Essay Assignment There will be one research essay assignment of a MINIMUM of 1500 words in length (it can be longer, if you wish). You must select any ONE topic from a list provided. The basic guidelines for each essay are as follows:  Your essay must be based on ONE of the topics from the list provided or another topic pre-approved by the professor. ONLY ONE PERSON IS ALLOWED TO WRITE ON EACH TOPIC. You need to choose a topic by February 9. If you know for sure that you want a certain topic, please let me know ASAP because once someone chooses a topic, no one else will be able to do the same one. An outline and completed bibliography will also be due prior to the final paper on April 7. If you need help with sources, please contact one of the librarians from Southworth Library or me. We can help you navigate the library resources and databases available to you as students at SUNY Canton.  Your essay should be a MINIMUM of 1500 words. The essays can be longer, if you wish, but not shorter!  You should use Turabian/Chicago style – the accepted style for history papers - (I will also accept MLA or APA as long as you are consistent) for citations and your papers should be clear, detailed, and grammatically correct (be sure to proofread!). Points will be lost if this is not the case.  Use direct quotes very sparingly (no more than one or two VERY brief quotes per essay---quoted material will not count towards the word limit) and only to highlight a point or two that you are trying to make. In other words, the essays should be in your own words. Be sure to put any direct quotes into quotation marks (" ") to avoid plagiarism. Quoted material will NOT count towards the word limit!  DO NOT submit an old essay that you've done in a previous class and try to pass it off as new research (yes, this has happened in the past and it is cheating!)  For each of the essays you will need to use the internet and also books, articles or periodicals. But remember to put any/all info you learn into your own words! The SUNY Canton Southworth Library and the Writing Center are very helpful resources when writing your essay.  You should use at least 3-4 sources (books, journals, internet sites, etc.) while researching your essays. Each essay should contain a bibliography page that lists the sites (and any other sources) used. Wikipedia can give you a basic overview of a topic but is not considered a reliable source because information on it can be changed and is not necessarily verified. You should only use sources that are considered historically acceptable from reputable books, journals or websites. They should be written by a historian or other academic. You may also use primary sources, but they should be from newspapers or other accepted sources (peer-reviewed sources). If you have a question on whether a source is acceptable, please contact me or Southworth Library.  Please don't use images (pictures, maps, diagrams, etc...) in your essay. This tends to make essay submission very difficult.  VERY IMPORTANT!: Completed essays should be submitted as Word documents in the dropbox provided.