For this assignment, you will need to locate one primary document and one secondary document. I highly recommend that you use the resources we explored last week in order to locate those resources that you’ll use in your research/biographical capstone project.
To review, I recommended you use the site to locate a primary document that interests you. You’ll also need to find a secondary document that interests you. As a reminder, I would recommend you use the digital database JSTOR to which Maryville’s library maintains a subscription. Here’s a link to the Canvas page that provided video instructions on how to find and use JSTOR: .
Once you have found 1 primary document and 1 secondary document that interest you, please address the following questions:
- What did you find compelling in the memoir you selected?
- Based upon what you have seen so far in this memoir, how do you think you could use the information in this memoir to support or reject the thesis in the secondary document you selected?
This will be a graded assignment, and you can find the grading rubric below. The assignment is also intended to help you begin the process and help you lay the groundwork for writing your capstone research/biographical project. Your instructor’s comments will help you take the documents you found to develop a final biographical project. For example, perhaps the instructor will suggest alternative sources you should explore based upon your interests. Since you will need 2 secondary sources for the final project, the instructor may have some suggestions about another source you should use. Or, perhaps the instructor will make other suggestions that will help you to complete your final biographical project. Read and use feedback from your instructor.
Grading Rubric
- Students should be able to identify the central argument in the secondary document they have selected.
- Students should be able to explain how the primary document they have selected could support the secondary document’s central claim. Alternatively, students suggest how the primary document they have selected would make us think differently. Perhaps the primary document’s evidence will contradict the claim made in the secondary document.
- The student should be able to provide key details from the primary document to support the student’s claims. If the primary document will support the selected secondary document, the student should be able to locate key quotes from the primary document to indicate how this memoir will do so. If the student thinks the memoir will contradict the central claim in the secondary document, the student should be able to locate key quotes that indicate how this memoir will help the student make that claim.
- This project should be regarded as a very early rough draft of the final paper. The final biographical project should be about 10 double spaced pages. This preliminary rough draft should, therefore, be no longer than 2 double spaced pages.
