For the next eight weeks, we will be working on a research paper. We will spend a few periods in the school library, but most of your work will be done outside of class. We will divide the paper into three sections; I will check notecards and rough drafts for each section as we go along, so, in effect, you will be writing three short papers and then merging them into a final draft, rather than writing one large paper. The entire paper will be written in first person, from the perspective of the subject.

Each student will choose a dissident in American history and culture to research. A dissident is someone who stood up to the dominant culture of the time and worked to change it. It does not matter what they disagreed with, so long as they worked in a constructive manner for change. There is a list of possible subjects on the back of this sheet; you may also propose your own. Everyone must have a unique subject.

The paper will have three sections. The first is a three to four page report of the conditions of the time. What was the political and cultural situation? What was happening that this person needed to speak out against at that time? If you were reporting on MLK, you would talk about the desegregation of the military after WWII, the existence of blatant discrimination in the south, the others who were beginning to speak up for change at the time…What was happening in the nation? People do not act in a vacuum; events push them into the spotlight. Describe the world, focusing upon the events that affect your person. Choose three to four events that really affected your subject and focus upon those. Do not try to cover everything that happened while your subject was alive. Answer the question—Why did the world look like this at this time?

The second section covers the person him/herself. It is a three to four page biography of the person. Where did he/she come from? What was his/her childhood like? Who were his/her heroes and models? What did he/she do? Answer the question--Why did they deicide to speak out, rather than remaining silent?

The final section (one to two pages) of the paper will look at what changed after this person took action. Were people’s perspectives changed? Were laws changed? Were they laughed off of the stage? What happened? Why do we still remember this person?

You must use a variety of sources in this paper: four books and a good selection and journal articles. You may use only two websites You may also interview experts in the field! You will, of course, create a bibliography for each section and merge it into one document at the end and document all quotations, paraphrases, statistics, and necessary information. When in doubt, cite! I will mark all information that should be cited and is not in the rough drafts, and hopefully, catch any inadvertent plagiarism then, but plagiarism will not be tolerated in the final drafts!

Topic Proposal: April 1^st

Notecard check (15) on the biography: April 8th

Rough Draft of the biography: April 12th

Notecards (15) on history: April 22nd

Rough Draft of history: April 29th

Notecards (10) on changes: May 6th

Rough Draft on changes: May 13th

Merged draft fro writer’s workshop: May 18/19^th

Final Draft: May 23/24th

Samuel Adams Thomas Paine Emma Goldman

Stokely Carmichael John Brown Eugene Debs

W.E. Dubois Bob Dylan Ralph Waldo Emerson

Henry David Thoreau Margaret Fuller Carrie Nation

Betty Friedan Marcus Garvey Grimke Sisters

Jeanette Rankin Anne Hutchinson Joseph Smith

Susan B Anthony Amelia Bloomer Mother Anne

Mary Baker Eddy Mother Jones Helen Keller

Jonathan Kozal Jackie Robinson Paul Robeson

Allen Ginsburg Jack Keroak Muhammad Ali

Langston Hughes Pete Seeger Huey Newton

Eleanor Roosevelt Ralph Nader Bobby Seale

Winona LaDuke Wilma Mankiller Daniel and Philip Berrigan

Harriet Tubman Sojourner Truth Zora Neale Hurston

Walt Whitman George Wallace Cesar Chavez

Ida B Wells Teddy Roosevelt

Albert Einstein Rachel Carson David Brower

Edward Abbey Aldo Leopold Harvey Milk

Andy Warhol Tywla Tharpe Mary King

Upton Sinclair Fannie Lou Hammer Robert Oppenhiemer

Elijah Mohamed Alice Walker Nikki Giovanni

Lowell Girls Charlotte Perkins Gilman Margaret Sanger

C Everett Coop Harriet Beecher Stowe Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Chief Joseph Crazy Horse Dorothy Day

Peace Pilgrim Gary Snyder Wendell Berry

Paul Farmer Andrew Weil Jack Kevorkian

William Jennings Bryant Pat Buchanan Ross Perot

Dennis Kucinich Roger Williams William Bradford

Jim Hightower Molly Ivans Dorathea Lange