Objective This assignment offers students “hands on” practice conducting historical research. Students will enhance research and communication skills, while also expanding historical understanding of a particular topic related to the Pacific Northwest. Step 1: Exploring Seattle Municipal Archives and Selecting a Topic The first and most time consuming step is to explore the online collections available through Seattle’s municipal archive collection. This will take time as you explore and investigate topics that might be of interest. Start here for a general overview of the collection and possible topic ideas. https://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/exhibits-and-education/digital-document-libraries (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. To browse topics OR do a word search, check out this link: https://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/search-collections/overview-of-collections (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Step 2: Selecting Sources The central component of this assignment is locating three primary sources relating to your topic. These documents will serve as the foundation of your paper. Step 3: Evaluating Your Sources While reading the selected primary source documents, students should consider and the following questions: What kind of sources are you using? What can you find out about the authors? What details are presented? How do these details expand understanding of given topic? What questions do these sources generate? How do these three sources compare? Step 4: Secondary Sources In addition to primary source documents, students also need to find three academic, secondary sources. Lecture can be one of your three sources. Academic sources include peer-reviewed articles and books. These sources will be used to provide background context for your primary source documents. To access these links, you first need to sign inon the library homepage. http://everett.library.ctc.edu/vwebv/searchBasic?sk=everett (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. http://www.everettcc.edu/library/all-databases (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.everettcc.edu/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.everettcc.edu/ehost/search/advanced?sid=3bdb5380-8f1c-4feb-a0f4-dd03c2ffe77b%40sessionmgr4008&vid=0&hid=4106 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
