Final project assignment

At long last, here are all the particulars about the final project assignment.

The final project for this course will give you the opportunity to write a paper on anything connected to Canadian culture that interests you. This could stem from something we've covered in the class, something you learned about in Ottawa, or anything else about Canada about which you'd like to learn more. When you're thinking about what to write, cast your net widely. Your paper could be on an historical event, an aspect of Canadian politics, hockey, Rick Mercer and Canadian satire, any of the books we've read this semester, a Canadian artist or musician, etc.

That said, your paper must also have an argument, a thesis that you are setting out to prove with the research that you've done. When using your research, make sure that we still hear your voice and ideas and that you're not simply stitching together many different pieces of information that you've picked up from elsewhere. Finding that balance between simply describing your topic and analyzing what you think is interesting about it is one of the things you need to do to write a good research paper.

Your paper will, as I suggest above, need to to involve a fair amount of research. You can use the internet, but you also will need to use the library. At least two of the sources you cite in your essay must be PRINT sources that you located at the library. It's time to put some of those research skills to use that we learned from our visit to the library. You can include images and even multimedia if you wish (you could send your paper to me electronically or even make it a blog posting!), but not to such a degree that it overwhelms your text.

Word length: 2000-2500 words (roughly 8-10 pages)
Due date: 12/14 (at the very latest)

If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail, IM, or call me. I'm also happy to look over outlines or drafts if that will be of help to you. I also strongly encourage you to talk with me about your topic before you get too far into the project. 2500 words sounds huge, but it's not. Make sure that your topic is manageable within that length of an essay.