as well as how your research project has developed since LRA 2.

Are there sources you have changed since LRA 2, and if so, why? What sources in LRA 3 do you think are most useful to you? What additional information may you want to find yet? Have you found materials or learned something new that has helped you to revise or refine your topic further? Are there parts of the research project, or the bibliography that you are uncertain about or struggling with?

Question 4: Research Question to Hypothesis / Thesis Statement

As historians learn more information and analyze their sources, they begin to find answers to their research questions, and formulate their argument, or thesis. In essence, a thesis statement is an answer to your research question. When you craft your thesis statement it should: (1) relate back directly to and clearly answer your final, refined research question (from LRA 2), and (2) demonstrate your thesis through a study of the history of your issue.

For information on how to write a thesis and key examples, refer to Making Arguments and Writing Theses (Links to an external site.).

Please copy and paste or type your refined research question from LRA 2 into your Word doc (if you changed your topic, be sure to clearly explain). Next, in light of your sources and comments from either your instructor and/or teaching assistant provided in LRA 1 and LRA 2, write an initial hypothesis/thesis statement.

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