Japanese-American Internment Camps Research Project
Goals
First, the CA Common Core State Standards for research must be mastered. We should know how to do
the research by choosing important information from a text like Farewell to Manzanar then by citing the
information in the essay. Second, we are learning how to think ahead, take notes, and organize papers for
a big project (and do well on an assignment worth a lot of points!). Third, we are learning about an
important time in our nation’s history.
Your immediate goal to help you achieve these other goals is to demonstrate how Japanese
Americans were treated unfairly and disrespectfully during World War II and how that part of the
American community reacted honorably.
Part I: The Research
Research is finding and organizing information on a topic. It involves writing down where you got EACH
PIECE OF INFORMATION. Making three-column notes for each source is the first step. Make sure you
are concentrating on the two focus areas: the unfair treatment of the Japanese-Americans and how their
community reacted. The research part will take a while because you have to read a lot and take lots of
notes.
Part II: The Essay
Write paragraphs in order by topic. For this project, write one paragraph on each of the topics you
researched. We will do the writing in class for stamps, but if you are unable to do this, you will have to
write parts at home. If that is the case, you will not get the stamps. For each paragraph, write a topic
sentence first. Then write the information that supports what that topic sentence says. Use the note cards
for this purpose. Each time you use a source’s information in your essay, you have to give the author’s last
name and the page number of the source you used. This is how you “cite the source,” give credit to the
author(s).
1. First, write the thesis statement, the sentence that tells what your entire essay is about. Write it at the
top of your first page. Here is your thesis statement:
During World War II, Japanese-Americans were treated unfairly and disrespectfully, but their
community reacted honorably.
2. Then start your first body paragraph. Each begins with a topic sentence, a statement about the topic
that you will prove. Example:
Their rights were violated when they were being evacuated.
3. Continue your first body paragraph with information or evidence you found in research. Example:
For example, many Japanese-American families had to stay at fairgrounds or race tracks in a tent or
shack until the internment camps were finished, and there was not even running water (Endo 5-6).
4. Notice in the example above, the author’s last name, Endo, and the page number(s), 5-6, are given in
parentheses after the information. DO THIS EVERY TIME YOU USE A NOTE from your 3-column notes. If
the paragraphs are not full of these “parenthetical citations,” where you are not giving credit to the
author(s), you are plagiarizing, and the essay will not receive a passing grade. Look at the example again:
For example, many Japanese-American families had to stay at fairgrounds or race tracks in a tent or
shack until the internment camps were finished, and there was not even running water (Endo 5-6).
Who is Endo? How do we know what they author’s last name is? Look at your source cards! Use the very
first word. That is the author’s last name. This is one of the reasons you wrote source cards.
5. Comment on the information when you can. Example:
Without running water, keeping things clean must have been very difficult. This is not how they were used
to living.
6. Go to your next card. Keep using information from your three-column notes until they’re all used up. If
some of your information doesn’t seem to go with what you are saying, don’t use it. You probably will not
use all the notes, but there is no way to know ahead of time. That’s why you took so many notes—to give
yourself plenty when you’re writing.
7. Now start your next body paragraph. Repeat that same procedure (2-6) for three more body paragraphs
so you write about 3 topics.
Japanese-American Internment Camps Research Project
Your finished product will be an introductory paragraph complete with a thesis statement, with at least six
body paragraphs following. The body paragraphs will be pretty long, mostly more than 10 sentences.
Details:
Three-column notes on all FIVE SOURCES: due Tuesday, March 10.
Rough draft of essay, handwritten in class: due Tuesday, March 17.
Final draft of essay, typed (double spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font), 3-5 pages: Friday, March 20.