Harris/English 101RESEARCH PAPER ON TITANIC TRAGEDY
The largest share of your final grade comes from doing a research paper. The broad topic for this paper is the collision of the Titanic and the iceberg in 1912. there are many possibilities for investigation and research with this topicl. Today we’re going to watch a documentary that discusses the tragedy. It uses dives to the site and ovservations of the wreck as the central focus and includes historical information as well as audio testimony of the survivors—passengers and crew. So you’ll see a potpourri of technical details and the human story of the disaster.
This show will be the start of the research effort. This is a semester –long project, and your best bet is to do it in easy stages. I’ve helped you with this setup by setting certain deadlines throughout the semester, the first of which is the proposal. It will tell me what your topic is, how you intend to narrow it [6 pages, double spaced, 12 pt. Font size] and what your research sources will be.
On [date] we will take the next step in the research process, which is a trip to the library for a workshop on research techniques and sources. The librarian will point out what print and electronic sources are available and how to access them. You may begin your online research with a web page I’ve constructed that contains a list of categorized links on various aspects of the tragedy. From doing the initial research. You’ll be ready for the second stage of the project, an annotated bibliography. This type of bibliography includes a précis of the source’s information as well as the correct documentation.
Stage 3 is an outline of your paper. It doesn’t have to use the formal notation of roman numerals, capital and lower case letters as long as it shows what your main points and specific supports are and the order in which you will cover them.
Stage 4 is the rough draft, which will be evaluated in the usual way. The final stage is the revised draft, which will be due on the last day of class. Stages 1-4 are each worth 25 points while stage 5 is worth 100 points for a total of 200; that’s why I called this the largest part of your course grade.
TOPIC EXAMPLES
- biographies of passengers or crew: Captain Edward Smith, Thomas Andrews, Molly Brown, the Strausses, etc.
- construction of the ship and specifics that caused or contributed to the sinking
- legal aftermath—an examination of the U.S. and British inquiries, lawsuits filed by survivors and victims’ relatives, current salvage issues and the fate of RMS Titanic, Inc.
- investigation of the Californian controversy
- psychological analysis of the behavior of those on board during the sinking
- Titanic fiction—analysis of stories set aboard the boat [ex. Episode of the old series Time Tunnel, where the time travelers return to the Titanic and try to prevent the sinking.
- titanic industry—sale items [ex. Coal], books recordings, souvenirs, exhibitions, plans to reconstruct the ship, the way the ship is remembered
- scientific investigation of the wreck—the rusticles and deterioriation, inquiry into size of gash, question of steel and rivet quality
- examination of the class system on board by analyzing one or all three classes
- examples of Titanic myths—mummy’s curse, fate of Captain Smith. Retell each myth and then explain it.