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Semester II 1920s Research Project in conjunction with The Great Gatsby

English III
Mrs. Sylvia

In order to fully understand the social, moral, and political implications of The Great Gatsby, you must be familiar with
the Jazz age, which occurred during the 1920s, a time of cultural, intellectual, and economic growth in US history. For
your second-semester research project, you will be investigating some facet of the 1920s. You may choose from one of
the topics offered you, or you may find one of your own; however, if your topic is not listed, please first secure approval
from me.

The requirements for this report are as follows:

1. The outline AND the final research paper must be uploaded into Canvas AND submitted in hard copy.
2. Papers must be 1, 200-1, 300 words without quotations. Your paper must meet the length of four full pages.
Note: the page length AND word count must BOTH be met to avoid point deduction.
3. Papers must rely on 6 sources, including the following:
a. At least three database sources
b. Internet sites (you may use only three internet sites, max.)

Note: There will be an early due date for optional rough draft submission; be aware: the policy is that if you do not
submit your rough draft on this date, I will not look at your paper prior to the final draft’s due date. Again, turning in your
rough draft is entirely optional and is not for a grade.

*Very important: I will not accept late papers for full credit. Whether you are at school or not on the day the final
draft of your research paper is due, you must submit on time, or it is counted as a late (50% at the most).

A note about internet sources:

Source eliminators:
1. Sites that have ads
2. Primary sources (see page 4 of this document for more information)
3. General encyclopedias (even if you found them on a database); instead, use a specific encyclopedia
(Encyclopedia of Art or Fashion, for example)
4. Sites that allow anyone to edit them (Wikipedia)
4. Sites that are not recently updated (within a couple years, generally)
5. Ask.com, about.com, etc.

Other notes: .edu and .gov sources are often but not always reliable
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Topic options for Semester 2 Major Research Paper

English III
Mrs. Sylvia

The following are suggested topics for your research. You may research other topics related to the ‘20s, but
you must first secure approval from me. Please understand that the information below introduces the topics
available for research. As a writer, you need not necessarily adhere to the specific prompt posed in the
narratives, which merely serve as introductions to many ‘20s themes. Look at them, instead, as various
directions for your paper. It would be wise to read a few different sources to generate an overview of your topic,
and its potential.

Note: You should plan on writing a general introduction about the Roaring Twenties before you delve into
your specific topic. It is important to contextualize the culture of the twenties before you discuss the important
people and events of the decade. Note that, in some cases, a connection to current 21st-century American
culture may be appropriate.

Important: By the end of your paper, you should make some larger analytical connection between your topic
and the culture of the twenties. Do not merely research and regurgitate facts in your paper; rather, answer the
question “so what?” concerning the impact of your researched event, trend, technology, or person on the
twenties. Remember, analysis asks “why?” and “how?” rather than “who/what/where?”.

Formulating a Research Question:

Try out different “lenses.” To discover a unique approach to a particular topic, view it through different
“lenses,” or perspectives. A historian, an economist, a scientist, and an artist would look at Prohibition in
different ways. This cluster diagram illustrates questions you might develop when considering different aspects
of a topic.

Economic: How did

Historical/ Prohibition affect the
Political: What economy? Did it
were the causes of affect government tax
Prohibition? How income? Did it affect
does it affect laws the local
today? businessman?
Topic: Prohibition

Social: How did Cultural: Did it affect any

Prohibition affect literary or artistic
the average movement? Did it affect
American citizen? musicians or cinema of the
How did Prohibition time? How did it affect the
affect crime? car racing industry?
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Other possible research questions: Other possible lenses:

How does __________ connect to issues in current society? Scientific
How did ____________ reflect or affect the life of the common man? Environmental
How was ___________ a detriment or a benefit to mankind? Global effects
How was ___________ a reflection of the Roaring Twenties? Educational
How did ____________ help to develop the American identity?

