John Brown’s Trial 1859

Paper details
Your paper can be in any format you would like. It can be written as a fictional interview, a diary entry, a ghost
story, a time travel novella, or even as an alien encounter. I encourage you to be creative. Regardless of what
format you decide upon, in order to receive full credit you must fully address the following points:
Give a brief summary of your topic. Be sure to put your topic into historical context.
Give an example of a popular myth or distortion about your topic. (For example George Washington’s wooden
teeth, or Paul Revere’s infamous night ride.)
Lastly, you must provide an example of what you consider to be your topic’s most noteworthy contribution to
American History. This could be something good or bad.
Length and Formatting:
Your paper should be between 750 and 1000 of your own words. All papers are to be typed, double- spaced, in
12 point type with 1-inch margins on all sides. I expect lucid prose, correct punctuation, grammar, spelling, andorganization. If your paper is under the 750-word limit you will receive a zero for this assignment. Please
remember that your Work Cited page does not count towards your overall word count.
Scholarly Source Requirements:
You are required to use at least three scholarly resources in your paper. These three sources can be
distributed throughout your paper however you see fit. (For example. you could use all three scholarly sources
in the historical context or greatest historical impact portion of your paper.) You may use additional sources,
beyond your three scholarly sources if you would like. These additional sources may be either scholarly or
none scholarly. (For example, you may use a none scholarly source to support the myth portion of your paper.)
Work Cited page and in-text Citation Requirements:
Be sure to cite all outside resources correctly using MLA 8th ed. Your paper should include in-text citations and
a work-cited page. Please note that the work-cited page does not count towards your total page count. Your intext citations should be in MLA parenthetical citation format.
Direct Quotes:
Your Research Paper should be in your own words. This means that it should not include any direct quotes and
all information taken from your sources should be paraphrased (just be sure to include proper MLA in-text
citation!) Papers that do include direct quotes will have 15 points deducted from their research paper grade for
each direct quote used.
Fine Print:
This is your Gordon Rule assignment, per the state if you do not make a C or above on this paper, you cannot
pass the class.
If your paper is on a topic not selected from the Research Topic List provided in this module you will receive a
zero for this assignment.
The majority of your paper should focus solely on the specific topic assigned in the Canvas Research Module.
If the majority of your paper does not focus on the assigned topic, 25% will be deducted from your Research
Paper grade. [For example, if your assigned topic is the Assassination of John F. Kennedy and the majority of
your paper focuses on his life and you barely mention his assassination your paper will have 25% deducted for
not focusing on the assigned topic. ] I have created this paper for you to have a little fun. That said, 90% of your content should focus on the
assigned topic. If your paper spends more than 10% of its content not specifically related to your topic (such as
setting up a fictitious character, setting up a ghost story, etc.) 25% will be deducted from your Research Paper
grade. [ For example, you opt to write your paper as a diary, and ant to explain a little bit about your character
or creatively set the stage, the majority of your paper should still focus on your topic. Simply, mentioning your
topic in passing will result in a dedication of points.] Plagiarism is the stealing of intellectual property and is therefore illegal. If you knowingly copy information from
another person’s literary work and do not give credit you will receive a zero on the assignment in question.
Your paper should be mostly in your own words and should not include any direct quotes.
Your paper should include in-text citations for all direct quotes and paraphrased information.
I will only grade one submission for this assignment. If you submit more than one submission I will ONLY grade
your first submissionYou will not receive credit for any incomplete MLA citation. [Exception: If your source does not have an author
name then it is acceptable to leave this information out. However, if you leave out a Journal Title, or Article Title
your citation will be considered incomplete and will not receive credit for said source. ] You will receive a zero if any portion of your paper is plagiarized.