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HISTORY 1301

SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

Assignment: Take any person, place, or event from the time period of 1460-1860, and use primary and secondary resources to write an 800-1,000 word research paper.

Style: MLA is the standard citation format. Please include a works cited page with your name, course title, instructor’s name, date, your email, and word count. Also, a works cited page must be included, as well as in-paper citations. Purdue Online Writing Lab is a source you can go to and check out the MLA style guide as well as citation format examples.

What is a primary and secondary source?

A primary resource is something that comes directly from a person such as a letter or recollection of a first-hand account. Archives.gov/education/research/primary-sources

A secondary resource is something that is not written by the primary source or is a first-hand account of an event. For example: A biography is a secondary resource, because it was written about a person and not written directly by that person.

Examples of primary resources:

A letter written from a specific person

An autobiography (written by the subject)

A first-hand account

An original speech

An originally signed document

A journal

Examples of secondary resources:

A biography (written about the subject)

A newspaper article (unless the writer experienced the event too).

Scholarly books

Anything that was written about an event or person, but not written by the subject.