Choose the question that intrigues you the most and write a goal statement to focus your thinking and guide
your research. You are likely to change or refine this statement as you do your research, but write the clearest,
most focused statement that you can right now.

Example Goal: to write a research paper that investigates how and why Prohibition actually increased crime
instead of preventing it.

Your research question and goal statement will develop into your thesis after you have read, interpreted, and
drawn conclusions from a variety of sources.

Research topics:

1. In The Great Gatsby, Mr. Gatz refers to James J. Hill, an actual historical figure who built a fortune
through railroads, mining, and banking. He was one of a group of forceful businessmen in the late 1800s
and early 1900s who were often accused of exploiting the public and using unscrupulous methods while
achieving enormous opulence. Other “robber barons” of the time were John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould,
Edward Harriman, James Fisk, and Joseph P. Kennedy.

2. Calvin Coolidge was president during this time period. During his presidency, the United States reached
heights of prosperity, only to fall in 1930-31. Investigate Coolidge and the reasons that the country
prospered under him.

3. Henry Ford’s Model A car was brought out in 1927, months after Ford had closed his plant, scrapped his
Model T, and announced he was going to put a new car on the market. Consider how the invention of
cars changed the culture and transportation of the American people during the 1920s. Why was the
assembly line important, and how did it change peoples’ lives during this era? Why was Ford an
important innovator of this time period?

4. Sacco and Vanzetti were two famous criminals who were executed during the Jazz Age. Who were they,
and why were they executed? Discuss the long-term and short-term effects of this particular trial and
discuss what the trial revealed about American culture during the 1920s. Be sure to address Nativism and
Immigration Policies during the 1920s.

5. The 1920s were also the age of radio. There was no such thing as radio broadcasting to the public until
the fall of 1920, but by the spring of 1922, radio had become a craze. Discuss why radio became
especially popular in 1924. What shows were popular?

6. Research the Stock Market Crash of 1929; discuss the events that led up to the crash, addressing the era
of prosperity, then discussing the aftermath. What were the long-term ramifications of this event, and
why was it such a significant end to the Roaring Twenties?

7. Research food and drink during the 1920s. What influenced the culinary culture? How was food and
drink different in this era, and why?
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8. The 1920s have been called the Golden Age of Sports; from the very beginning of the decade,
extraordinary athlete-heroes emerged in virtually every sport, including baseball, football, tennis, golf
polo, boxing, and the Olympic sports. Research one or more of these sports, the heroes behind them, and
then make a larger connection to the newfound leisure afforded by the 1920s. Consider Babe Ruth or
Jack Dempsey.

9. Discuss the evolution of films and the expectations of actresses in the 1920s. Mary Pickford was a
popular actress during the 1920, as was Clara Bow and Louise Brooks. Perhaps choose one of these
actresses and discuss how she changed the film industry and/or the view of women in the 1920s.
Investigate how one of these actresses affected styles and attitudes.

10. Discuss the evolution of Hollywood in general in the 1920s. What films were popular, and why did
movie-going become such a pastime? How did America’s celebrity worship begin in this century—and
why? Choose Charlie Chaplin, Josephine Baker, or another famous star of the era and discuss their
lasting influence.

11. Bessie Coleman was the first African American female pilot, referred to as “Queen Bess”. Discuss her
accomplishments (or another African American) to illustrate and explore the complications of race and
identity of the 1920s.

12. Jazz began as music associated with dancing, and it remained that way as it moved into the 1920s with
one difference: in early years, it was hard to find outside of New Orleans. In the 1920s it took shape as a
distinct musical style known and embraced the world over. Why? You might look up famous jazz
musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet, and Jelly Roll
Morton. How did jazz change in the 20s? How did it reflect the spirit of the time? You might research
New York’s Cotton Club and discuss its significance during this time period.

13. The Great Gatsby reveals many autobiographical elements; F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda had a
tempestuous marriage, and Zelda died in an asylum, suffering from what most believe today was
schizophrenia. Research the life, marriage, and death of this famous author, and discuss his role as a great
American author of the 1920s (Note: though he died thinking of himself as a failure, we now consider
him a literary giant).

