Posted: February 12th, 2015

Motives In Intra-Familial Homicide in Medieval Europe

Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

HIST 490G and MDVL 490A: Instructions for Writing the Research Paper

Your Research Paper must be 4000-5000 words, based on any appropriate assigned readings and additional sources

from your research. Your topic and working bibliography must be approved for your final paper to be accepted and

marked. If you have major difficulties at any stage along the way, please talk to me about it so that we can deal with

the problem in an equitable and reasonable way so that you can do your best work in an atmosphere of fairness.

Topic and Working Bibliography Due @ Session 7

Explain your topic in one or more sentences (fewer than 100 words) at the top of the page. This is not your thesis, but

the focus and scope of your investigation – the question you are seeking to answer. This may change as you discover

you need to narrow or widen the context of your research.

Your working bibliography MUST:

1) include all pertinent primary sources assigned in this course;

2) include additional primary sources appropriate and sufficient for your topic;

3) cite at least a dozen secondary sources consisting of scholarly articles from academic journals and collections

as well as historical monographs (a book on a particular historical topic based on the author’s own research into

the primary documents) that have adequate footnotes citing their sources. Look for recent scholarship. Most

secondary sources should be published after 1970.

4) have explicit annotations, if the nature of the source (whether it is primary or secondary) and its relation to

your paper are not obvious. (Cite particular articles in a collection such as Medieval Families individually.)

5) be formatted according to Turabian-Chicago Style.

6) be stapled with your name as well as course and section numbers in the heading.

Research Paper Due Monday in Week 12, November 17

Place in my History Department mailbox before 4 pm and email it to me by 5 pm as a (.doc, pages, or .pdf) file

You must rely significantly on primary sources in your paper, and not too heavily on any couple of secondary sources.

REQUIREMENT CHECKLIST:

1. Length = 4000-5000 words of text, excluding footnotes, bibliography and title page.
2. Typed, double-spaced, with page numbers.
3. Title page, footnotes, and bibliography formatted according to Turabian-Chicago Style.
4. Submit your paper STAPLED in my History Dept. mailbox before 4 pm on the due date.
5. Submit an electronic copy in a file (.doc, pages, or .pdf) attached to an email to [email protected] by 5
6. This email should have “490 -Yourlastname” for the subject line.
7. Papers may be submitted afterwards, but only for diminishing credit (-10% for each day after the due date).

EVALUATION on SUBSTANCE (what you say) and STYLE (how you say it) is based on how well you:

• choose appropriate primary and secondary sources for your topic;
• understand, analyze, and use those sources;
• take into consideration and explain context and change over time;
• argue and support your thesis with evidence drawn from the primary sources;
• put your research in the context of the secondary sources (use them for evidence and / or for an

historiographical context);

• present your ideas clearly and coherently in writing your paper.
• fulfil the requirements in the CHECKLIST above.

I will mark the submitted draft of your paper and return it the week of your presentation if it is submitted on time. You

may revise the paper in accordance to the comments and submit a final draft on the due date TBA. If you do not

resubmit the paper, the mark for the first submitted paper will stand as your final paper grade.