American Cultures 5.0
Mrs. Daywalt
Research Paper Guidelines
1) All students in American Cultures are required to complete a research paper to receive course
credit. You will choose your paper's topic, subject to my approval. Your topics should match
the time frame for our curriculum – which is WW1 – end of the 20th century. Some
possibilities you may wish to consider are:
 A historical event from American history;
 A person, past or present, and his or her impact or role in American history.
 A particular aspect of American culture – for example the changing role/status of women or
minorities. Other aspects of culture include music, food, fashion, transportation,
communication, entertainment – there are many possibilities here.
2)
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The final draft of the research paper MUST be…
Typed;
Turned in as a hard (paper) copy and submitted on turnitin.com (directions will be given);
A minimum of 4 and a maximum of 6 pages in length. (use 1.5 spacing, font size 10 or 12,
with one-inch margins on all sides). The number of pages is to the last full page and does not
include the Works Cited page.
A minimum of 250 words per page (total words approximately 1,000-1,500 depending on
length of paper).
3) SOURCES…
A minimum of 5 sources total must be cited on the Works Cited page. 1 of those sources must be
a primary source. Your textbooks and general encyclopedias (books and/or internet) ARE NOT
ACCEPTABLE SOURCES. I strongly encourage you to use a variety of sources (Example books, articles, electronic databases, websites, etc.).
4) DOCUMENTATION…
Sources used within your paper must be cited using parenthetical documentation. For the correct
format, follow the guidelines on the North Penn IMC Resource page for MLA format.
5) PLAGIARISM WARNING…
The North Penn School District Plagiarism Policy, a copy of which is attached, will be
strictly enforced. If the originality of your paper is challenged, the following process will be
utilized and the "burden of proof" rests with the student. A) All sources must be presented to
the teacher within three days of the challenge. B) An appointment will be scheduled to
review the source of the ideas for your writing. C) It is the student’s responsibility to show at
this meeting where the ideas included in the paper originated.
Read the policy, sign the acknowledgement and return it to me on January 25th .
6) GRADING THE PAPER…
The Research Paper will be graded in progress during the second, third and fourth marking
periods. Due dates and point values are listed below.
 3 Preliminary Topic ideas due Monday 1/25
 Final topic due for approval on Thursday 1/28
 Preliminary Thesis statement (with research questions)
Due Tuesday 2/2
 Preliminary Outline due on Friday 2/5
 First Note taking check point on Thursday 2/11
 Second Note taking check point on Thursday 2/18
 Rough draft due in class for peer review on Tuesday 2/23
 Final draft due on Tuesday 3/1
*Hard copy and turnitin.com submission both required
6 points
6 points
15 points
15 points
20 points
20 points
25 points
150 points
ALL OF THE ABOVE ITEMS MUST BE TURNED IN ON THE STATED DUE DATE
IN ORDER TO RECEIVE FULL CREDIT. ITEMS WILL BE ACCEPTED ONE DAY
LATE FOR HALF CREDIT. TWO DAYS LATE WILL NOT EARN POINT CREDIT,
BUT STILL MUST BE SUBMITTED FOR APPROVAL. IF YOU ARE ABSENT ON A
DUE DATE, YOU MUST PRESENT THE REQUIRED ASSIGNMENT ON THE DATE
OF YOUR RETURN.
7) Final drafts will be lowered in grade one letter grade for every day that they are late. The
absolute last day to turn in a final draft for 50% credit is Monday 3/7/16.
8) Failure to turn in a passing research paper may result in an “F” for the 4th marking period
because of the high number of points accumulated throughout the process.
9) Opportunities to resubmit “F” papers to meet the minimum stated requirements may be
made available at my discretion, if the student has worked diligently to meet all
preliminary deadlines.
10) You may find it helpful to obtain an additional folder just for research paper handouts
and assignments. Organization is the key to success with this project!
**Tentatively scheduled IMC days: 1/25, 1/27, 1/28, 1/29, 2/1
through 2/5.
**Above dates may change if we have snow days or if the IMC cannot accommodate us.