Second Industrial Revolution

1. Thesis statement. Take a clear position and precisely state the argument you will make in your research paper. You must have a thesis statement and defend it with carefully chosen, detailed evidence.  The thesis must be clear and contain (in succinct form) the main points you will cover in your paper.  The structure and order of the thesis should reflect the structure and order in your paper.

2. Organize your evidence carefully. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence that clearly links back to your thesis.  Avoid making historical claims without making sure you provide sufficient evidence to prove your claim.  You must use in-text citations per MLA format.

3. Document, document, document. For the research paper, at a minimum, you must use two scholarly, academic, well-researched secondary sources from the timeframe covered in the course that come from offline scholarly, academic printed books and academic journals. You cannot use textbooks (including your course textbook), encyclopedia articles, website articles that are not from an offline published academic journal, juvenile non-fiction books or articles, blogs, chats, or wiki sites (especially Wikipedia) as the two mandatory sources for your paper.  Keep in mind that every borrowed idea or phrase must be documented with in-text citations and a “Works Cited” section using MLA format.

4. State your conclusion. Your conclusion must support your thesis, and should tie into your

introduction.

5. Write clearly and concisely. You do not have space to waste words.  Make every single

sentence count.  Use direct quotes sparingly and only when absolutely necessary.  Grammar,

spelling, and style do count.  Use spell-check and grammar check as a minimum.

6. Format properly. Double-space (“0” point) your paper, with one-inch margins, using Times

New Roman 12 font in MLA format.  Your paper must include in-text citations and a Works

Cited page listing the sources you are using.