14. The Charleston became the most popular dance of the time. It began as a result of an African-American
musical on Broadway in 1923 called Runnin’ Wild. Discuss the dance craze of the 1920s, addressing
various dance styles.

15. Rumors circulate among his parties that Gatsby may have made some of his money through bootlegging.
Three interesting people of the time involved in either bootlegging or in convicting bootleggers were Al
Capone, Eliot Ness (and the Untouchables), and George Remus. Research the impact of prohibition on
these bootleggers; be sure to include speakies in your paper.

16. Another interesting event affecting life just before the 1920s was organized crime and the fixing of the
1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds. Discuss the moral decline
that many felt was a byproduct of this crime world.

17. Gatsby was supposedly a hero during World War I. Investigate what style of combat was developed
during World War I and the technology and tactics involved in these styles of warfare. How did the war
change the American economy, culture, and people of the twenties?
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18. Primarily during the 1920s, Coco Chanel made her mark on the fashion world. Explore her lasting
influence, starting with fashion trends in the Roaring Twenties. (note: you need to focus primarily on the
‘20s in this paper, but it is important to trace Chanel’s impression on the fashion world into the 21st
century.)

19. Research the Negro leagues- Negro National League, the Eastern Colored League, and the Negro
Southern League and their importance during the 1920s.

20. You could also choose, for your paper, to explore fashion in the 1920s in a more general way.

21. Pablo Picasso was a Spanish artist and founder of Cubism, a style concentrating on shapes and
abstraction. Discuss the modern art movement using Picasso as a catalyst.

22. Research the literature of the “Lost Generation,” which included Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein,
or T. S. Eliot. Be sure to address the artists of this generation who became ex-patriots (moved to another
country because of a disillusionment with America).

23. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of rebirth in wealth, culture, art, and music in New York City during
the 1920s. Discuss this important cultural movement and its lasting impact on the black community. Be
sure to include Langston Hughes in your discussion!

24. In 1925, John Scopes was convicted and fined $100 for teaching evolution in his Dayton, Tenn.,
classroom. The first highly publicized trial concerning the teaching of evolution, the Scopes trial also
represents a dramatic clash between traditional and modern values in America of the 1920s.

25. The 1920s was a very important time for women, as they grew to greater legitimacy. Discuss the
changing role of women in the 1920s, specifically addressing the changes for women, including the right
to vote (suffrage).

26. Discuss Walt Disney’s rise to fame; he began as a cartoonist in the 1920s, creating Mickey Mouse and
eventually moving from short films into much-acclaimed animated features like Snow White. Why was
this era particularly ripe for someone like Disney?
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Helpful strategies for writing:

Incorporating Quotes

A note on types of sources

Primary: information and ideas in their original
form Secondary (the type you will use for your
Historical documents research paper): works that analyze,
Works of literature summarize, sort, interpret, or explain the
Letters information of primary sources, what others
Speeches have said about your area of research
Raw statistics by observer or gatherer
A few general ideas:
 Quotes should coordinate with the writer’s ideas and are therefore a tool to support the writer’s
ideas. Therefore, do not allow quotes to dominate a paragraph (or paper).
 Vary the inclusion of a secondary information:
o Direct Quote
o Paraphrase
o Summary
 Avoid ending a paragraph with a quote. Always offer your own commentary of the material you
just quoted.
 So that quotes do not seem arbitrarily inserted, it seems that a working rule of thumb could be
that the length of the writer’s “post-quote” analysis (read = justification for the quote) should be
nearly equal to the length of the quote itself.

Other guidelines
Integrate a quote if/when:
 The wording of phrasing is too good to pass up
 The words are from an expert’s source and would give credibility to your argument
 The direct quote is more terse than any possible rewording

Avoid monotony by experimenting with different introductory verbs

Incorporate a quote with a running acknowledgment:

e.g. As John Hostetler points out, the Amish see the public school system as a problem because it
represents “the threat of absorption into mass society” (193).

