This paper gives you the opportunity to research a topic of interest to you in c

This paper gives you the opportunity to research a topic of interest to you in current California and
connect it to past developments. The first task is to decide on your topic. To do so, you want to research
recent newspaper and radio/television news reporting on California. The goal is to identify an issue that
you find interesting and significant to understanding California as a place, and as an idea. Once you
identify a topic of interest to you, print out the article or news item that sparked your interest for
inclusion in your proposal. In addition, you want to do some additional preliminary research on the issue
to help you write an informed proposal.
When thinking about topics, be creative. You can explore environmental issues, diversity, race, activism,
farm labor, immigration, to mention just a few topics. There are plenty of options. It is important,
however, to back up your discussion with credible source materials. The best options are scholarly
journals and articles as well as newspapers and websites. It is important to assess the credibility of your
sources and identify their approach to the topic. It will also be important to include variety of
perspectives in your essay.
In this proposal, you need to identify the topic you plan to research and discuss in some detail why you
chose the topic and why it matters to us as in today’s California (significance). The proposal also needs
to include a skeletal work plan of completion (what you intend to do and when) and, finally, it needs to
include a preliminary, annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books,
articles, and documents where each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriiptive
and evaluative paragraph. The purpose of this annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance,
accuracy, and quality of the sources.
Once you decide on a topic of interest, you need to find source materials that address the topic. You can
start with the textbook and the primary source materials included there. In addition, you need to find
scholarly articles that give you both historical background and information about your topic in today’s
California. The JStor database on the Library website is a great source for finding articles by historians.
Reputable newspaper and magazine articles as well as websites might be the best option for discussing
the current state of affairs. It is important also to try to find sources that give you different
perspectives. Finally, when looking for sources, it is important to consider their credibility and point of
view.
Proposal should be double spaced and appr. 2 pages in length, plus your workplan and the annotated
bibliography. Include at least five sources.
Checklist
o Statement of topic
o Discussion of reasons for choosing topic
o Discussion of significance of topic
o Copy of, or a link to, the news item on issue
o Work plan
o Annotated bibliography
o Spell check, formatting check and grammar check before submission
o Appropriate documentation of sources, if necessary (MLA or Turabian/Chicago Manual of Style)