CLASS OF 2013, ONLY:
397. Senior Research Proposal (This registration is eliminated after 2013).  Completion of a research proposal, working with an adviser.  Satisfactory completion of this senior requirement depends upon approval of the proposal by the faculty adviser and the department.  Staff.  Fall. 3 credits, S/CR/NC.

ALL CLASSES:
1. Description of the Senior Research Proposal
Your senior research proposal consists of a five-page statement specifying the significance of your topic, focal questions of your paper, and an outline of the kinds of sources you anticipate using. You should describe sources and questions as concretely as possible at this point, even though you may refine your formulation considerably after further research and reflection. You should locate your project in the relevant literature: How have other historians approached your topic? Are there clear divisions among different schools of thought? Include a bibliography at the end of your proposal. Please list the courses you have taken that pertain to your topic.

2. IMPORTANT, Please also submit your tentative class schedule for winter term!
Please note: We will not accept projects for which you do not have sufficient background and coursework. If your project grows out of your research paper in a 395, state explicitly the ways in which the comps paper will differ significantly from the 395 paper. By the fourth week of fall term (the week of October 1) you must have discussed a draft of your proposal with your content adviser. Normally, proposals require multiple drafts; please allow yourself adequate time for revisions.

Please discuss your project with your content adviser (need not be the same person as your History department adviser) before you submit it, and he or she should initial it.

Once your proposals have been submitted, Professors Willis and Zabin (Class of 2012-13 Comps Tsar/ina) will meet to review them. Once they have done this we will let you know if your proposal has been accepted or not. If it is not accepted, you will be informed by e-mail what needs to be done to it so that it can be accepted. 

After your proposals have been accepted, they are carefully divided into groups and we will inform you which History 398 section you should register for in winter term.

Your senior research proposal must be reviewed, accepted and signed by your content adviser and submitted with your tentative class schedule by (or before) noon on Friday, October 12, 2012, (Class of 2014: Oct 18, 2013), in Leighton 210.

Click here to go to Sample of a Past Senior Research Proposal, written by Emily Tragert.

398. Advanced Historical Writing. This course is designed to support majors in developing advanced skills in historical research and writing. Through a combination of class discussion, small group work, and one-on-one interactions with the professor, majors learn the process of constructing sophisticated, well-documented, and well-written historical arguments within the context of an extended project of their own design. They also learn and practice strategies for engaging critically with contemporary scholarship and effective techniques of peer review and the oral presentation of research. Concurrent enrollment in History 400 is required. By permission of instructor only. PLEASE NOTE:  On the first day of winter term, please remember to bring the first 10-14 pages of your comps first draft to class. T. Willis, S. Zabin. (2014 tsars tbd) Winter. 6 credits, S/CR/NC.

400. Integrative Exercise Completion and defense of a substantial (approximately 35-40 page) original research paper, written in consultation with a faculty content adviser. Concurrent enrollment in History 398 required. Prerequisite: History 397. Staff.  Winter. 3 credits, S/CR/NC. (Class of 2014, 6 credits, S/CR/NC).  Due by (or before) noon on Friday, March 1, 2013
(Class of 2014:  March 4, 2014), in Leighton 210.

Please direct questions about Comps to Prof. Susannah Ottaway (sottaway@carleton.edu)

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Please remember that you need IRB approval before you can begin any oral history comps projects or other types of human subject research: https://apps.carleton.edu/governance/institutional_review_board/

"Practical Advice for Writing Your Dissertation, Book, or Article," by Liena Vayzman, AHA Perspectives, http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/issues/2006/0612/0612gra1.cfm

Money for Research: https://www.carleton.edu/campus/DoC/priv/forms/pdf/StudentFundRequest.pdf

Past Distinction Comps Papers

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