Avoid misrepresentation of quotes by being careful when you shorten them.

Remember that long quotes are identified as quotations that are more than four typed lines and are to
be indented one inch from the margin.

Use lead-ins to introduce sources

When you incorporate quotations or paraphrased material into your paper, you usually introduce them
so the reader knows where the borrowing begins. Some of the established lead-ins that signal the
beginning of a source are these:

Vorgel points out that . . . Stuart Berg Flexner agrees that . . .

According to Brooks . . . John Wayne wrote that . . .
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Use signal phrases

Readers need to move from your own words to the words of a source without feeling a jolt. Avoid
dropping quotations into the text without warning.
 Stand-Alone Quote (always to be avoided)
Perhaps even more significant is the pattern that Kanzi developed his own in combining various
lexigrams. “When he gave an order combining two symbols for action—such as ‘chase’ and ‘hide’—it
was important for him that the first action—‘chase’—be done first” (Gibbons 103).

 Quotations with signal phrase (always used in the papers of a good writer)
Perhaps even more significant is the pattern that Kanzi developed on his own in combining various
lexigrams. According to Ann Gibbons, “When he gave an order combining two symbols for action—
such as ‘chase’ and ‘hide’—it was important for him that the first action—‘chase’—be done first” (103).

To avoid monotony, try to vary both the language and the placement of your signal phrases. The
following models suggest a range of possibilities:

In the words of researcher Herbert Terrace, “. . .”

As Flora Davis has noted, “. . .”
The Gardeners, Washoe’s trainers, point out that “. . .”
“. . .” claims linguist Noam Chomsky.
Psychologist H. S. Terrace offers an odd argument for this view: “. . .”
Loewen answers these objections with the following analysis: “. . .”

When your signal phrase includes a verb, choose one that is appropriate in the context. Is your source
arguing a point, making an observation, reporting a fact, drawing a conclusion, refuting and argument,
or stating a belief? By choosing an appropriate verb, such as one on the following list, you can make
your source’s stance clear.

Acknowledges Notes
Adds Observes
Admits Points out
Agrees Reasons
Argues Refutes
Asserts Rejects
Believes Reports
Claims Responds
Comments Suggests
Compares Thinks
Confirms Writes
Contends
Declares
Denies
Disputes
Emphasizes
Endorses
Grants
Illustrates
Implies
Insists
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Outline assignment for second-semester research paper (SEE SAMPLE OUTLINE ON CANVAS)

Early on in the research process, you should be looking through your sources carefully and selecting paraphrases and
quotes that will help you write your paper. There are several strategies for taking notes on your sources. Annotating is a
good start, but you may also want to highlight your sources so you can find your quotations and paraphrases quickly.

Remember that you use summary to condense important ideas treated in several paragraphs of your source. Quotations
are used for particularly well-phrased ideas by source authors. Paraphrases are used when you want to restate in your
own words an idea an author offers. (Always remember to note the placement in the source of that particular idea so as to
avoid plagiarism.)

The outline is an important assignment because it helps you to begin organizing all the information you’ve gathered from
research. Your outline should indicate the logical relationships in the information relating to your particular subject. You
should first develop a very specific thesis statement that will guide your paper.

Next, you should come up with at least three topic sentences that will guide the paragraphs of your research paper. For
the outline, you will create three body paragraphs, not introduction or concluding paragraphs. Underneath each
topic sentence, you should include two sentences—one a quote and one a paraphrase, in proper MLA format, from one
of your sources (you should have at least five sources at this point—at least one book, one database, and one website,
maximum two websites total). Databases are NOT the same as websites.

You should use all your sources on the outline at least once. Here’s a brief example of what your first point (topic
sentence) might look like; be sure to intro/exit ALL sources!

