CRITERION #3
ASSIGNMENT #3C, PREPARING AN OUTLINE
FOR THE COMMUNITY HISTORY PAPER
DUE IN SESSION #10
This assignment involves organizing the information you have obtained on the recent, early and middle periods of your community's history to prepare for writing your historical portrait. When you have completed this assignment you will have determined what are the main ideas you want to emphasize in your community history portrait. Also, you will have decided on the logical sequence in which you plan to present your main ideas. You will have prepared an outline of your paper so that you will be ready to start the actual writing.
When you have completed the two previous assignments (#3A and #3B), you should have identified which sources of info on the recent period seem to be most useful, which on the middle period, and which on the early period.
1. Starting with the recent period, read over the set of questions about this period that are in Assignment #3A. Then read through your chosen sources and decide which of the questions is most relevant to your community. For each of the questions that is relevant, take a 5x8 card (or a piece of paper): on top write out the question; then under the question write a short answer, consisting of a few phrases (not whole sentences); then identify (by some shorthand or code) which of your sources provides the evidence for your answer.
2. Read over your completed note cards for the period, and try to see if you can figure out one (or more) unifying idea, or thesis statement, that sums up what you have learned about major changes and events in the period that make the community the way it is now. For example, someone studying Boston's South End might have the following as their thesis statement for the recent period: "Changed from a very diverse, relatively low-income and low-rent community into a predominantly upscale, fashionable and very expensive neighborhood."
3. On a computer (using wordprocessing software, unless you have and know how to use outlining software) prepare an outline of the topics (corresponding to each of your note cards with a question and facts) for the period. It should be organized sort as follows:
Recent Period
1. Thesis:
2. (Topic, such as population change, housing, etc.) ....
a. (1st fact or evidence) ...
b. (2nd fact or evidence)...
c. etc....
2. (Topic)
a.
b.
3. (Topic)...
4. Do steps 1-3 for the middle period of community history.
5. Do steps 1-3 for the early period of community history.
6. Review the outlines for the 3 periods to be sure that they include all of the main points that you have decided are important for understanding how the community has become the way it is today. Then ask yourself if there are one or a few overall unifying ideas or thesis statements that seem to connect the periods of history.
7. Prepare an overall outline for your community history portrait that puts together the work you have done for steps 1-6. It should look something like the following:
A. Introduction
1. Community identification
2. Overall thesis statements
B. Early Period
1. Thesis
2. Topic
3. ...
C. Middle Period
1. Thesis
2. Topic
3. ...
D. Recent Period
1. Thesis
2. Topic
3. ...
E. Conclusion