History 7A - History of the United States to 1877

Understand the assignment

• What type of assignment is it? Research paper, personal essay, opinion paper, or other?
• How long does the paper need to be?
• Do you need to use specific types of sources such as newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals or websites?
• How many sources do you need?
• Which citation style are you going to use for your bibliography? MLA, APA, Chicago or other?

Choose a topic

• Think about a topic that might interest you, you know something about, or you feel strongly about.
• Find a topic in your textbook, a class reading or class discussion.