Description
Great Military Leader Dwight D. Eisenhower Instructions The objective of the final paper is to apply our course’s evolving definition of ‘greatness’ to a military leader of your own choosing (and whom we are not studying in the course) to provide an in-depth analysis of the selected individual and determine of whether that person qualifies as a “Great Military Leader.” Throughout the course, we will be developing the final paper and discussing it. This assignment is the first step in developing an acceptable topic and describing your approach to researching it. For this assignment, you will develop your Research Proposal and Literature Review. You are making the case that your subject is worthy of study. The components of this assignment include a Tentative Title, Identification and Brief Description of Selected Literature, and a Bibliography. Your Literature Review must address at least six sources, at least four of which must be peer-reviewed journal articles or scholarly books. Here’s what the layout should look like: 1. Introduction Your topic and a tentative title for your paper. E.g. “The topic of my paper is the great military leadership of George H. Thomas. The tentative title is ‘George Thomas: Resilience, Adaptability, and Loyalty.'” Your primary research question. State this in the form of a single clearly worded open-ended question that is not able to be answered with a “yes” or “no” response. E.g. “Thomas’s combination of adaptability, resilience, and loyalty made him a truly great military leader.” A purpose statement that briefly describes what you intend to do and how you intend to approach your topic and research. How will you answer your question? What info will you need to answer it? Think about “variables” and try to identify your dependent and independent variables as a way to help you conceptualize the process for answering your question. You can do so without being stilted or mechanical. CLARITY is paramount! A tentative hypothesis. This should be your initial best guess at what you think the answer to your question will be. E.g., “George Thomas was a very good subordinate and commander, who could cope with reverses and who could be trusted to do the right thing.” There is a direct relation to the research question. The hypothesis should provide an answer to it. Don’t lose sight of that connection. 2. Literature Review Use a narrative format to name and describe some of the initial sources you’ve found and how they will be useful to you. Also in the Literature Review describe some of the sources you intend to search for and how they will assist in answering your research question. It might seem a little early in the research process to have much of an idea about sources, but you must know very quickly whether or not sources exist that will allow you to conduct adequate research on your topic. Look for scholarly sources using the search tools in the online library. Don’t simply rely on Google searches. Look for journal articles and books. Media sources should constitute only a small portion of your research. Cite six sources minimum; four must be scholarly books or peer-reviewed articles from academic journals. 3. Bibliography Turabian footnotes are the format used for citations in this course. Thus, you must use Turabian bibliography format as well. Be sure to know the differences between the styles and don’t confuse a reference list format with bibliography format. This assignment will constitute a component of your final paper, which you can refine and build upon for use in the final product. Be sure to make adjustments to your assignment based on the feedback provided prior to including appropriately edited elements of it in the final paper. In other words, don’t repeat the same errors in the final paper. TECHNICAL GUIDANCE: Your paper should be at a minimum 4-6 pages (the Title Page and Bibliography page will be additional pages). Figure 300 words/page. Include at least six sources, four of which must be peer-reviewed. Type in Times New Roman, 12 point and double space. Students will follow the Turabian Style as the sole citation and reference style used in written work submitted as part of coursework. Use scholarly or other relevant sources. In formal academic prose, which I am teaching you to write at the same level as your course readings, avoid first and second person writing. E.g., do not say “I will examine…” “You know that…” We know that it’s you. Instead say “This paper examines…” “It is clear that…” Avoid contractions. Write like a professional who deserves to be taken seriously. You are not to use Wikipedia and risk losing points for employing encyclopedic type sources. It is highly advisable to utilize: books, peer reviewed journals, articles, archived documents, etc.
