ENGLISH 11 RESEARCH PAPER - AMERICANS OF THE 1920s and 1930s

 

I – Introduction

 

Thesis statement and major topics – How does this individual represent America of the 1920s or 1930s?

 

II - Biographical Background

A     When and where were they born?

B     Where did they grow up?

C     Where were they educated?

D     What did they accomplish?

E     Who influenced them?

F     What national or world events influenced their life?

G.    Why do we remember them?

 

III – Literary, Artistic and Cultural Connections

 

A.    What literature was written during this time?

B.    What songs, plays, or other forms of entertainment were popular?

C.    What other entertainment was popular during this time?

 

IV – How does their life reflect the American Dream?

 

A.    What was the American Dream at that time?

B.    How did this personÕs life express that belief?

C.    What was their philosophy of life?

D.    Cite a quotation by or about them as evidence.

 

V – Conclusion

 

           Summarize proof of thesis.

 

RESEARCH PAPER REQUIREMENTS

 

- Minimum 1250 words w/MLA citations in each paragraph

- Cite FIVE Information Sources – books, newspapers, magazines, online reference sources

- NO WIKIPEDIA

- Paper must include examples of at least THREE artifacts describing the time period:

á     Photograph

á     Map

á     Illustration

á     Song

á     Advertisement

á     Newspaper article

á     Magazine article

á     Chart

á     Graph

á     Quotation

á     Poem

á     Play
 

- Topic Outline

- Rough Draft

- MLA Works Cited – Minimum FIVE different sources of information

- Notes – one page from each source

- Submit completed paper to Turnitin.com March 5, 2008

 

 

FAMOUS AMERICANS OF THE 1920s and 1930s

 

  1. Al Capone
  2. Al Jolson
  3. Alain Locke
  4. Babe Ruth
  5. Booth Tarkington
  6. Carl Sandburg
  7. Charles Lindbergh
  8. Charlie Chaplin
  9. Clara Bow
  10. Countee Cullen
  11. Edgar Lee Masters
  12. Edith Wharton
  13. Edna Ferber
  14. Eliot Ness
  15. Ernest Hemingway
  16. Eugene OÕNeill
  17. Ezra Pound
  18. F. Scott Fitzgerald
  19. Florence Mills
  20. Gertrude Stein
  21. Greta Garbo
  22. Groucho Marx
  23. H. L. Mencken
  24. Hart Crane
  25. Henry Ford
  26. Herbert Hoover
  27. Howard Hughes
  28. Jean Toomer
  29. John Dos Passos
  30. Katherine Anne Porter
  31. Langston Hughes
  32. Lead Belly
  33. Louis Armstrong
  34. Mamie Smith
  35. Mary Pickford
  36. Mickey Mouse
  37. Paul Whiteman
  38. Robert Frost
  39. Robert Johnson
  40. Sherwood Anderson
  41. Sinclair Lewis
  42. T.S. Eliot
  43. Theodore Dreiser
  44. Wallace Stevens
  45. Warren G. Harding
  46. Willa Cather
  47. William Carlos Williams
  48. William Faulkner
  49. Zelda Fitzgerald
  50. Zora Neale Hurston
  51. Bonnie and Clyde
  52. George ÒMachine GunÓ Kelly
  53. Frankie Yale
  54. Kate "Ma" Barker
  55. John Dillinger

 

 

INFORMATION SOURCES

          

SHS Media Center - Biography and Literary Criticism

INFOhio.org

Brief Timeline of America

Brief Timeline of American Literature, Music, and Movies 1920-1929

America in the 1930s      

The Emergence of Modern America

America from the Great Depression to WWII - Farm Security Administration Photographs

Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz

Library of Congress American Memory Collections - 1900-1929 and 1930-1949

Jazz Age Culture

Jazz – A Film by Ken Burns

The Red Hot Jazz Archive 

Harlem Renaissance - A Brief Introduction

American Literary Modernism: An Introduction

American Masters Timeline

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Changing Conceptions of the American Dream

What is the American Dream?

Headlines and Audio from 1900-1999

Kingwood College Library - American Culture in the 1920s and 1930s

 

 

ENGLISH 11 RESEARCH PAPER RUBRIC

 

____ Thesis (5 pts)

____ Notes – one page from each of FIVE sources (25 pts)

____ MLA Works Cited (15 pts)

____ Topic Outline (15 pts)

____ Rough Draft (15 pts)

____ Content - adequate and appropriate proof of thesis and artifacts describing the time period - 1250 words (50 pts)

____ Form - MLA formatting, citations, spelling, punctuation, grammar and usage (25 pts)

____ TOTAL (150 pts)

 

Completed paper due to Turnitin.com March 5, 2008