(for your outline assignment, you will offer a full introduction plus underlined thesis)

Thesis: The way that Columbus, his voyages, and his legacy are assessed varies, depending on the values of the time.

I. There is a large shift between early nineteenth-century and late twentieth-century assessments of Christopher
Columbus.

a. Kirkpatrick Sale has noted that various writers of the nineteenth century refer to Columbus as fearless,
brave, and valiant (46). (This is how you would document a paraphrased source.)

b. Suzanne Shown-Harjo has noted that Columbus Day is “never on Native America’s list of favorite
holidays” (299). (This is how you would document a source quoted directly.)

A few notes:
 Be sure to consult the rubric on Canvas.
 Use page numbers for book sources.
 You may not use any general encyclopedia article (for example, Wikipedia, Britannica, Compton’s) on
your works cited list; you MAY use a specific encyclopedia (for example, “The Encyclopedia of 1920s
Women’s Fashion” is fine).
 Avoid SAQs (stand-alone quotations). You will be counted off for citations without introduction/exit.
 Remember that if you don’t mention the author’s name within the sentence in which you are citing his or
her writing, you should include the last name of that author, along with the page number (for books) in
parenthesis. Note the placement of the period after the parenthesis.
 For the works cited page, you may use a site like www.easybib.com to generate it.
 A great source for refreshing MLA in-text citation is Purdue’s OWL (online writing lab).
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Template for outline (be sure to label all parts):

Full introduction (underline thesis in the introduction):

Topic sentence one:

Embedded quotation, cited:

Paraphrase, cited:

Topic sentence two:

Embedded quotation, cited:

Paraphrase, cited:

Topic sentence three:

Embedded quotation, cited:

Paraphrase, cited:

Essay reminders:

 You must have use six sources for the outline; feel free to add more than that into your final draft, which
requires five sources. Remember, you may have no more than three websites. Also, NO encyclopedias are
allowed, as they offer only general information.
 Indent all lines AFTER the first line on the Works Cited page (this is called a hanging indent). To do this,
highlight the entire source documentation, then right-click on “paragraph,” “special,” and “hanging.”
 Do not number sources; alphabetize them.
 Remember that your essay should be analytical rather than based on summary. Whatever your topic is, relate
that topic to the culture and the people of the ’20s.
 Be sure that if you have an EDITOR or an AUTHOR, you always cite that information parenthetically in the paper.
 Cite books by page number.
 There should be no comma between author name and paragraph or page number (Keating 10).
 Avoid comma splices, SAQs, and fragments.
 Number your pages.
 Paragraphs should be 5-8 full sentences
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 Create a clever title for your final essay.

 Remember that the essay must be at least four full pages. If you are unsure of the length, write to the top of the
fifth page.
 You must put the word count with and without quotations at the end of the paper.
 Don’t over-quote: if you quote for three lines (and don’t exceed three lines), then you should offer three lines of
commentary.
 There should be JUST one period at the end of the sentence in which you offer a quotation or a citation.
 Avoid ending a paragraph with a citation; instead, offer commentary.
 Fully-embed all quotations: “Monroe notes, ‘…’” is NOT enough embedding.
 Author name should be listed just once. If there is no author, databases should be cited by an abbreviated title in
quotation marks; websites with no author should be listed by URL (shortened—for example, www.prov.org).
 Be sure you are staying within topic in each paragraph; check the topic sentence, then the content of the
paragraph.
 Read your essay aloud and rephrase awkward or unclear sentences.
 Upload your essay to Canvas by the date/time designated AND turn in a hard copy in class.
 ANY late papers will earn a 50% (at the most).

For the final draft:

 READ the rubric. It is your friend.
 Read your own essay aloud for style; read silently for content.

Plagiarism definition: In an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone
else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source.

This definition applies to texts published in print or on-line, to manuscripts, and to the work of other student
writers.

Any instance of plagiarism on a research paper will result in a zero and disciplinary action. Please feel free to
approach me in advance of the paper’s due date with any confusion you have about plagiarism.